Pretoria.Toryna Lewis, who says she was a
racist under South Africa’s oppressive apartheid system, wept as she
described the sea change she and other whites underwent during the
unifying leadership of Nelson Mandela.
“Nelson Mandela was a very remarkable man, he
changed our country,” the 53-year-old told AFP at the seat of government
in Pretoria, having come to pay her respects to the country’s first
black president, who died last Thursday.
“I was a racist,” she admitted, drawing on a
cigarette and clutching a miniature South African flag outside the Union
Buildings, where Mandela was inaugurated in 1994 and where his body
will lie in state until tomorrow.
“I didn’t know any different. And I didn’t know any black people, apart from our domestic worker.”
The apartheid system, which drew in church, state
and the education system, was extremely efficient at keeping people of
different races apart -- physically and psychologically. They lived in
segregated areas, performed different types of jobs and had a completely
separate education. “It was the way we were raised. You didn’t think to
do anything else. It was a mentality thing,” said Lewis, who was given
time off her job as a government logistics officer to attend yesterday’s
memorial events in the capital city.
“But my thinking and everything has changed.
Nowadays, I will go to my colleagues who are black and invite them for a
drink after work. Twenty years ago, I would never have thought that
possible.
“Recently, we went on an office team-building
exercise. I chose to share sleeping quarters with the black ladies
rather than the white ones -- I knew with them I could have fun and
laugh.” The change came gradually, she said, “but it came naturally.”
Yet, the road wasn’t always smooth. “It was an
adjustment, the mixing thing,” Lewis said. “Because we were used to
having blacks on one side, whites on one side, and Indians in yet
another.
“Suddenly we were all mixing, also in the workforce.”
A lot of stereotypes had to be broken down, said
Lewis -- recounting lies she had been told as a child of how blacks had
different family and other values. (AFP)
