第一部分 Part I
The genius of apartheid was convincing people who were the overwhelming majority to turn on each other. Apart hate, is what it was. You separate people into groups and make them hate one another so you can run them all.
种族隔离制度的天才之处在于,它能说服绝大多数人相互敌对。用隔离制造仇恨,整件事就是这么简单。你把人分成不同的群组,让他们相互仇恨,这样你就可以控制他们全部人。
At the time, black South Africans outnumbered white South Africans nearly five to one, yet we were divided into different tribes with different languages: Zulu, Xhosa, Tswana, Sotho, Venda, Ndebele, Tsonga, Pedi, and more. Long before apartheid existed these tribal factions clashed and warred with one another. Then white rule used that animosity to divide and conquer. All nonwhites were systematically classified into various groups and subgroups. Then these groups were given differing levels of rights and privileges in order to keep them at odds.
那个时候,南非黑人的数量比南非白人的数量多得多,比例约为五比一。但是南非黑人底下又被分割成了不同的部落,说着不同的语言:祖鲁语、科萨语、茨瓦纳语、梭托语、文达语、恩德贝勒语、聪加语、佩迪语,还有其他。早在种族隔离出现之前,这些部落派系之间已然是冲突不断,彼此斗个不停。白人来了之后,进一步利用派系之间的仇恨将整个黑人群体分而治之,各个击破。所有非白人的人,都被系统划分为不同的群组和次群组。然后,不同群组之间又被给予了不同程度的权利和特权,这样能让他们继续冲突不断。
Perhaps the starkest of these divisions was between South Africa’s two dominant groups, the Zulu and the Xhosa. The Zulu man is known as the warrior. He is proud. He puts his head down and fights. When the colonial armies invaded, the Zulu charged into battle with nothing but spears and shields against men with guns. The Zulu were slaughtered by the thousands, but they never stopped fighting. The Xhosa, on the other hand, pride themselves on being the thinkers. My mother is Xhosa. Nelson Mandela was Xhosa. The Xhosa waged a long war against the white man as well, but after experiencing the futility of battle against a better-armed foe, many Xhosa chiefs took a more nimble approach. “These white people are here whether we like it or not,” they said. “Let’s see what tools they possess that can be useful to us. Instead of being resistant to English, let’s learn English. We’ll understand what the white man is saying, and we can force him to negotiate with us.”
也许最明显的裂隙存在于南非两大主要的部落之间,祖鲁和科萨。祖鲁人是公认的战士。他们很骄傲,会拼尽全力去战斗。当殖民者的军队入侵时,祖鲁人拿着长矛与盾牌就冲上了战场,和对面拿着枪支弹药的敌人血拼。上千名祖鲁人死在了战场上,但是他们从未停止过战斗。和祖鲁人截然不同的是,科萨人一直以头脑灵活而自豪。我的母亲是科萨人。纳尔逊·曼德拉也是科萨人。科萨人也与白人进行了漫长的战争,但是在对手武器装备遥遥领先的情况下,科萨人感受到了武力战争的徒劳,于是一些科萨首领采取了一种更机智的手段。“不论我们喜不喜欢,这些白人都已经在这儿了,”他们说,“我们来看看他们都有什么长处是我们可以用得上的。与其抵抗他们的语言,不如我们来学学英语。这样我们就能明白他们在说什么,然后迫使他们与我们谈判。”
The Zulu went to war with the white man. The Xhosa played chess with the white man. For a long time neither was particularly successful, and each blamed the other for a problem neither had created. Bitterness festered. For decades those feelings were held in check by a common enemy. Then apartheid fell, Mandela walked free, and black South Africa went to war with itself.
祖鲁人和白人打仗,科萨人则和白人下棋。在很长一段时间内,这两个派系都没有取得显著的成功,而且还把并非双方制造出来的这个问题拐到了对方头上。仇恨不断深化。在种族隔离的几十年中,因为有着共同的敌人,这种仇恨被抑制了。但当种族隔离结束,曼德拉被释放后,南非的黑人世界内部重新开始了一场旷日持久的战争。
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