'SWART GAVAAR'
Swart Gevaar (Black danger) was a term used during apartheid in South Africa to refer to the perceived security threat of the majority black
population to the white South African government. This fear has since then manifested itself in many suburban white South African homes. It has
become the norm to live with guns, armed and secure at all times. Within the context of random violent crime, in response to high inequality, the
historic fear; breeds a fresh state of paranoia in a generation that has grown up under the post-apartheid government: a fear of the intruder,
essentially the fear of black people. The fear is constantly being exasperated by the ongoing narrative generated by right wing Afrikaners through social media of a genocide where white farmers are being killed everyday in apparent racially motivated attacks. The fear is of an intruder, of being harmed or killed, the fear is of losing their identity, but often within these white Afrikaner suburbs the fear is also a racial fear, a White Fear.
population to the white South African government. This fear has since then manifested itself in many suburban white South African homes. It has
become the norm to live with guns, armed and secure at all times. Within the context of random violent crime, in response to high inequality, the
historic fear; breeds a fresh state of paranoia in a generation that has grown up under the post-apartheid government: a fear of the intruder,
essentially the fear of black people. The fear is constantly being exasperated by the ongoing narrative generated by right wing Afrikaners through social media of a genocide where white farmers are being killed everyday in apparent racially motivated attacks. The fear is of an intruder, of being harmed or killed, the fear is of losing their identity, but often within these white Afrikaner suburbs the fear is also a racial fear, a White Fear.
JACQUES NELLES - PHOTOJOURNALIST
THE CITIZEN NEWS
