Race talk in the South African media Published by African Sun Media under the SUN PReSS imprint All rights reserved Copyright © 2019 African Sun Media and the author This publication was subjected to an independent double-blind peer evaluation by the publisher. The author and the publisher have made every effort to obtain permission for and acknowledge the use of copyrighted material. Refer all enquiries to the publisher. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any electronic, photographic or mechanical means, including photocopying and recording on record, tape or laser disk, on microfilm, via the Internet, by e-mail, or by any other information storage and retrieval system, without prior written permission by the publisher. Views reflected in this publication are not necessarily those of the publisher. 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GAWIE botma in the South African media CONTents Foreword p. i Dutch colonial race talk One p. 1 Race talk in the white colonial press during British rule Two p. 15 Race talk in the black press during colonialism and apartheid Three p. 37 Black Consciousness and race talk in the mainstream media four p. 61 Race talk in the Afrikaans press during apartheid five p. 81 Race talk in the English and alternative press during apartheid six p. 99 The law and race talk in the media seven p. 109 Race talk and winds of change in p. 115 the media Eight Race talk in the p. 133 digital media age Nine Academic race talk p. 157 in the media Ten Race talk;::: p. 175 eleven In conclusion p. 191 Endnotes Selected p. 211 bibliography p. 223 Index Vir my ouers, Gawie en Corrie (Pieters) Botma In 2000, the Human Genome Project finally answered one of the most fundamental questions about race: What, if anything, is the genetic difference between people of different skin colours — black, white, Hispanic, Asian — The answer: nearly nothing. As it turns out, we all share 99.99 percent of the same genetic code — no matter our race — a fact that, geneticist J. Craig Venter claimed, proves that race is a social concept, not a scientific one. Thomas Rogers Foreword Race is a hot topic in the South African media, and this has been the case since the days of the first “blogger”, Jan van Riebeeck. Of course, he was not a South African and was actually writing in his official dairy to report back to his masters, the colonising Dutch East India Company (VOC). But the way in which Van Riebeeck approached his task reminds one of a committed current day blogger, because he recorded in great detail and with some flair the day-to-day happenings during his stay at the Cape of Good Hope between 1652 and 1662. Of course, some of his entries, especially about race, will shock and annoy current sensibilities. To be honest, to even mention Van Riebeeck in South Africa in the 21st century has become a sign of right-wing political reactionism, because as former President Jacob Zuma famously declared: The trouble (of colonialism, apartheid and its aftermath) started with him. But the argument can be made that local journalism and the recording of history in writing can also be traced back to that time (as long as you do not imply that colonialism contributed in any way to something positive). Journalism is certainly a double-edged sword, and some people argue that journalists are very low on the scale of public trust and appreciation (despite being “watchdogs” | i for democracy and all that). Journalism has also been called “history in a hurry” and the “first rough draft of history”, and our media products provide a constant stream of clues for curious readers looking for insight and truth. Of course, to claim that journalism or history can ever be written objectively to reveal the absolute truth, is very problematic, so it is safer to argue that different versions of the truth emerge in particular historical contexts. “Race” is a very slippery concept and it would have been better if this book, or South Africans in general, were able to do without it. The quotation at the beginning of this chapter indicates the lack of biological grounds. Yet, in practice, it has been used to create and maintain relations and structures of power that are still operational today. In short and in general, most whites still benefit from once having had the power to racially classify the South African population and structure society accordingly, and many blacks still suffer. References to race sometimes overlap with ethnicity and is mostly used in this book to refer to the general racial classifications and terms as they emerged in South Africa during the colonial and apartheid eras. In the post-apartheid period, with the support of many and to the bewilderment of some, four of these categories have been maintained to affect affirmative action, empowerment and redress the injustices of the past. Hopefully, if and when that happens, “race” will be finally laid to rest, but that is probably a pipe dream. A generally accepted current definition of “racism” is discrimination based on skin colour, appearance and/or ethnicity. It is akin to prejudice, a characteristic common to human beings. It has been argued that prejudice derives in part from the ability to generalise and categorise information from the environment quickly; a necessary skill developed through evolution as the fittest fought for survival. But racism also goes further than individual prejudice, because it can become part of the culture and structure of a society, with enormous consequences for groups and individuals. In this book references to race in the media will simply be called “race talk”. It refers to what was said (written) in the media about race since the early days of European colonialism and apartheid, in order to better understand the origins of current perceptions and expressions. Today’s news is part of tomorrow’s accounts of history. But reading back into media content is also ii | Race Talk in the South African media a bit like following a beam of starlight to a far-off galaxy, in the full knowledge that the sun there has already set. This book focuses on the content circulated by media as they display and contribute to a “common stock of knowledge”1 in society. It thus follows the lead of Vale,2 who argues that “while historical and political events matter, thinking about how history and politics emerge in the minds of societies may matter more”. Thus, an important point of departure is that the media both displayed and contributed to the “thoughts” of South African society as they emerged over time. In both popular and academic discussions, the word “media” is often left open, and can refer to a constellation of communication producers, platforms and products, or a single outlet, such as a newspaper. In this book, unless otherwise specified, the term is used inclusively to refer to the professional and non-professional producers and circulators of public networks of symbolic meaning, including journalists and social media users. When referring to the “South African media”, I do not mean to suggest the existence of a network of producers that is completely closed off by national borders, but simply wish to convey some sense of the perception, based on real experiences, that many media discourses tend to suggest a certain nationalistic centre. The debate about the role of mass media in society is probably as old as the technology that makes it possible to communicate with numbers of faceless, dispersed individuals at the same time. For the purposes of this discussion, it suffices to go back briefly to the invention of the printing press in the 15th century. According to a seminal scholar of nationalism, Benedict Anderson,3 the rise of print capitalism, by using vernacular languages, was a central contributing factor in the construction of European nation states. In other words, when it became possible to print and distribute texts in their own languages amongst people who did not know each other, but could identify with the same causes, they were also able to imagine a nation, an “imagined community” as Anderson called it. He also argues that, through colonialism, the model of the nation state was “exported” to and implemented in other parts of the world, including Africa. Although the Eurocentric nature of this theory has been criticised, by inter alia Chatterjee,4 it is indisputable that the history and current national boundaries of Africa were profoundly influenced by European colonialism. FOREWORD | iii It is easy to see why media scholars like Anderson’s theory; it places the construction and distribution of media texts at the centre of the rise and maintenance of nation states. The invention of other “new” media technologies, such as the radio, TV, and most recently the internet and social media, complicated but not completely altered the view that the media are important in the life of a nation. Various studies have confirmed that despite increasing global connectedness of various media channels and users, the promotion of national sentiments and unity has not completely disappeared off the media agenda.