Recently I had the privilege of attending the first Community Meeting for Colored Upliftment in Matatiele, Eastern Cape. Present were two guest speakers, one was well known educator and activist in the Eastern Cape and the other a representative of the Royal House of Khoisan. As they waxed lyrical about blood lines, Khoisan history and land claims, it became abundantly clear to me that they had a distinct agenda; the advancement of the interests of the house of Khoisan.
This was not a problem except that in both subtle and obvious ways they seemed to be saying that being colored was synonymous with being a Khoisan and that unless you pledged allegiance to the Royal house of Khoisan you were not really colored and would never be taken seriously on a parlimental or political level because apart from Khoisan affiliation there really is no such thing as colored. Needless to say my alarm bells went off because to question my colored identity is tantamount to a slap in the face in my book and you just don't slap a colored if you know what's good for you. So I proceeded to whip out my intellectual Okapi and stab a question at them. "So what you're saying is that unless either claim we're Khoisan and prove we're Khoisan have no future as coloreds? Where does that leave all of us who have no Khoisan blood but are of mixed decent and inherently South African?" Well, they did what everyone does when confronted by a colored with an Okapi, they ran; intellectually that is.
Which causes me to question their true identity because we all know a real colored never runs from a fight. Anyway, does anyone have any light to shed on this Khoisan/Colored debacle, and yes Charles as always we're back to the question of Colored identity my friend.
By:
First name: Ben
Last name: Johnson Jr.