Bertus de Villiers, Beeld
2010-01-21 20:31
“Few subjects upset people as much as emigration. The advantages, the disadvantages. The longings, the new identity. The hatred, the love. The recriminations, the dream. In the ten years since my emigration, I have spoken to hundreds of emigrants to find out what motivated them, what’s going on inside their heads. I tried to get past the stories of violence to probe the underlying psychological motivation.Read more »
‘The gap between what white people expected to be happening in the New South Africa, and what is actually happening, simply remains too large. In the cities progressing to revolution, they ‘rebelled’ by leaving.
White people expected South Africa to somehow be ‘different’ from the rest of Africa; that it would be better; that white and black could really enjoy a place in the sun together.
“But it isn’t. And now they’re angry. Hurt, disappointed, rejected, gatvol. And their ‘revolution’ is to move, because it doesn’t help them to fight. It has nothing to do with racism or bitterness. It has everything to do with unfulfilled, subjective expectations. While the Constitution is a world-class document, the manner in which it is being managed repeatedly turns into a world-class mess.
“Within a decade, white people became bywoners in the land of their birth. Now they prefer to become bywoners in other countries which offer them more chances and also offer them acceptance.
The pushing-power moving people to leave South Africa is stronger than the drawing power to the land of their choice. White people leave South Africa with pain. With hatred even.
And it takes a long time to get over this. This makes us (Afrikaners) different from other emigrants. I meet hundreds of Brits, Italians and Kiwis who emigrated because they wanted to, not because they had to.
Yet in my past decade in Australia, I have not met one white (South African) person who wanted to be in Australia out of their own free will. They all would much rather be in Pretoria, Cape Town and Lichtenburg, go to church Sundays, go to Loftus (rugby grounds) and make a difference in their community.
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