Ingrid de Kok's "Some there be" and the murder of Steven Bantu Biko

Ingrid de Kok's collection of Poems Terrestrial Things about the Truth and Reconciliation hearings reads even more powerfully after watching a few videos of the hearings.

Some there be

There be of them, that have left a name behind them, that their 

praises might be reported. And some there be,which have no

memorial, who are perished as though they had never been; and are 

become as though they had never been born; and their children after

them.'  APOCRYPHA

Only the rustle of reeds
thin pipe smoke
a flickering paraffin lamp
women in blankets bent over
their faces lost to the light.

And remnants:
gate without hinges
stones in a half circle
afterbirths buried in silt.

Can the forgotten
be born again
into a land of names?

This video describes the murder of Steven Bantu Biko, one of the victims who "left a name behind".

The "Apartheid Wall" in the Middle East

Due to escalating tensions between Israelis and Palestinians, the Israeli government began to erect a wall that would span roughly 750 km along the West Bank that divides Israelis and Palestinians from one another.  The state of Israel supports the construction of this wall based on the idea that it will enhance their security, and prevent the flow of weapons and suicide attacks against Israeli citizens.  Israelis refer to this wall as a "Separation barrier".  However, Palestinians disagree with the erection of the barrier, and call it the "Apartheid Wall" since it extends primarily into Palestinian territory and prevents Palestinians from traveling to their schools, workplaces, health care providers and all the while redrawing geopolitical borders and seizing more Palestinian territory.

This is similar to South African apartheid because it implements a physical separation between groups of people that allows one group to have more control and yield more access to better land and resources than the other.

Introduction to the Topic

Some footage from a BBC report done on South Africa during the Apartheid regime

Extract from Witness - Apartheid, South Africa from Andrea Peckover on Vimeo.

How does the white minority implement a racist ideology that functions to oppress the black majority?

Government sign during the South African Apartheid regi

• establishing a social caste system based on race

o Population Registration Act, Act No 30 of 1950:

Led to creation of a national register in which every person's race was recorded.
 A Race Classification Board took the final decision on what a person's
race was in disputed cases.

denying political power

Separate Representation of Voters Act, Act No 46 of 1951
Together with the 1956 amendment, this act led to the removal of Coloureds from the common voters' roll.


Natives (Abolition of Passes and Co-ordination of Documents) Act, Act No 67 of 1952

An Apartheid Permit

Commonly known as the Pass Laws, this ironically named act forced black people to carry identification with them at all times. A pass included a photograph, details of place of origin, employment record, tax payments, and encounters with the police. It was a criminal offence to be unable to produce a pass when required to do so by the police. No black person could leave a rural area for an urban one without a permit from the local authorities. On arrival in an urban area a permit to seek work had to be obtained within 72 hours.

Native Labour (Settlement of Disputes) Act of 1953
Prohibited strike action by blacks.


operating from an economic advantage

o Under the Black (or Natives) Land Act No. 27 of 1913(commenced 19 June 1913)  
Black Africans were no longer be 
able to own, or even rent, land outside of designated reserves
(which amounted to approximately 7% of South Africa's land, although the promise was made to increase the amount). The Cape was the only province excluded from the act as a result

A Bantustan

of the existing Black franchise rights which were enshrined in the South Africa Act. During the Apartheid era, the reserves were converted to Bantustans and later into 'independent' states
within South Africa.

o The Minimum Wages Act No. 27 of 1925
gave the Minister for Labour the power to force employers to give preference to
Whites when hiring workers.

denying education to maintain that economic advantage

o Bantu Education Act, Act No 47 of 1953
Established a Black Education Department in the Department of Native Affairs
which would compile a curriculum that suited the "nature and
requirements of the black people". The author of the legislation,
Dr Hendrik Verwoerd (then Minister of Native Affairs, later Prime
Minister), stated that its aim was to prevent Africans receiving
 an education that would lead them to aspire to positions they 
wouldn't be allowed to hold in society. Instead Africans were
to receive an education designed to provide them with skills to
serve their own people in the homelands or to work in labouring
jobs under whites.