The Unwanted House Guest: Imposition on Natives Throughout History

Those native to South Africa were called barbaric savages when the British began their trek through the region. South Africans citizenship was taken away, just as those native to America. The British moved those of South Africa. The black South Africans were treated especially bad. The educational and medical systems were all segregated. The South Africans had to have identification at all times or else they would be arrested. The “prisons” in which they were put in were more like torture tanks. They were also restricted from voting.

The South Africans were forced into hard labor for the British. They were restricted from their original homeland and left to all be squeezed into residing in an unfruitful piece of land in shacks.From the 1960s to the early 1980s over 3 1/2 million people were forced to resettle from their already forced living arrangements. The British were entitled to anything they felt “necessary”, they after all made the laws. The white and black Africans were prohibited from marrying each other as well as any British person. They were not allowed to own businesses unless they were a white African and even then they had to have a permit. The only allowance of the two groups being around each other was when the black Africans worked for the white people. The apartheid movement finally ended after 46 years when Nelson Mandela was elected president in 1994.

The Aborigines are an Australian race and one that I cannot help but be fascinated by. Their race are well known for their traditions of song,dance, and art. They too were infringed upon their own land and customs. The English came upon them feeling that they were savage and were very racist against them. As a result their rights were limited.They created a number of concentration camps and took many children from their families in hopes of integrating them into eventually killing out the aborigines race. The English were convinced of their role in creating the extinction of the race. The Aborigines only make up 1% of the Australian population now.

The American Indians were once friends with the Puritan colonists, however their friendship ended with their race too being imposed on. They too were considered savages. They were moved on the Trail of Tears where more than 4000 died. They were then moved even further and confined to reservations. They now only make up 2% of the population. Can you imagine going from roaming around the country to being the least percent of the population?

Their are multiple similarities between these very different races and the events that took place on these very different continents. Why is it that generation after generation and time after time their has been the feeling of entitlement to what is not ours? Hitler felt that the Jews should be exterminated just as the English felt the Aborigines should. The English also felt entitled to controlling the American Indian’s land and actions, just as the British felt about South Africa.These people were the immigrants.They are like those annoying house guests(like mother in laws) who feel that they know what is best and that your way of life is not as good as theirs . They’re like those house guests who want to criticize your house and rearrange your furniture. Unlike us who can just kick out our house guests or change our furniture back to it’s original place, these people were permanently stuck with the effects of these invaders. Their populations died out, as did a lot of their culture. These events happen all over the world throughout the times of our planet-from the big impositions shifting cultures and lives, to the siblings who felt entitled to enter your room and read your diary. It leads us to the question-are we beings embedded with the personal ambitions that affect our compassion for others? Our goals are shifted by hate, greed, hope, and money-all that lead us to the overbearance of being the unwanted house guest.

Image via Wikipedia

Related Reading:

http://www.socyberty.com/Ethnicity/The-Forgotten-Race.864855