Olivia African Studies 2017

The existence of white privilege is still prevalent in post-apartheid South Africa. In the case of Oscar Pistorius, a paralympic, some claim, “ Pistorius had received preferential treatment as a wealthy, white celebrity .”. Pistorius was originally convicted with culpable homicide of his girlfriend. He was sentenced to 6 years out of the usual 15 for murder in South Africa. Not only was his sentence less than half of prescribed minimum of 15 years but he was released after just 10 months and placed under house arrest. On November 24 the Constitutional Court of South Africa gave Pistorius, who was not present, the minimum 15 year sentence. While his privilege may have earned him leniency previously, the Courts have revised their decision in light of outrage from the public as well as to establish, “...their trust in the justice system..”. https://www.theguardian.com/world/2017/nov/24/oscar-pistorius-prison-sentence-doubled-south-african-court-reeva-steenkamp

The article I found ties directly into the reading of Short Chapter 6. The article discusses exactly what we covered in class, the long-term effects of colonialism in Africa. As debated in class, it is hard to discern whether the colonization of africa can be considered detrimental to the continent or if there is some positive we can extract out of the circumstances. We concluded on the grey area that lies in between, but this article discusses how the model of being “civilized” and “modern” are directly tied to western powers and influences. The article states, “like most people today, has come to accept that the only metric for measuring modernity is through the western lens. This is the heart of the problem”. The article claims that the root of this problem was the initial pull-out of the colonizers from Africa, and how the remnants leftover in the colonies all had a distinct social, political, and economic structures of their western colonizer essentially “hollowing out” the true

The corruption taking place in the political realm of South Africa can be traced back its colonial roots. Despite the colonization of Africa being extremely brief relative to the Americas, the settlers in South Africa still managed to ingrain deep social, economic and political issues that are reflected in South Africa in the twenty-first century. The corruption of the President Jacob Zuma has been notorious for months and with the 2019 elections gearing up the younger candidates are gearing up to try and snatch power from the established corruption that is clearly existing in the government. The ruling party, the African National Congress (ANC) has been in power since South Africa's first free elections in the 1990’s but has clearly been in decline since its first ANC President Nelson Mandela. Younger candidates such as Sindiso Magaqa puts his life on the line to provide a voice and representation for his people in his municipality, which is essentially a strip of restau