South African Coloureds and Swedes

South African Coloureds and Swedes
What do South African coloureds and Swedes have in common? A good question; the following is not exactly very flattering as I find both groups unusually quiet and confined in themselves.
Let us start with the South African coloureds. They are an apartheid construction and yet, ironically, they are the group that sticks together more than any other group in South Africa. They are the only group that was made by the apartheid laws, a kind of left over who had nowhere to go, who should not have been there in the first place. But the way out for many is a very fervent religious zeal and almost all of them are devout Christians. They may have listened to Paul’s words to Israel in Romans 10. 19, quoting Moses: “I will make you jealous of those who are not a nation”.
The sad thing however is that very few of them ever venture outside their own circles. They stick to themselves. It is one thing that they may not long for closer association with the whites, but in fact indications are that they these days much rather accept whites than African blacks. In Cape Town, in most main line churches, the congregations are thoroughly divided along racial lines still today, coloureds on one side, African blacks on the other; so also in our Evangelical Lutheran church.
It is as if the coloureds find themselves pressed between two blocks, the whites, and historically they were a pest to them, and today also from the blacks, who are in the majority in the country. Pressure from two sides makes life something like hell, it is not easy. Coloureds see Cape Town as their home town and rightly so. But many do not like the ‘home for all campaign’ which a few years ago set out to encourage blacks also to move to the Western Cape and to Cape Town.
On a regular basis one can hear blacks who have moved here from Johannesburg telling us that they do not feel welcome in Cape Town and this is said almost without exception. One should remember that these attitudes also are an apartheid construction as Western Cape used to be what was called a ‘coloured preferential area’ where jobs were allocated to coloureds first and blacks were clearly only third class citizens. Many would apparently not mind still having the ‘coloured preferential area’ in place.
Hard pressed between two blocks, not easy; it is as if this group had to go through a kind of total transformation beyond what anybody else is able to do at the moment in order to survive. Instead of acquiescing to apartheid policy, living up to the calling of becoming the only ethnic group that did not exist before apartheid, they must take on the role of living the new transformed South Africa.
If this is going to happen then there must be a real liberation away from this particular group identity. Such persons would have to form new alliances completely regardless of ethnic or racial affiliation.
So what about the Swedes? Could they possibly have anything in common with the South African coloureds? Yes, I think so. Well, Swedes are in one country but they also happen to be very much of one ethnic identity. I do not count the recent immigrants and refugees who may now be about 15% of the total population and I have to leave them out at the moment in this discussion. In the European Union Sweden plays a role like other members and it is something to take note of after all the years of separation between European states.
But at the same time I see very little movement outside Sweden that is worth mentioning. The vast majority of Swedes stay where they are. They travel a lot but almost only as tourists. Swedes basically are at ease with being at home and live and stay there and couldn’t care less about the rest of the world.
Here a characteristic comes in that is quiet disturbing, and I said something about it the other day to someone. Swedes are generally very decent people, fair and honest and have a strong sense of what is just. But few, if any of them, make their mark on the international scene. Sweden seems to be the only society that counts. Once we are in the international arena it is as if we do not want to be seen and heard. The world is in desperate need of people like Dag Hammarskjöld, but we do not seem to have any interest in providing one. One does not seriously consider a Fredrik Reinfeldt or a Mona Sahlin to follow in his tradition. Being the present Prime Minister of Sweden and the official opposition at the moment, they are just expected to play their party political role for a while and then they will be lost to oblivion.
It is exactly the same situation as with the coloureds in South Africa – they are only too happy to sit with their own and go nowhere, let’s admit that the South African brothers and sisters are far more gifted in having big parties and get-togethers; but essentially they are the same. When are they starting to move away from their home grown vistas and take on the challenges of the real world? Both groups have enormous gifts to share with the world and if one goes to the very core of their being one will find that they are not racist (how could actually a coloured person be such when he or she is made up of a mix of sorts?) but inherently fair to all.
If such people as the Swedes and the South African coloureds would emerge out of their confinements into the world arena things would start happening. Maybe it is not yet too late.