Portal de Periódicos da CAPES

Negotiating the ‘(Ab)normality’ of (Anti-)Apartheid: Transnational Relations within a Dutch-South African Family

2013; Taylor & Francis; Volume: 65; Issue: 4 Linguagem: Inglês

10.1080/02582473.2013.858763

1726-1686

Barbara Henkes,

African history and culture studies

AbstractThis article examines how the politics of Apartheid manifested themselves in networks that connected South Africa and the Netherlands. It analyses the transfer of narratives, images, ideas and political practices within a transnational kinship network, as well as through networks of political activists in both countries and worldwide. The footage a Dutch documentary maker shot during the 1980s, especially his focus on his well-established, ‘white’ relatives from South Africa and their encounters with ‘black’ compatriots, is used to trace these transnational dynamics. His material reveals the various narratives and markers of whiteness by which his relatives presented their privileged position in Apartheid South Africa as ‘normal’, while interviews with the filmmaker and some of his relatives in South Africa and the Netherlands some 25 years later give insights in how their performances were reshaped and received as ‘abnormal’ within the Dutch political context at the time. The post-apartheid memory work involved, show how the political and moral dilemmas are still felt to this day.Key words: South Africathe Netherlandsmigrationkinship networks‘stamverwantschap’(anti-)ApartheidAfrican National Congress (ANC)transnationalityracial discoursewhitenessmemory workfilmperformance Notes1. An outline of this article was presented at the HASA biennial conference ‘Milestones. Commemorating Southern Africa History’, July 2010, as a thorough revision of ‘Getuigen van (anti)Apartheid. De camera als verbindend element tussen Nederland en Zuid-Afrika’, Tijdschrift voor Geschiedenis, 124 (2011), 64–83. I would like to thank Richard Johnson and Timothy Ashplant for their inspiring comments and correction of my translation and I like to thank Maarten Rens, members of his family in South Africa and the Netherlands for their hospitality and inspiring exchanges.2. See for example S. Trapido, ‘Imperialism, Settler Identities, and Colonial Capitalism: The Hundred-Year Origins of the 1899 South African War’, in R. Ross, A. Kelk Mager and B. Nasson, eds, The Cambridge History of South Africa, Vol. 2 (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2011), Cambridge Histories Online: 20 March 2012.3. M. Bossenbroek, Holland op zijn breedst. Indië en Zuid-Afrika in de Nederlandse cultuur omstreeks 1900 (Amsterdam: Bert Bakker, 1996); M. Kuitenbrouwer, Nederland en de opkomst van het modern imperialism: koloniën en buitenlandse politiek 1870–1902 (Amsterdam: Bert Bakker, 1985); V. Kuitenbrouwer, A War of Words. Dutch Pro-Boer Propaganda and the South African War (1899–1902) (Amsterdam: Amsterdam University Press, 2012); G.J. Schutte, Nederland en de Afrikaners. Adhesie en aversie. Over stamverwantschap, Boerenvrienden, Hollanderhaat, Calvinisme en Apartheid (Franeker: T.Wever, 1986); H. te Velde, Gemeenschapszin en plichtsbesef. Liberalisme en Nationalisme in Nederland, 1870–191 (Den Haag: Sdu, 1992).4. B. Henkes, ‘“Mag ons daarop 'n Toekoms bou?” Transnationale identificaties in en door brieven tussen Nederland en Zuid-Afrika, 1946–1952’, Tijdschrift voor Sociale en Economische Geschiedenis, 7, 3 (2010), 56–96; G. Schutte, Stamverwantschap onder druk. De betrekkingen tussen Nederland en Zuid-Afrika, 1940–1947 (Amsterdam: Suid-Afrikaanse Instituut, 2011).5. See for example Korte Inlichtingen en Wenken voor Nederlanders, die zich in Zuid-Afria willen vestigen (Amsterdam: NZAV, 1953) (23e edition), 5: ‘of all the immigrants the Dutch are the only ones who naturally belong to the Afrikaner part of the nation’. Nienke Broekema in her MA thesis, ‘De roepstem van Zuid-Afrika. Een onderzoek naar de motieven van naar Zuid-Afrika emigrerende Nederlanders, 1945–1970’ (MA thesis, Leiden University 2007), 75, concludes that it is not clear in how far a ‘sentiment of stamverwantschap’ played a substantial role in the choice to leave for South Africa, but the ‘rhetoric of stamverwantschap’ used by Dutch officials and emigration agencies was an important factor in the 1950s.6. See for example B. Henkes, ‘Een warm welkom voor blanke nieuwkomers? Nederlandse emigratie en Zuid-Afrikaanse natievorming (1902–1961)’, Tijdschrift voor sociale en economische geschiedenis, 10, 1 (2013), 2–39. S. Peberdy, Selecting Immigrants. National Identity and SA's Immigration Policies, 1910–2008 (Johanneburg: Wits University Press, 2009).7. See for example R. Slater, ‘Die Maatskappy vir Europese Immigrasie: A Study of the Cultural Assimilation and Naturalization of European Immigrants to South Africa 1949–1994’ (MA thesis, University of Stellenbosch, 2005).8. In this article I use ‘people of colour’ and ‘Blacks’ as a designation for all those who were categorised as black, coloured or Asian – as distinguished from ‘Whites’ – in South Africa.9. Dutch people of colour were not allowed to settle in post-1948 South Africa.10. See for Britishness: C. Hall, Civilising Subjects: Methropole and Colony in the English Imagination 1830–1867 (Chicago & London: University of Chicago Press, 2002), 8.11. See amongst others S. de Boer, Van Sharpeville tot Soweto. Nederlands regeringsbeleid ten aanzien van apartheid, 1960–1977 (Den Haag : Sdu, 1999), 368–376; S. Bosgra, ‘Voorwoord’, in R. Rozenburg, De bloedband Den Haag-Pretoria: het Nederlandse Zuid-Afrikabeleid sinds 1945 (Amsterdam: Komitee Zuidelijk Afrika, 1986); G.J. Schutte, ‘Geschiedenis Nederlands-Zuidafrikaanse betrekkingen. Stamverwantschap als imperialisme’, in S.W. Couwenberg, ed., Apartheid, Anti-apartheid, Post-apartheid. Terugblik en evaluatie. Civic Mundi Jaarboek 2008 (Budel: Damon uitgeverij, 2008), 11–19. These authors, however, are inclined to explain the Dutch engagement with the Anti-Apartheid movement in terms of ‘stamverwantschap’, while comparison to Anti-Apartheid movements worldwide show that this explanation does not hold. A comprehensive history of the Dutch Anti-Apartheid Movement and its transnational connections still has to be published.12. J.R. Gillis, A World of Their Own Making. Myth, Ritual and the Quest for Family Values (Harvard: BasicBooks, 1997) proved most inspiring.13. For the years 1946–1955, J.K. Loedolff (Nederlandse immigrante. 'n sociologiese ondersoek van hul inskakeling in die gemeenskapslewe van Pretoria [Kaapstad/Pretoria: HAUM, 1960], 13) mentions a total of 245,103 Dutch emigrants of whom 22,903 (9.3 percent) left for South Africa. See also Peberdy, Selecting Immigrants, Appendix 2: immigration by country of previous residence, birth and citizenship, 1924–2004, 268–271. In the post-war Netherlands as in other European countries there was a strong urge to leave the war-wrecked nations. See also Marijke van Faassen, ‘Min of meer misbaar. Naoorlogse emigratie vanuit Nederland: achtergronden en organisatie, particuliere motieven en overheidsprikkels, 1946–1967’, in Saskia Poldervaart, Hanneke Willems and Jan Willem Schilt, eds, Van hot naar her. Nederlandse migratie vroeger, nu en morgen (Amsterdam: IISG, 2001), 50–67.14. Maarten Rens was part of the Video Unit of the AABN (1982–1990) and he started and taught at the Video Unit ANC Lusaka, Zambia (1985–1990).15. http://www.africaserver.nl/africanskies (accessed on 19 November 2010): Catalogue African Skies (henceforth: African Skies) nr. 2: South African Aggression in the Region, tape 16. This documentary circulated within the anti-Apartheid movement in the Netherlands.16. African Skies: nr. 7, Tape 71. This documentary was a co-production of the video units of the ANC (Lusaka) and of the AABN (Amsterdam) and was shown on the Dutch television in 1988.17. The examined footage is part of a collection of film recordings of the Netherlands Anti-Apartheid movement, which is catalogued by the African Skies Foundation. Since 2004 the material has been kept by the Dutch Institute for Sound and Vision in Hilversum and the National Archives in Pretoria.18. Cf. P. Levitt and B. Nadya Jaworsky, ‘Transnational Migration Studies: Past Developments and Future Trends’, Annual Review of Sociology, 33 (2007), 129–156.19. Visiting South Africa in 2006 I spoke with Rens' cousin and his wife, followed by several conversations in the Netherlands with the filmmaker and one of his sisters. I also took part in a small family reunion in the Netherlands in 2008 when his aunt, and one of her daughters and son in law from South Africa met with Rens' mother and sister. Audio recordings and transcripts of these conversations held by the author.20. Cf. L. Huyse, Alles gaat voorbij, behalve het verleden (Amsterdam: Van Gennep, 2006); B. Bevernage, History, Memory, and State-Sponsored Violence: Time and Justice (London: Routledge, 2012); and current transdisciplinary debates on dealing with a violent past.21. R. Johnson, ‘Two Ways to Remember. Exploring Memory as Identity’, Nothing Bloody Stands Still. Annual Magazine of the European Network for Cultural and Media Studies, 1 (1991), 26–30. Johnson introduces the distinction between ‘safe’ and ‘risky’ stories, by which people confirm or question their place in a community.22. At the beginning of my research project I got in touch with (former) Dutch migrants, their descendants in South Africa and their relatives in the Netherlands through ‘hearsay’ and announcements by the Huis der Nederlanden (now the South African Centre for the Netherlands and Flanders [SASNEV]) in Cape Town and in the former magazine Nederlands Post van Zuid-Afrika. The contact with the Huisman family came about through a former Dutch migrant and friend of the family who had returned to the Netherlands.23. The relatives from South Africa are identified by a pseudonym.24. Interview B. Henkes with M. Rens, Amsterdam, 27 July 2008. See African Skies nr. 13e: Ik ben er geweest / I was there, 1981, Tape 161. This rough cut from 1982 never developed into a finished production. The footage and sound material is kept by the filmmaker (henceforth: private collection M. Rens).25. A. Guelke, Rethinking the Rise and Fall of Apartheid. South Africa and World Politics (Basingstoke and New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2005). See also S. de Boer, ‘Nederland en de Apartheidskwestie, 1948–1990’, in M. Kuitenbrouwer and M. Leenders, eds, Geschiedenis van de mensenrechten. Bouwstenen voor een interdisciplinaire benadering (Hilversum: Verloren, 1996), 259–280.26. For an overview of the organisations and their activities: E. van den Bergh, Het stormt in mijn hart. Nederland-Zuid-Afrika. Selectieve bibliografische nititie (Den Haag: South African Embassy: Information Series no. 14, May 2000). For more information on specific organisations, see Lauriergracht 116, Anti-Apartheidsbeweging Nederland 1971–1994 (Amsterdam: AABN, 1994); Jos van Beurden and Chris Huinder, De vinger opde zere plek. Solidariteit met Zuidelijk Afrika. 1961–1996 (Amsterdam: Uitgevrij Babylon-De Geus, 1996). On the Komitee Zuidelijk Afrika (KZA); Carla Edelenbos and others, In goed vertrouwen. Defence and Sid Fund Nederland 1965–1991 (Amsterdam/Utrecht: Jan Metz/Defence and Aid Fund Nederland, 1991); Mensenrechten en verzoening in Zuid-Afrika. Publikatie ter gelegenheid van 25 jaar Kairos (Utrecht: Kairos, 1995) on the Christian-inspired Werkgroep Kairos, and E. Meijers, Blanke broeders-zwarte vreemden. De Nederlandse Hervormde Kerk, de Gereformeerde Kerken in Nederland en de Apartheid in Zuid-Afrika 1948–1972 (Hilversum: Verloren, 2008).27. See for an inventarisation and comparison of the different organisations involved in the anti-Apartheid movements in the Netherlands: G.L. Klein, ‘De strijd tegen apartheid. The Role of The Anti-Apartheid Organisations in The Netherlands, 1960-1995’ (MA thesis, University of Pretoria, 2001).28. Kuitenbrouwer and Leenders, Geschiedenis van de mensenrechten.29. Cf. F. van Vree, ‘Auschwitz and the Origins of Contemporary Historical Culture. Memories of World War II in European Perspective’, in Attila Pók, Jörn Rüssen, and Jutta Scherrer, eds, European History: Challenge for a Common Future (Hamburg: Körber Stiftung, 2002), 202–220.30. De Boer, ‘Nederland en de Apartheidskwestie’, 261.31. This is also reflected in the visual culture of the Anti-Apartheid movement. Cf. a poster from the AABN from 1971 in the International Institute of Social History (IISG) Amsterdam.32. Interview by B. Henkes with M. Rens, Amsterdam, 27 July 2008.33. On a preserved soundtrack we hear how Uncle Rob introduces his nephew as a filmmaker, ‘who travels over the world with a super 8 camera’ and is now preparing a movie about South Africa: ‘Not at all political, but in order to film our ordinary lives here on the spot’ (private collection M. Rens).34. De Boer, ‘Nederland en de Apartheidskwestie’, 275–278.35. Rens left on his own initiative without any agreements beforehand with broadcasters or other agencies.36. K. Hastrup, ‘Anthropological Visions, some Notes on Visual and Textual Authority’, in I. Crawford and D. Turton, eds, Film as Ethnography (Manchester & New York: Manchester University Press, 1992), 14, 19.37. Interview by B. Henkes with M. Rens, Amsterdam, 27 July 2008. With this statement he locates himself in the tradition of the ‘direct cinema’ that flourished in the Netherlands since the 1970s, especially in the VPRO public broadcasting company. See: B. Hogenkamp, H. Hosman, and H. de Wit, eds, Direct Cinema, maar soepel en met mate (Hilversum: Nederlands Instituut voor Beeld en Geluid/VPRO, 2006), 13–88.38. The last names of Hugo, Siena, and Precious are not mentioned and could not be traced.39. From the unedited footage it becomes clear that the filmmaker has asked his nephew and nieces to speak English for the camera, while the family among themselves talks Dutch. Rens cannot remember the reason for this.40. After economic growth in the 1960s, Europe including the Netherlands in the 1970s was confronted with a recession, while South Africa was expanding.41. Hall, Civilising Subjects, 6, referring to J. Baldwin, Strangers in the Village (1st ed. 1953, repr. in Notes of a Native Son [Harmondsworth: Penguin, 1995]).42. Though the Reservation of Separate Amenities Act (1953) was applied to public and not to private swimming pools, it meant just as well that there were hardly any facilities for Blacks to learn to swim. Cf. S. Clingmans, Bram Fischer: Afrikaner Revolutionary (Cape Town & Amherst: Mayibuye Books and University of Massachusetts Press, 1998), 221.43. M. Steyn, “Whiteness Just Isn't What It Used To Be”. White Identity in a Changing South Africa (New York: State University of New York Press, 2001).44. They showed convincingly how racial discourse was taken inside the self, not only by white colonisers but also by the black colonised. See H. K. Bhaba, ‘Foreword: remembering Fanon. Self, Psyche and the Colonial Condition’, in the English reprint, Black Skin, White Mask (London: Pluto Press, 1986), vii–xxvi and Said, Culture and Imperialism.45. See J. Nederveen Pietersen, ‘Savages, Animals, Heathens, Races’, in White on Black: Images of Africans and Blacks in Western Popular Culture (New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 1992), 30–51; Steyn, Whiteness, 7–11.46. Film- and soundtracks were independently recorded and stored; the film track could not be retrieved.47. Soundtrack interview ‘Hugo’ (private collection M. Rens).48. Prime Minister's Circular No. 5 of 1924, cited by Guelke, Rethinking, 73. The Civilized Labour Policy (Beskaafde Arbeidsbeleid) was implemented after the two main opposition parties – Hertzog's National Party and Cresswell's Labour Party – won the elections of 1924. Its aim was to uplift the white working class (typically poor Afrikaners) to a ‘civilised’ standard of living by reserving the better paid jobs and positions for Whites only, and leaving the ‘dirty’, subordinate, lower paid jobs for black workers (who were considered to be ‘uncivilised’ anyway).49. Interview by B. Henkes with M. Rens, Amsterdam, 16 January 2009. It may also be possible that this critical, white voice did not match the image the filmmaker wanted to show of the acceptance of Apartheid as part of ‘normal’, white life.50. Until 1971 Nedbank was known under the name Dutch Bank of South Africa. See G. Verhoef, ‘Nedbank: The Continental Approach to Banking in South Africa’, in F.S. Jones, ed., Financial Enterprise in South Africa (London: Macmillan, 1992), 80–114.51. Interview B. Henkes with M. Rens, Amsterdam, 7 December 2008. As a staff consultant Sylvia was not the manager but rather the trustee of two black employees. Yet their positions were not equal, which is a factor in what was said or not.52. Such programs were established in the 1970s under strong international pressure. Cf. Guelke, Rethinking, 198–201.53. In the rough cut only Luasi Mapanze is introduced with her last name. Precious' last name was not mentioned, though this may be due to the editing.54. Although ‘Black Peril’ is defined as ‘the threatened rape of white women by black men’, many readings suggest that the rape threat was essentially a rationalisation of white men's fear of sexual competition from black men. See D.G.N. Cornwell, ‘George Webb Hardy's The Black Peril and the social meaning of ‘Black Peril’ in early Twentieth-Century South Africa’, Journal of Southern African Studies, 22, 3 (1996), 441–453; also B.B. Brown, ‘Facing the “Black Peril”: The Politics of Population Control in South Africa’, Journal of Southern African Studies, 13 (1987), 256–273.55. It seems as if her phraseology echoes the title of Alan Paton's famous novel on the dramatic effects of race segregation in South Africa, Cry, the Beloved Country (New York & London: Charles Scribner's Sons & Jonathan Cape, 1948).56. Not only Kees and Loes mention her father's promises during a family gathering on 21 August 2008 in Amsterdam – Rob Huisman himself too refers to his support in the footage of the family film from 1981. After their arrival their plans did not work out and it took them quite a while to get their life going in South Africa.57. When I ask them – during a family gathering in August 2008 in Amsterdam – about critical discussions in the Netherlands before their migration to South Africa in 1982, the answer is evasive. See also Footnotenote 60.58. Interview by B. Henkes with M. Rens, Amsterdam, 7 December 2008.59. Interview by B. Henkes with M. Rens, Amsterdam, 16 January 2008, on his contacts with Roelof Kiers of the VPRO-television.60. Loes during the family gathering in Amsterdam, 21 August 2008, with the mother of the filmmaker, her daughter Margo, Margaret Huisman, her daughter Loes and her son-in-law Kees. I was allowed to be present.61. This referred to the discussions within the Security Council and the arms embargo in 1977 the United Nations had required after the bloody suppression of the Soweto uprising. See Guelke, Rethinking, 194–195.62. Interview by B. Henkes with M. Rens, 27 July 2008; this statement was repeated almost literally during an interview on 7 December 2008.63. Hall, Civilising Subjects, 5–6.64. Their grandfather in South Africa died in 1974, followed by their grandmother in 1982. Probably his son-in law, Uncle Rob, was his executor.65. In the summer of 1982 the AABN organised a campaign in support of the radio station of the ANC, Radio Freedom, which broadcasted from various countries in Southern Africa. The action went on for many years. In the archives of the AABN the names of former Dutch donors can't be found. See also: P. de Cock, Radio Freedom: de stem van het verzet (Amsterdam: AABN, 1987) and http://www.iisg.nl/collections/anti-Apartheid/history/ 66. Exchanges during the family gathering, Amsterdam, 21 August 2008. See Footnotenote 60.67. Exchanges during the family gathering, and an interview of B. Henkes with Margo Rens, Amsterdam, 22 October 2008. According to her the amount was 6 x 500 guilders; a considerable sum of money at the time.68. M.S. Leach and D.O. Braithwaite, ‘A Binding Tie: Supportive Communication of Family Kinkeepers’, Journal of Applied Communication Research, 24 (1996), 200–216.69. P.A.L. Bijl, ‘Emerging Memory: Photographs of Colonial Atrocity in Dutch Cultural Remembrance’ (DPhil thesis, University of Utrecht, 2011), Ch. 3, referring to E. Goffman, Frame Analysis: An Essay on the Organization of Experience (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1974).70. E. Said, ‘Always on Top’, London Review of Books, 25, 6 (20 March 2003), 3–6.71. The CASA conference was organised by the AABN and held from 12 to 19 December 1987. The documentary was a co-production of the video unit of the ANC (Lusaka) and the video collective of the AABN (Amsterdam). Besides the documentary the footage of the interviews has been preserved and made accessible through the catalogue of the African Skies Foundation in Amsterdam www.africanserver.nl.72. See Footnotenote 14.73. In the credits of the documentary Sylvia is featured under the pseudonym Sylvia Fischer in view of possible repercussions at her return to South Africa.74. Statement of Sylvia in the interview with the Dutch-South African psychiatrist Bevin Hoek at the CASA conference. African Skies: tape 103.75. In addition, she spoke with the poet Willy Kgositsile, the journalist Ruth Bengu from Johannesburg, South Africa, the musician Isaac S. Ntsamai and an actor of the theatre group Bopha!. African Skies, No 7. Culture in Another South Africa (CASA), 1987.76. African Skies, nr. 7: Tape 118, section 4.77. African Skies, nr. 7: Tape 118, section 4.78. For security reasons Page Boikano is identified as Page in the credits. Today Boikano is working at the Ministry of Labour in South Africa. Thanks to Fons Geerlings, who informed me about his identity.79. African Skies, nr. 7: Tape 118, section 4: Fragment from the exchange between Page, Sylvia and Klaas de Jonge that is integrated in the documentary, Before Dawn: Culture in another South Africa.80. Sylvia has not responded to my attempts to make contact.81. Interview B. Henkes with M. Rens, Amsterdam, 27 July 2008.82. See Schutte, Nederland en de Afrikaners. Adhesie en aversie.83. S. Hall, ‘The Multi-Cultural Question’, in B. Hesse, ed., Un/settled Multiculturalism: Diasporas, Entanglements, Disruptions (London: Zed Books, 2001), 187–241, 216 distinguishes the discourse of cultural differentialism and biological racism and stressed that ‘in many situations discourses of both were in play’.84. Steyn, Whiteness. Although the danger of the concept of ‘master narrative’ is the lack of specificity and historical change.85. Interview B. Henkes with M. Rens, Amsterdam, 7 December 2008.86. Peter Mulder, ‘Wij gaan op dezelfde weg Zuid-Afrika! Het Apartheidsstandpunt van het Gereformeerd Politiek Verbond (1960–1990)’ (MA thesis, University of Groningen, 2009).87. I previously explored the way ‘shameful’ moral and political positions in the past are neutralised in public history in B. Henkes, ‘De Bezetting revisited. Hoe van De Oorlog een “normale” geschiedenis werd gemaakt die eindigt in vrede’, Bijdragen en Mededelingen betreffende de Geschiedenis der Nederlanden 125, 1 (2010), 73–99; M. Eickhoff, B. Henkes, and F. van Vree, ‘De verleiding van een grijze geschiedschrijving. Morele waarden in historische voorstellingen’, Tijdschrift voor Geschiedenis, 123, 3 (2010), 322–339.88. Hall, Civilising Subjects, 7.