If you look at a 20$ bill, Andrew Jackson’s face looks right back at you. This is a man who oversaw the passing of a law that legalized ethnic cleansing and led to genocide. Something that is usually lacking when Apartheid is discussed in the United States is self-reflection. South Africa and The United States have endless similarities, especially when it comes to colonization and the treatment of each country’s respective native people.
The US and South Africa are home to enormous amounts of natural resources. The presence of these resources encouraged European exploration and colonization of both regions. The United States was colonized by many countries including Brittan, France, Spain and the Netherlands. South Africa was colonized by the Netherlands and Brittan. Pre colonization, both counties were home to a diverse number of nation/states often referred to as tribes.
With an abundance of resources and no single concentrated government, the land belonging to the native people of both regions was taken explored and colonized by European powers. As European exploration turned into colonialism trade turned into the displacement, enslaving, and murder of the native people of both regions. The fate of indigenous groups often depended on resources. If a group were in the way of possible wealth they were removed. One particular resource that was especially fateful for the native people of both regions was gold. The gold rush in the Western United States led to extreme violence resulting in the decimation of entire American Indian Nations. Similarly British and Dutch discovery of gold resulted in wars between European powers and subsequent violence and displacement of Africans. The discovery of gold in South Africa helped to start a chain of events that would lead to Apartheid.
It is common to end the discussion of the colonization in the United States at the end of the revolutionary war, but this is not the case. The result of the end of the war was the United States-a country whose inhabitants were previously European. The new country set on a course of Westward expansion dubbed “Manifest Destiny”. The philosophy known as manifest destiny, is really nothing more than imperialism. This form of imperialism encouraged organized and often militarized violence against Native Americans. The Indian Removal Act of 1830 made the displacement of various Native American nations law in the United States. In 1851 land was designated to separate Native Americans from the rest of the population. These designated pieces of land were named reservations. Horrific events such as the Long Walk of the Navajos, the Trail of Tears, and the Massacre at Wounded Knee have come to define the brutal violence against Native Americans during this era.
In the late 1940’s South Africa Apartheid was enacted. This followed years of segregation and repression of non-whites in the country. Apartheid made it an official law that non-whites and whites would be separated. Laws made it illegal for non-white South Africans to travel in certain areas without documentation. Events such as the Sharpeville Massacre and the Soweto Uprising are reminiscent of the horrors that happened in the previous century across the Atlantic, in the United States.
In both the United States and South Africa signs of the past remain. Reservations and townships still exist with lingering social and economic issues caused by centuries of Oppression. It continues to amaze me that with all of the similarities of Apartheid and The Indian Removal Act that both subjects are taught with much different attitudes in the United States. Just recently I was watching Anthony Bourdain’s Part’s Unknown in which he visited Johannesburg, South Africa. In the show’s opening scene he questions why a statue of a Dutch solider, synonymous with colonialism and oppression, is still standing in post-Apartheid South Africa. It is a very valid question, but is it fair to criticize South Africa for the presence of a statue when Andrew Jackson (the president behind The Indian Removal Act) is on the United States’ 20 dollar bill?
Cited:
Bourdain, Anthony. “Parts Unknown: South Africa.” Anthony Bourdain’s Parts Unknown. CNN. N.d. Television.