Muller ’s letter, “Who is an African? ”, published in The Herald (October 29), hopefully will give impetus to the national debate on who were the original people of SA.
I concur with Muller that genetics confirm only one race, a truth embraced in Bible hermeneutics.
The creator has made all nations from one bloodline — Acts 17:26.
As a child growing up in the cosmopolitan Old South End, before the forced removal of its residents, it was empirically accepted that the so-called “coloured people” would one day be the rightful owners of the land.
Not all “coloured ” people see themselves as the children of the Khoisan people.
Some Dutch and French settlers had children with Malaysian and Indonesian slaves who settled in the Cape.
Our diverse cultures and heritage and ethnic roots, are essential to the correcting of the historic wrongs of the past.
My paternal progenitor was British, my maternal progenitor Greek, therefore, by definition I suppose I can call myself “Anglo- Greek- African ”.
I’m more African than British or Greek because SA is the country of my birth.
As a fourth-generation child of a British officer, who died in a skirmish with the Xhosa in the Battle of Fish River in the 1800s, I by no choice of my own or free will am an African by birth.
The people in multi-ethnic Old South End lived in harmony and respected the depth and value of their unique heritage.
The Group Areas Act of the Nationalist Party government bulldozed and destroyed our homes, separating loved ones and friendships that were forged over decades.
It ’s obvious that whoever owns the narrative determines the “facts”.
The Readers Digest spurious record in the Illustrated History of SA (“the real story”) cited by Muller purports that the Khoisan tribes migrated south 20,000 years ago and the Bantu tribes were the “Johnny come lately” people who crossed over 2,000 years ago pushing the Khoisan into the Cape.
Who are the real colonisers of SA?
According to some anthropologists, Sterkfontein in SA is the Cradle of Mankind and Homo naledi our common ancient ancestor.
This flawed narrative, with respect, is racist because it implies those who migrated north evolved at a quicker rate than those who lived in the south.
If the Sterkfontein and Homo naledi hypothesis were valid, then why should settlers be labelled colonists of the land from which they originally came?
That is if the theory of our common origin is proved to be a fact.
Let the children of the Khoisan tribes (coloured) rule.
I’m sure they’ll correct the wrongs of history and embrace us all as prodigals come home.
