Ella Smook
11 November 2009
Former president Nelson Mandela and Archbishop Emeritus Desmond Tutu have a problem - white people like them.
This "invalidates" them, in the same way that, for every white person who supports Free State University rector Jonathan Jansen, "he loses 100 blacks".
That was the argument on Tuesday from multiple award-winning poet, writer and journalist Antjie Krog, who passionately pleaded for tolerance and a change in the way South Africans engaged in debate, and with one another.
Krog was addressing the Cape Town Press Club in Mowbray, introducing her latest book Begging to be Black.
It is the third part of a trilogy which began with Country of My Skull and continued with A Change of Tongue.
Begging to be Black explores Krog's position in a controversial murder case that took place in Kroonstad in 1992, when a gang leader was shot dead by a member of Umkhonto we Sizwe and the murder weapon hidden on her stoep.
Krog's reading from her latest work had the audience captivated, and followed a hard-hitting, thought-provoking analysis of what was wrong with debate in South Africa, how it strengthened divisions between races and how the media, she said, fuelled the fires of intolerance.
"The book is an attempt to undermine the easy conversation and easy engagement that we have in this country about what is right and what is wrong. We think we know what is right and what is wrong."
Krog said news reports overwhelmingly failed to reflect all layers and dimensions of their subject matter, rendering stories one-dimensional and depriving the public of a deeper understanding, which could transform race relationships.
While the role of the media as a watchdog could never be overemphasised, it also had to act as a "cultural translator", providing context and framework, a logic from which to understand news, she said.
"I know that one thinks the only way to save this country is to create a non-tolerance for corruption ... But I am concerned that the strong daily emphasis on yet another example of corruption leaves us with only a vocabulary of non-tolerance."
Krog said when the scandal around Tony Yengeni broke, a part of her wanted him to be contextualised in a space which also understood his past - not only as an activist but also the specific hurt and damage he experienced at the hands of his torturer.
"What are the consequences in one's psyche when one's lived through that?
"I am not saying he should be regarded as not guilty. But shouldn't he be treated with an understanding of the complicated and complexness and the f****d-upness of oneself inside?"
However the strong damnation and ridicule that accompanied scandals often created "a bigger monster", she said.
At the same time it created "a defiant fan-base forced to embrace corruption" as a gesture that the past was not forgotten.
"You don't want to expose corruption and create a pool of sympathy.
"You want to expose it in such a way that people recognise it is wrong what the person did, but also have an understanding of where that person is coming from."
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