White Africans

Historically, it has meant wealth, access to land, plenitude of servants, hard work, belief in the superiority of Europe and Christianity and capitalism. It has meant adventure, struggle, disease, fear, heat, sun, blue skies. It has meant being a minority, but often, as part of a ruling class.

For some today, it means baggage: history defining them as racists, insisting that they're racists, even if they aren't.

For some, it means baggage: being racists in a world increasingly opposed to it. Defending racism when nobody wants to hear it.

For some, it means fear: "What will 'they' do to us if 'they' have the chance?"

For some, it means defiance: "I will stay and I will succeed, no matter what may come."

For some, it has meant a constant move south: moving or fleeing from Kenya, the Congo, Zambia to Rhodesia; leaving Rhodesia for South Africa when Rhodesia became Zimbabwe. And then -- leaving South Africa in 1994 when Mandela won the first democratic election and became President.

For some, it has meant real sorrow as they come to grips with how their ancestors treated the continent they love -- and how they themselves have treated the continent they love.

For some, it has meant denial, and excuses.

For some, it has meant integration, leaving European culture behind, becoming something new.

For some, it has simply been a way of life, where they were born, how they were raised, where they want to stay, what they love, and who they know.

Living in Africa today -- for white and black -- means facing the reality of poverty, that wealth is unevenly distributed around the world today, that the West controls not simply the keys to economic power but lives inside the house which those keys open.

Living in Africa today means facing epidemic on a scale unknown here in the West.

Living in Africa today means facing the fact that there are still basic questions about human rights that are unanswered and maybe unanswerable.

Yet poverty, epidemic, and human rights issues are only one aspect of Africa. It is a continent vibrant with life and music and people who love, people who welcome the world to its doorstep. It is a continent filled with dignity, men and women who walk as though they have royal blood. Africans have resilient spirits. And this is as true for the white African as the black African.

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