White Afrikaner novelist's comments about black people spark furious
debate in South Africa
David Smith in Johannesburg
Tuesday November 30 2010
The Guardian
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2010/nov/29/black-people-south-african-novelist
An award-winning writer has provoked fierce debate in South Africa
after candidly saying that she does not like black people.
Annelie Botes [http://www.nb.co.za/authors/1599" title="], a leading
Afrikaner novelist, said she would invite a white, coloured (mixed
race) or an Indian man in for a drink, but would "feel threatened by a
black man".
The comments, quoted in South African newspapers, have caused a storm
in a country still sensitive about race relations [http://www.mg.co.za/
tag/racism" title="] 16 years after the end of apartheid. Botes
claims she has received 1,000 supportive emails but there was also
widespread condemnation of her views.
The row began when Rapport [http://www.rapport.co.za" title="], an
Afrikaans paper, asked her to name people she does not like. Her
reply: "Black people." Soon after, she was sacked as a columnist for
another newspaper.
Then South Africa's Mail & Guardian [http://www.mg.co.za" title="]
contacted the author, whom it says is probably the most popular
contemporary female writer in Afrikaans, the language of the
descendents of Dutch and other European settler farmers. Botes
recently won the Afrikaans category of the K Sello Duiker Memorial
Literary award for her novel, Thula-thula, which tackles child abuse
and incest.
The 53-year-old stood by her original comments. "I'm scared," she told
the paper [http://www.mg.co.za/article/2010-11-26-author-anneli-botes-
stands-by-racist-comments" title="]. "In my daily life there's no one
else that I feel threatened by except black people. If a courier comes
to my door and he's white, coloured or Indian, I'd have no problem
inviting him in for a glass of water. But I would feel threatened by a
black man."
She added that two years ago her laptop, containing a manuscript, was
stolen while she was asleep and a neighbour was murdered. "You tell me
what the face of crime is in South Africa. If you hear the window
shatter and confront the perpetrator, who do you expect that crook to
be?"
Asked about challenging racial stereotypes, she replied: "I don't have
the means to get my head around that of a black man. I can't
understand that.
"As a writer, I write what I see, what I experience and put it into
context. It isn't my job to be politically correct."
Botes also said she would never appoint a black gardener. She is
planning to emigrate to Britain, where her children already live, as
soon her husband goes on a pension.
She added: "Here in Port Elizabeth, I wouldn't go to a deserted beach
alone. It's simply too dangerous. The English villages where my kids
live don't even have streetlights and I would walk there in the middle
of the night without fear."Her interview triggered dozens of comments
on the Mail & Guardian's website, including one claiming to be one
from Botes herself.
The article had chosen to "emphasise the negative", she wrote, and
contained "nothing about my anger regarding the government closing
down thousands of farm schools in remote areas and thus depriving
black children from an education.
"Nothing about how I as scribe of a village church stood up against
the white elders because they treated the church cleaner like scum,
and how I lost my job because of my persistent view. Nothing about how
I admitted that whites committed unthinkable monstrosities against
blacks under the old regime. Or about my acknowledgement that the old
government were thieves too. Or how we as whites tend to humiliate
"incompetent" blacks at cash points. Or about me having no problem
sharing my table and toilet with a black person."
But there was criticism from other readers. Fungayi Dzvinyangoma
posted: "Someone needs to tell this bigoted woman that there are a lot
of black people in England. However, if you get burgled in Britain the
face is most likely to be white. She seems to forget the history of
South Africa so quickly which could explain why the blacks have to
resort to criminality. She benefited from state criminality for
decades."
There was support for Botes, however, from a user called George S. "I
think the lady should be applauded for her courage in speaking out
instead of being vilified. Perhaps she only expresses fears that many
whites harbour. Perhaps she generalised this issue but then I say
these things work both ways."
Despite Nelson Mandela's efforts at reconciliation, racial tensions in
South Africa surfaced earlier this year when white supremacist Eugene
Terre'Blanche [http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/eugene-terre-blanche"
title="]http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/eugene-terre-blanche was
hacked to death in his bed, allegedly by black workers on his farm.
But the majority of crime victims are poor and black. Last week
Brandon Huntley [http://www.iol.co.za/news/world/brandon-huntley-loses-
refugee-status-1.878200" title="], a South African who argued that
whites are targeted by black criminals, lost his refugee status in
Canada and now faces a new hearing.
Marga Collings, a manager at Botes's publisher NB, said today: "We
believe that all our authors are entitled to their own views.
"In this case, the publisher does not share the author's view."
Botes herself declined to give further interviews. "I regret to say:
No further comments," she wrote in an email to the Guardian.
guardian.co.uk Copyright (c) Guardian News and Media Limited. 2010
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