Greenskin

Magnolia Dell, as it sounds, is a picturesque corner of Pretoria’s old east suburbs. A sliver of beautifully landscaped park uncomfortably nestled between two busy arteries leading into the City Centre, complete with pond, children’s playground and quaint café. It was here, on an unseasonably wet, cold and overcast Saturday afternoon, that the inaugural gathering of the Greenskin Initiative took place. This embryonic movement has sprung up, and snowballed, as a direct response to rising racial tension in Guateng Province and beyond. It’s aim? To garner existing support and further develop a ‘middle way’ between the racially polarised, headline grabbing extremities that have further exasperated South African society of late. An obvious yet bold initiative in a land tainted by the racial prejudices that have defined its history.

Race is at the forefront of the Rainbow Nation’s consciousness. Solid attempts of trying to steer this bulky ship on the tightrope of uniformed nationhood are starting to wobble. Repressed racial tension is bubbling from all sides and starting to spill over the surface. For the majority of the black population, the elation and hope of 1994 has slid to despair and exasperation as the ageing government fails to deliver on its early promises of economic empowerment and increased standards of living. Much of the remaining white population live locked away in their electric fenced castles in constant fear, real and imagined, of what lurks beyond.

Recent times have seen two main figureheads become the rallying points of the polarised inhabitants’ fears and anger, one a rising firebrand and the other a once diminished relic of a recent nightmare.

Julius Malema, head of the powerful ANC Youth League, has been making the headlines for his outspoken and provocative actions. At 29 he has shaken the political establishment and fuelled the fears of a portion of the white minority that don’t need much convincing that South Africa is heading the way of its northern neighbour. On a recent visit to Harare, Malema cemented his image as a Mugabe sycophant by publicly praising the Zimbabwean leaderships land reclamation policies and stating South Africa should promptly follow suit. A brazen populist, he openly sings an anti-apartheid era song with the line ‘kill the boer’ despite directives from the ANC leadership that he shouldn’t. In doing so, Malema whips up much of the aggravated black population whilst partially corroborating the alarm of the whites.

Planted on the other side of the coin is the legacy of the late Eugene Terre’Blanche. Notorious in the 90’s as the leader of the racist Boer nationalist movement Afrikaner Weerstandsbeweging [AWB], his violent death allegedly at the hands of two farm workers earlier this month, has propelled his cause from obscurity into the limelight. The new AWB leadership boasts record membership enquiries and are buoyed by renewed media interest in the ensuing frenzy. The disturbing swastika inspired AWB flag along with taboo apartheid era flags have been given front page prominence, as well as talk of a homeland for the ‘Boervolk’ and a firm dose of unashamed anti-black racism.

Fuelled by the media frenzy these opposites have ballooned, and in doing so had seemingly squeezed out any moderate opinion. Enter into the fray the Greenskin Initiative. Starting online soon after the death of Terre’Blanche, its facebook membership grew rapidly into tens of thousands over the next few days. The outpouring of support clearly an indication of the unease that many South Africans felt at the recent hijacking of racial discourse by the extremities. Through an outwardly fluffy strategy of regional actions culminating in proposed large gatherings in major South African cities, the Initiative hopes to claim the middle ground of the race issue for the unheard sensible majority.

How successful the Greenskin initiative will be is to be seen. Despite the honourable values it certainly has it’s detractors who feel it brushes over painful issues instead of addressing them head on, and no doubt it will soon be dismissed by some conspiracists as a communist/ANC/right-wing/alien plot to undermine a semblance of a status quo.

On a micro level, beyond the rain and cold, other challenges presented themselves at the Pretoria gathering. A black couple galvanised enough to show up, viewed the other participants and quickly turned around. Explaining their actions on facebook shortly afterwards by stating they were the only two black people, so clearly the event wasn’t right for them. Certainly symptomatic of the racial chasm where blacks turning up to a green event are discouraged, by being a minority to attending whites.

Despite the many problems that the Initiative will face in building a broad based consensus, it has the potential to become a formidable and exciting social movement. The Greenskin Initiative offers another platform for a true cross racial/social/economic collective to challenge the current divisive South African zeitgeist. It may not incisively tackle the deep roots of racial division, but by providing an association where all people can come together in common cause against extremists on both sides, can be no bad thing. Good luck I say.