Recalling a young life under apartheid

Tshepo Masango is an African-American freshman from Atlanta. She returned to live in her parents' native South Africa when she was two years old. She was forced to flee the country and the apartheid government without her parents when she was six. She recently sat down with 'Prince' senior writer Daniel Stephens '02.

'Prince': What age did you come to South Africa?

Masango: I was born in Atlanta, Georgia, when my parents were studying there. But I moved back to South Africa when I was two, and I moved to Soweto, which is a southwestern township adjacent to Johannesburg. That's where most of the riots and the uprising against apartheid began and continued throughout the struggle against apartheid.

P: How long were you there?

M: I was there until I was six when I fled the country. My parents were both politically active. My dad was in, I think it was the Black Conscious Student Movement, which Steve Biko, a close friend of his, was a big part of, and he was very connected to many of the leaders.

P: Were you ever in serious danger?

M: Our house was bombed several times, and we always had police around. Our phones were tapped, our mail was opened — all that kind of stuff was done continually throughout my parents' stay in South Africa. I guess my dad and my mom were both on the black list, which is a hit list, on which the government had set out who they were planning to kill and to detain. My dad was detained and put in one of the prisons in Johannesburg. Since I'm an American citizen, I was entitled to all the privileges and rights of white South Africans. It was empowering for my parents' struggle because they were able to see the discrimination.

P: Where did you attend school?

M: I went to a multi-racial school because it wasn't government owned — it was affiliated with the Episcopal Church. I was one of the first children to integrate that school, and upon integration there were bombings at our school. During the '80s, when things got really, really heated, I had to live in a black township because my parents were South African. As you left the townships, there were always road blocks to delay children from going to school. Once, there was a road block, and a member of the army took my M&Ms. I got really angry, and since I'd heard a lot about politics at the dinner table at my house, I started telling him that apartheid should be abolished. So eventually, I just asked to go to the head guy. I was five, almost six. I told him how I felt and eventually they took my name. I don't think I gave it to them, but they found out my name, and they made the connection between my father's name and my mom's name. And they realized we were on the hit list. There's a group of young, black South African teenagers who knew the inner workings of government. So they notified my parents, and I left the country the next day.

P: Did you leave with your parents?

M: No, I went to Atlanta to stay with a Presbyterian family there. . . I stayed in Atlanta for a year without my parents, and then my dad came [back] to do his Ph.D. later on.

P: What was life like in the townships?

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M: I remember huge army tanks just rolling through the streets, with teenagers — they're young guys in the army — and I also remember a lot of black teenagers throwing stones at the army tanks. At one point they threw tear gas. Our house was the corner house, and a school was nearby. So when they were shooting at the school, all the children came to our house. So our house was a real target. Electricity was cut off. Water would be cut off. And we wouldn't have it for days.

P: Were you afraid?

M: No, I really wasn't, and I really don't think that many of the people were. In the townships and South Africa . . . people are very hopeful and optimistic. There was just always a sense of happiness in the people and in what they had, and that goes for today also. Despite the new government and the turnover, there hasn't been much economic improvement. I still go back to my house in the Soweto, and it's the same. We moved out of the township, which a few black South Africans have been able to do — mainly those who were exiled, those who left the country — because you were not able to purchase property if you were black in a white area. There is one incident I remember where there was a lot of violence, which I think has shaped my interest of studies and my perspective in life. My neighbor who was across the street — about three years old, three or four — was playing in her yard as the army was coming through, and they shot her just hundreds of times. Her brain was splattered across the entire yard. It was just a horrific event. So, I think that was a major turning point in my understanding of what was happening.