Dear Organleaners,
Dennis Rolleston <Dennisr@ps.gen.nz> writes:
>Perhaps the subconscious thought patterns of a conquered
>race manifest as a difficulty to articulate, and a barrier to the
>birth
>of increased knowledge emerging in the people of that race.
Greetings Dennis,
Thank you very much for your delightful contribution on how you as a
Maori come to grib with the human factor. In your contribution you
manage to articulate much of the experiences of many of the victims of
apartheid -- the "non-whites" of the former apartheid South Africa.
Whereas the Maoris come from the Polenesian branch of peoples, the
victims of apartheid come from a much greater diversity of branches.
Firstly, there are the original San peoples who inhabited South Africa
for at least 4 millenia. Then there are the Xhoi-Xhoi peoples (6
different languages) and the Banthu peoples (12 different languages)
who came from central Africa. The Xhoi-Xhoi peoples enterd South
Africa from the arid north-west about two millenia ago. The Banthu
peoples entered South Africa from the humid north-east about one and a
half millenia ago. Then there are people form Malaysian stock who
entered South Africa in the south-west (Cape Town) soon after the
white people as their slaves. This happened almost three and a half
centuries ago -- about the time when the ordeal of the Maoris began.
There are also the people from Indian stock who entered South Africa
in the east (Durban) a little bit more than a century ago to work on
sugar cane farms, virtually as slaves. Let us also not forget the
coming of the Chinese peoples early this century to work in the gold
mines. The worst thing which we now can do, is to think of the
"whites" as a homogenous people contrasting the former list of
"non-white" peoples. No, the "whites" are as diverse as the European
(west and east) countries from which they or their ancestors came.
Hence the human factor in South Africa is an unprecedented
complexity -- almost a mirror of the UN.
With such a diversity, one would expect that the victims of apartheid
would offer a wide diversity of opinions of why they became "3rd
class" citizins of South Africa. (I still remember from my childhood
signs depicting non-whites as "3rd class" citizins) Yet they generally
thought of themselves as the conquered peoples. Obviously, the
situation in the new South Africa has changed radically.
What these victims of apartheid do much less than articulating their
own hurt, is to try and understand what became of the "1st class" (the
whites) people in apartheid South Africa. It can be summarised by one
sentence. Many of them ceased to learn as part of the South African
nation. Some back actions of this lack in organisational learning is
that they relied more and more on the western world as their source of
information. They also frowned upon the diversity which learning
individuals develop into. They insisted on conformity in every walk of
life. They simply made life a misery for creative people.
This is the outcome which befalls all people who consider themselves
as superior to others.
May those who free themselves from the conquest by others not fall
into the predicament of the conquerers.
>At, I hope you can follow my logic here, my attempt to articulate
>my tacit knowledge, and thank you for you invitation for my daughter
>to visit you and your family.
I think there are millions of the former "white" South Africans who
will now follow your logic easily whereas twenty years ago they would
have censored it as revolutionary thoughts which will bring an end to
all civilisation. The rest of the world pat themselves on the back
because they have succeeded in conquering apartheid. But what again is
the usual fate of the conquerers? They make life a misery by
destroying ubuntu -- the harmony between themselves, other peoples,
nature and God.
Best wishes
--At de Lange <amdelange@gold.up.ac.za> Snailmail: A M de Lange Gold Fields Computer Centre Faculty of Science - University of Pretoria Pretoria 0001 - Rep of South Africa
Learning-org -- Hosted by Rick Karash <rkarash@karash.com> Public Dialog on Learning Organizations -- <http://www.learning-org.com>