Do You Have To Like Black People To Get Your Award? White South African Writer Pays For Her Sentiments

December 9th, 2010 - By TheEditor

The Afrikaans writer Annelie Botes found out recently that you have to at least act like a politically correct human being to be respected in the public sphere. The acclaimed writer won a K Sello Duiker Memorial Award from SALA (South African Literary Awards) for her novel Thula, Thula, which focused on incest. A day before the award’s banquet, SALA informed Botes that her award was withdrawn on the basis of the very candid remarks she made and which were published in The Rapport Newspaper.

The 53-year-old writer told the paper: “I am now going to be terribly honest. And let it shock this country. I do not like black people. I don’t understand them… I know they are people like me, I know they have the same rights as me. But I do not understand them. And then… I don’t like them. I avoid them, because I am afraid of them.”

For a white woman living in an African country, her sentiments are not only shocking but outrageous. Sure, Botes is Afrikaans and as a presumed descendant of early Dutch settlers, who date back to 17h century, doesn’t have to justify her inhabitance on the African continent but to an international audience, her comments are made worse by the fact that she’s part of the white minority that once oppressed Africans in their own homeland.

In the interview, she also discussed the changing political climate in South Africa.  “I suspect black people are no longer furious with white people, but instead they are furious with their own government, and now they are taking it out on white people.”

She also lamented the death of her neighbor at the hands of disgruntled Black citizens. “My neighbor was brutally murdered. Why? If black people are hungry, why don’t they just break in like in the old days, empty out the fridge and then leave?” Botes has stuck to her guns and refused to retract her comments, even repeating those same sentiments to the Mail & Guardian.  In that sense, Botes is commendable. Oftentimes, public figures will draft quick press releases apologizing for their remarks and framing it as a random, mistaken occurrence. Botes is prejudiced and she stands up for herself in that way. And she seems to be ready to handle the backlash that comes with racism: public disapproval. She has since lost her post as a columnist for an Afrikaans newspaper and along with her withdrawn award, she will most likely not be traveling the world making appearances on behalf of her art.

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  • Mali

    I agree, Europeans left Europe to go to Africa for a better life.

  • Fuli

    Well kudos to her, she summed up what the majority of Europeans (White people) think about Africans. If she is scared of Africans then she should return to her national homeland, Africans never sent her and her ancestors an invitation to come & steal their land, resources & freedom. She should be scared because everything Europeans have in Africa is stolen! Stolen wealth! Stolen land! Stolen opportunity! Europeans left the plague & malaria infested Europe to go to America for a 'better life', exactly the same reason why they left and went to America and near kill out all the so called Indians. Africans around the world are in the process of organising for revolution to take back our land, resources & freedom, so all this chitta-chatter will be of no consequence….

    • chuck

      africans are too busy killing each others to organize for revolution–that should have happened 40 years ago

  • Gwendolyn

    I Laugh, her comments don't bother me because I don't like white people so We're EVEN :o )

  • Allan Smith

    She is merely being honest. The vast majority of whites, including myself, echo and fully endorse her sentiments. This country is supposedly a democracy and it's my democratic right to choose whom I like and wish to consort with. Blacks (in this country)are generally uneducated, unhygienic and have an inherent predisposition towards violent crime and a misplaced sense of entitlement.

    • Lc

      "misplaced sense of entitlement"? Seriously? You moved to a continent and violently took over and when the indigenous people wanted equality you killed, imprisoned and disenfranchised them and you now say their sense of entitlement is misplaced? They are entitled to get their homelands backs! Get real and get out….

  • Gerhard Bothma

    When i visited Atlanta in 2007 i was impressed by the way people are respected ther. Here in South Africa life is not respected at all. Politicians may sing "Kill the Boer" without any consequences. But as soon as any white person says something about the neo-apartheid in our country we are reprimanded, humiliated and violated. Not all whites are bad people. But believe me, people who've gone bad are taking over our beautiful country. And that should not be happening.

  • Lc

    “My neighbor was brutally murdered. Why?" Perhaps it had to do with the fact that they had worked for honest pay and were then told they would not get paid. One of those, "Give me my money or I'll bash your head in" deals.

    "If black people are hungry, why don’t they just break in like in the old days, empty out the fridge and then leave?” Sounds like the things a starving person would do. If a person is given no opportunity to work for honest wages, not even enough to feed himself or his family, they may see your "Fridge-O-Plenty" as a slap in the face. You fill it on his sweat and blood, then refuse to even give him enough to eat? Yeah, those were the good ol days…..

  • Henri

    I quote a black journalist writing to Annlie Botes:

    On The Daily Maverick website, columnist Xhanti Payi published an open letter to Botes.

    In the letter, he said her comments had sparked interesting and necessary debate, inviting her to try and get to know black people.

    “I read that you were hesitant to express your views and sentiments even though they are genuine. That’s only natural, since you knew it would put you in disfavour. But I remind you, you were brave and patriotic. These will be very difficult times for you, but take heed in the words of Amilcar Cabral, 'Tell no lies, claim no easy victories',” wrote Payi.

    “All sorts of people will now attack you.

    “There will be the ever-arrogant and patronising white people who will publicly rebuke you, insisting that they have changed and no longer see any colour since we are all the same and equal. On the opposite end, will be the insecure black people who get hurt every time a white person speaks their mind.

    “Their feelings are not your responsibility. As Dr Phil in America would advise, they must own their feelings. You spoke your truth, they must take responsibility for their feeling. You don’t have to like them. It’s their problem that they want you to like them,” wrote Payi.

    http://www.iol.co.za/news/south-africa/writer-los…

  • http://ww.comebyyuh.wordpress.com Jamara Newell

    What does her racial view have to do with the quality of her art? If it was good enough to win the award it should retain it.

    • tulip

      all whites who dont like blacks must simply leave our country and go back to BOERELAND..if there is such a country…now she lost her award because of her racist remarks!

      • Thinus

        There is also a place further north called 'Kaffirland' where you hail from.