Dingaan's Legacy

In the months preceding the massacre of the school children
I worked for several months in Soweto
producing a TV documentary on urban shamanism for the SABC

at that time there were over 1000 sangoma's practicing traditional healing
in the shadow of the giant Baragwanith hospital

each shaman had several 'amatwasa" ( apprentice trainees) living in their home
i went into the townships most week days before dawn
to film the morning training ritual

towards the end of  the shooting
several witchdoctors with whom I had entered a personal friendship
expressed concern about my continued safety
they had premonitions that something bad was about to happen
I too had felt growing tension in the streets
I remember standing in front of Credo Mutwa's house (Indaba My Children")
while he recounted a lucid dream
in which he saw blood flowing in the streets of Soweto
he was near tears and pleaded with me to do something

I had several warning meetings with the documentary department back at the SABC
urging that we all work together on a series focused on race relations

mass communication via TV was still a new phenomenon in those days
the answer i got was "Whites want white faces in their living rooms"

BOSS wanted to know if i was in contact with the ANC
I was already on their list as a kaffir boetie after a previous doc
with Alan Paton and Fatima Meer was banned from broadcast
i was threatened house arrest if i did not reveal my sources about impending violence

I urged a mass walkout of our whole English Documentary department
but was assured by my peers (who had never set foot in any black location)
that I was over-reacting

the bloodbath a couple of weeks later
which might well have been avoided
is now a definitive chapter in SA history

the point of this story
happened the day after the massacre
while the shooting was still going on
I tried to get into Soweto to film it
but the only road in and out
was barricaded by the police and army
"no rooinek press allowed in"

I drove around the giant townships
hoping to find a track that led inside
on the way I picked up a black man hitching a ride
He got in smelling of native beer
tears were streaming down his face
"I ran!  I was afraid.  My girl friend is back there facing the bullets!"!
we drove in silence while he sobered up
then he spoke again
"You know Baas. Dingaan made a bad mistake!"
I let him off in Randburg and gave him some money.

Dingaan made a bad mistake
Indeed!

All South Africans might well have experienced a more harmonious future
if that earlier massacre at kwaBulawayo
had never happened

1700 years ago
Rome colonization fell
the tribes took over Europe
and initiated the Dark Ages
which lasted for 60 generations
before the Renaissance

European colonization fell
the tribes have taken over Africa
and initiated their own Dark Ages
for how many generations?
who knows