BLF asks Amnesty to stop ‘offensive’, ‘triggering’ Verwoerd education campaign

Black First Land First (BLF) has become the latest group to criticise the divisive Amnesty International campaign that uses imagery of former South African prime minister Hendrik Verwoerd, commonly called the “architect of apartheid”.

Tag a friend y'all and let's get them to sign @AmnestySAfrica's petition to #SignTheSmileOff and get our government to do something about our education system! 🙏🏾🙏🏾 @akreana_ @tumisole https://t.co/w1Bu8dWgnI pic.twitter.com/SN2N1qx6lF

— Vito Genovese (@Tswana_Guy3) July 29, 2019

Amnesty’s campaign has called on the country to address the crisis in South African education, which in their view is a legacy of apartheid.

They contend that the current crisis would have pleased Verwoerd, who famously argued in the 1950s and 1960s that black people should not be educated beyond the level required to remain menial labourers and servants.

Although the human rights group has been criticised for not directly recognising with their message that the ANC has been in charge of the education system for the past 25 years, Amnesty has clarified that their campaign should still be recognised as a criticism of the current government. The action they are calling for is that people should sign a petition to get government to address the South African education crisis.

The BLF, however, says there must be “better ways to address the crisis of education” and wants the #SignTheSmileOff campaign to be stopped because it is allegedly “promoting” Verwoerd” with “offensive imagery” that is “triggering” for black people.

“While the intentions of Amnesty International may very well be good, the medium chosen to promote the campaign nullifies any such good intentions. Verwoerd represents the main contradiction which is white supremacy. He is the main source of the problem that we are facing which the ANC government has failed to address.

“Bringing giant poster imagery of Verwoerd into the public sphere is not acceptable. Black people are the targeted individuals who will be bombarded with offensive apartheid imagery via every platform imaginable. It is triggering and impairs the dignity of blacks. It is also an insult to the collective pain of black people who are the real victims of apartheid. It moreover serves to miniaturise the horrors of apartheid.”

The BLF said it would not be acceptable, for example, for those calling for reparations for Jewish holocaust victims to use the image of Adolf Hitler to further their campaign, “because they know what that image would mean”.

“We expect the same application to the victims of the black holocaust of which the apartheid schooling system is a function.”

The BLF, however, do contend that Verwoerd’s “legacy” continues in present-day South Africa, and they used the opportunity to take another sideswipe at regular nemesis the Freedom Front Plus, which last month succeeded in having the group deregistered as a political party with the Independent Electoral Commission.

“We note that Verwoerd’s apartheid legacy is well represented in parliament. Over half a century since his death, Verwoerd’s grandson, Wynand Boshoff, has been thrust into the National Assembly through the ticket of the racist Freedom Front Plus. This must be corrected through a overhaul of parliament itself.

“BLF will make a written request to Amnesty International for a meeting to discuss this matter.”

They said that “the Zimbabweans” should be brought in for assistance on education.

“In the short to medium term, there is a need to turn around the colonial education crisis through a four-year extraordinary intervention which would put the whole education system on a new footing. As a commitment to Pan-Afrikanism and recognition of the generally sound Zimbabwean education system, a four-year process of co-teaching with the Zimbabwean O and A levels graduates in the public schools which have shown the most negative results must be embarked upon. This call must go to build capacity in all the schools in villages, as well as the squatter camps.”

(Edited by Charles Cilliers)

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