The global history of colonialism, and anti-black racism specifically, is in important respects, a history of sustained and multiple assaults on black bodies. These assaults range from physical assault, psycho-social assault and also, among other forms of oppression, political and economic subjugation. American author Ta-Nehisi Coates, for example, has most recently articulated in his book 'Between the World and Me', an account of what it means to live in a black body. one that has been and still is under attack, whether from racist cops, or institutionally racist educational, corporate and other spaces.
Here in South Africa, echoes of these enduring realities have found visceral expression in, for example, the Marikana massacre, the preventable deaths of children in pit latrines and mostly black patients dying in state-sponsored mental health facilities.
In the forum we explore, despite our impressive local political history of fighting for the recognition of the inherent dignity of all people - now enshrined in our progressive constitution - what life is (still) like for black South Africans twenty-five years after the transition out of Apartheid? How much, really, has changed? And how big or small is the gap, now, between human rights jurisprudence, and anti-black lived realities.
Apartheid Museum, Northern Parkway and Gold Reef Road,
Ormonde, Johannesburg
RSVP - email: info@apartheidmuseum.org
or call Sibongile on 011 309 4700