Apartheid: Abolished on Paper but Seen Today

On April 27, 1994, the apartheid system of South Africa officially came to an end. However, its infamy still lingers and affects modern South Africa, as apartheid is one of the key factors in the country’s shockingly high rate of unemployment.

Over the last 10 years, South Africa’s unemployment rate has risen by an astonishing 4.6% ("South Africa: Unemployment”). It is the biggest modern unemployment crisis in the world - a crisis that started in the 1970s with apartheid policies that restricted people of color from education and jobs and continues today (Hyman).

South African natives were viewed as intellectually inferior during apartheid. As a result, their school system was significantly under-resourced compared to the system for white people, which was free and compulsory. Vimal Ranchhod, the Chief Research Officer at the University of Cape Town’s Southern Africa Labour and Development Research Unit, mentions how this lack of proper education, which still takes place today, leaves natives unable to acquire jobs that require skill and high levels of knowledge, both of which the modern world and economy are in increasing demand for (Ranchhod).

Apartheid also greatly restricted where black people could live to mostly rural areas that were far from cities. According to Juliette Alenda-Demoutiez, a postdoctoral researcher at the University of Amsterdam’s Department of Political Science, there are no job opportunities in those areas, and thus, people have to travel long distances, using all of their savings for things like train tickets in hopes of getting a job (Alenda-Demoutiez). However, a lack of money forces many to make the choice between the search for a job and basic necessities, such as food. As it is human nature to put survival above all else, the majority of people in these areas are unable to take a chance to better their lives ("South Africa: The Cost”).

Though there has recently been an increase in attention towards this issue worldwide, not much has been done to help South Africa’s deteriorating economy. A high-quality education system, made accessible to everyone, must be put in place so that people have the tools necessary to get jobs. Poverty, which limits human development, must be addressed, and a dynamic, innovative economy where people are appropriately rewarded for taking risks is necessary (Ranchhod). By doing this, South Africa, and the world as a whole, will get closer to escaping from the ubitiquous legacy of racism and apartheid.



Works Cited

Alenda-Demoutiez, Juliette, and Daniel Mügge. “The Lure of Ill-Fitting Unemployment
Statistics: How South Africa's Discouraged Work Seekers Disappeared From the Unemployment Rate.” Taylor & Francis. 14 May 2019. www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/13563467.2019.1613355.
Hyman, Aron. “SA Faced with 'Politically Unpopular Decisions' to Boost Employment.”
TimesLIVE. TimesLIVE. 6 Mar. 2020. www.timeslive.co.za/news/south-africa/2020-03-06-sa-faced-with-politically-unpopular-decisions-to-boost-employment/.

Ranchhod, Vimal. “GroundUp: Why Is South Africa's Unemployment Rate so High?” 

Daily Maverick. 14 Feb. 2019. www.dailymaverick.co.za/article/2019-02-14-why-is-south-africas-unemployment-rate-so-high/.

"South Africa: The Cost of Looking for a Job." allAfrica.com. 24 Feb. 2020, p. NA. Gale 

In Context: Global Issues. https://link.gale.com/apps/doc/A615013810/GIC?u=los42754&sid=GIC&xid=e0f65a75.

"South Africa: Unemployment Rises to 29.1 Percent in Third Quarter." allAfrica.com. 29 

Oct. 2019. p. NA. Gale In Context: Global Issues. https://link.gale.com/apps/doc/A604101384/GIC?u=los42754&sid=GIC&xid=bf8bb53b.

The Tragic Symbol of the Buffalo

For our symbol, we chose the buffalo as the symbol that represents the victims of the revolution.
Four Eyes drinking the buffalo's blood represents how Mao does not lose his hold over the victims over the Cultural Revolution.

“The buffalo was still alive. I will never forget how affected I was by its long drawn-out, plaintive bellows. Under normal circumstances, the bellow of a buffalo is disagreeably harsh, but on this calm late summer’s day the sound echoing through the rocky mountains was imposing and sonorous, like the roaring of a lion in a cage” (93).

“‘They’re waiting for the blood to congeal,’ he replied. ‘It’s a remedy against cowardice. To gain courage, you must swallow it when it's still lukewarm and frothy’” (94).

This situation a metaphor for how the communist system is abused. Preventing cowardice is not what we think it means. It’s not about being brave and doing what’s right in this situation. Drinking blood is a dirty thing, but Four-Eyes does it anyways in order to keep control and appear brave to the people. He’s using the buffalo as an example, in the way Mao uses intellectuals as an example for other people to not go against him.


The buffalo is used to represent China during the reign of Mao. When Four-Eyes had been working in a paddy field, the buffalo that he had used swung his tail and knocked Four-Eyes’s glasses off of his face, which enrages him. Later, when Four-Eyes gets a job in the city and is going to leave the re-education program, his mother has the village slaughter a buffalo. The buffalo chosen is the one that had hit Four-Eyes. Here, Four-Eyes represents the Chinese government during the Cultural Revolution, while the buffalo represents the oppressed citizens of China. First, killing animals in such a manner is illegal, yet it is done anyway on Four-Eyes’ behalf, as he is somehow the exception to the rule. This is exactly what Mao did: he created rules for the people of China but didn’t follow them himself. He killed the spirit and freedom of past culture, essentially killing the people. Further, the buffalo is chosen because Four-Eyes felt attacked by it. In killing the buffalo, they make it look like an accident, which causes the buffalo to feel immense suffering. After the buffalo has died, Four-Eyes drinks its blood as a way of proving his courage. This is symbolic of Mao defeating his enemies cruelly and using them as a pedestal to raise his image in front of the people—a method of maintaining power and control; however, the narrator also describes the buffalo’s screams as similar to a lion, implying that it is the people who are courageous, not Mao.