Bookends of Horror

“The last battle of the colonized against the colonizer will often be the fight of the colonized against each other.” – Frantz Fanon, The Wretched of the Earth

Adam Hochschild’s King Leopold’s Ghost and Gerard Prunier’s Africa’s World War are in too many ways bookends to the horrors that plagued the Congo (i.e. Congo Free State, Belgian Congo, Zaire, DRC, etc.) over the last century. Starting in the late 1800s, Hochschild’s book recounts King Leopold II of Belgium’s greedy quest for a colony; his cunningness in carving out a Belgium colony in the heart of Africa that was bigger than England, France, Germany, Spain, and Italy combined; and finally, after a trail of terror as long and as unforgiving as the Congo River, the King watched over a genocide that killed over 10 million people. Prunier’s book catches up with this story in 1996, when in the aftermath of the Rwandan genocide, regional tensions boiled over to spark a continental war – Africa’s World War. Prunier examines this bloodbath – which curdled for over six years – by untangling the ethnic dimensions of the conflict and the numberless atrocities that accompanied it.

I am about two-thirds the way through King Leopold’s Ghost and I can’t help thinking that the brutal system of colonization in the Congo, where hands and heads were cut off as souvenirs (the impetus for Conrad’s Mr. Kurtz), built the exposition phase of the story told in Africa’s World War.

Both authors are historians and analysts, storytellers and novelists, bringing forgotten history to life. Yet, both have different styles and points of view. Hochschild is more of an activist, but one who can’t help but build a narrative: “But those who condemned it were unaware that, compared with the bloodshed beginning just then in central Africa, it was only a sideshow.”

Punier, on the other hand, is a French (always French) philosopher-analyst: “And the situation in the Great Lakes is so horribly complex, so contradictory that one does not have to be American to fall victim to the syndrome of desperately wanting to find "good guys" and "bad guys" who could restore meaning and clarity to such moral gloom.” Yet he too has the novelist’s touch: “Thus the best image one can give of what happened is that of geographical hollow, the Congo Basin, entirely surrounded by a chain of otherwise unconnected storm clouds which were all drawn toward the low-pressure zone that had suddenly developed.”

As I conclude this rather cathartic experience, my hope is that these two books do represent bookends to the long history of conflict in the Congo. And may peace be found.

White Tribe of Africa

Oh, white tribe of Africa,

The passbooks cannot be shaken from your skull;

Forgiveness of self and sins its greatest trek.

Oh, white tribe of Africa,

Step out from behind the electric fence;

Your language must be eaten whole.

Oh, white tribe of Africa,

Your poor smile toothless too;

Crying, their beloved country.

Oh, white tribe of Africa,

Your passport is an unsigned identity;

Yet restorative, long last.

Oh, white tribe of Africa,

This is your country – the country of Africa –

And the final disgrace can only drip from the tongue.

Voortrekker Monument
Pretoria, South Africa
February 13, 2011

Keep Out: The Deformities of a Securitized South Africa

“The skull, followed by the temperament: the two hardest parts of the body.”

 – J.M. Coetzee, Disgrace

The South African province of Gauteng, home to the securitized cities of Pretoria and Johannesburg, is very different from the Western Cape. Gauteng may lack the pristine sandy beaches, lush green vineyards, and Cape Dutch architecture, but there is something that it does have over the Western Cape: a plentiful supply of private security companies (PSCs). Figures from the 2009/2010 Private Security Industry Regulatory Authority (PSIRA) report shows that out of the 7,459 registered security companies spread out over 9 provinces, Gauteng accounts for 2,722 of those businesses, or roughly 36% of South Africa’s private security sector. Gauteng also boasts of having 151,991 out of the 387,273 (39%) registered security officers in South Africa. What makes these statistics more startling is that they continue to grow, with the latest numbers in Gauteng roughly representing an annual increase of 15% and 7% in the aforementioned categories. The closest contender, the province of KwaZulu-Natal, only has 1,199 registered PSCs and 65,323 registered security officers. In other words, Gauteng is far and away the most securitized province in South Africa – and perhaps the most privately protected place in the world.

What’s the impetus for all this security? To start with, Gauteng is also one of the most crime-ridden provinces in the world. The 2009/2010 South African Police Service (SAPS) crime statistics reveal that between April 2009 and March 2010, there were over 8,000  robberies at residential premises – a sub-category of aggravated robbery involving the use or threatened use of force – in Gauteng province alone. To put that in some perspective, KwaZulu-Natal, a province with a slightly larger population than Gauteng, had about half as fewer robberies over that same time period. Although contact crimes (murder, rape, assault, etc.) and most property related crimes (particularly theft out of motor vehicle) have declined gradually over the past seven years, burglary at residential premises – does not involve the use or threatened use of force – has virtually remained steady. Not surprising, these two categories fall squarely under the purview of PSC operations.

Walk the streets of Pretoria – never mind Johannesburg, the “crime capital of the world” – and you will see an endless string of barbed wire, electric fences, 24 hour a day alarm monitors, CCTV systems, outdoor beams and more. All the perimeter protection the heart needs. A fleet of armed response vehicles patrol neighborhoods; security guards man boom gates and “information” booths erected at key routes throughout neighborhoods and suburbs; PSCs not only provide residential security, but also deliver security services to commercial, retail, and financial institutions. Security begetting security.

Endless theories on the causes of crime and violence in South Africa have been put forth, some with more credence than others. The most common and credible hypotheses focus on poverty, inequality, and the brutal legacy of apartheid. However, more interesting research has recently emerged concentrating on what has been dubbed a “moral degeneration,” emphasizing how crime shapes (or reshapes) the context of decision making, specifically the decisions of would-be criminals. Yet no theories focus on the other side of the crime story: the public’s reaction to high crime rates. What drives this push for more and more private security is the question that interests me. It can’t be just crime, can it? And then what are the social impacts of this highly securitized state? What are the psychological ramifications? These are the things I think about – not crime – when I walk the streets of Pretoria.

Lastly, I’m curious how private security feeds into people’s perceptions of safety. Next month I will be conducting a door-to-door survey (I will write more about the survey in the coming weeks) for my research project, trying to gauge people’s perceptions of safety in regards to their use of private security. Here’s a sample:

1.      Fear of criminal activity was an important reason I chose to purchase private security services.

Strongly Disagree

Disagree

Neutral

Agree

Strongly Agree

6.   Private security companies help to reduce crime rates in my neighborhood.

Strongly Disagree

Disagree

Neutral

Agree

Strongly Agree

9.  Without private security services, I would feel less secure.

Strongly Disagree

Disagree

Neutral

Agree

Strongly Agree

I would very much be interested to read your ideas about possible survey questions or general thoughts you may have on this topic.

The Bakkie

“The vehicle was a bakkie, a small truck with a three-litre engine, fourteen-inch wheels with heavy-duty ten-ply tyres, and a sturdy standard chassis on which the buyer fits a fibreglass canopy with windows, air-vents and foam-padded benches running along either side, behind the cab. It makes a cheap car-cum-caravan for white families, generally Afrikaners, and their half-brother coloureds who can't afford both. For more affluent white South Africans, it is a second, sporting vehicle for purposes to which a town car is not suited."  – Nadine Gordimer, July’s People

Most mornings I count about a half-dozen bakkies on my walk into work. Usually the cargo beds of these pickup trucks, 4 feet long at best, are filled with 6-8 day laborers (or is it labourers?), most likely migrants from the surrounding provinces and countries. The workers, dressed in snappy blue domestic uniforms – the instant identification of class in South Africa – sit 3-4 across on the side panels, taking in those needed minutes before the start of the work day.

There is something deeply liberating about the bakkie (pronounced bah-key). I think the fact that there are no laws in SA against sitting in the back of a bakkie plays into that sense of liberation. Maybe it returns me to the myths of the America West, with all that road going, and the frontier adventures so closely associated with those myths. By no means am I a “truck guy,” but perhaps the truck speaks to the essential need of Man to haul things. Maybe it is just another point of contact with South Africans that makes me take note of them. Or maybe after a month in SA it’s time to kick up some dust and hit the open road – in a bakkie.

leave your shoes inside the car

Walking barefoot through shopping centers is a peculiarity among young Afrikaner males that I haven’t come to terms with yet. On my first tour through SA in 2000, I took note of this phenomenon on a few occasions. In fact, I can still vividly remember a barefoot young boy waiting in line at a Pick n Pay. At the time I was so intrigued with the concept that when I returned home I tried walking shoeless (and sockless) through the Shaw’s supermarket in South Burlington, VT. (I was politely asked to leave.) In the following years I guess I just assumed it was a passing phase in Afrikaans culture or that perhaps the boys I encountered lived on a farm – true boers – so they were accustomed to walking around without anything on their feet. However, this week, in the middle of Pretoria (i.e. the country’s executive capital), at the Brooklyn Mall (the US equivalent of the Scottsdale Fashion Square), there he was: a young Afrikaner male standing barefoot at the register.

I suppose the thing that’s most disturbing for me is that at some point the young kid had to cross the parking lot, make his way up the escalator, circle the aisles, and finally get up to the checkout counter…barefoot. Not that there’s anything wrong with that. I guess.