Jerm Warfare

Former South African prime minister Hendrik Verwoerd was ahead of this time and deliberately misrepresented in the mainstream. His own stated vision wasn't 'Whites on top, Blacks on the bottom'; it was actually separate nations, each with their own territory, parliament, and self-rule, eventually meeting as equals and trading partners. This is a hard sell because South Africans have been propagandised for decades. But the truth is still the truth, no matter how offensive. Verwoerd explicitly rejected the term 'apartheid'. He thought it was morally indefensible and also strategically doomed. He argued that South Africa isn't one nation, and that it's many nations, and each of those nations deserves its own self-determination, just like any other people on earth. He said the following: 'There cannot be domination by Whites over Blacks where there are two neighbouring states, the White state and the Black state. The eventual outcome of this policy will be no discrimination and no domination. Each group will look after its own interests. Discrimination must be eliminated by carrying separation far enough.' His argument was that the only way to get rid of racial domination was to split the country, and that integration wouldn't solve the problem of domination; it would just decide who gets to dominate. In January 1962, Verwoerd announced a plan to grant independence to the Transkei. It would get its own Parliament, its own Cabinet, its own citizenship, and control over agriculture, education, health, social services and roads. Self-government was formally granted in 1963. He was assassinated (which is a topic on its own) in 1966 before the full vision could unfold, and his vision was then corrupted by those who took over from him Journalist Daniel Gross has pointed out that pinning everything on Verwoerd as the 'Architect of Apartheid' is 'too convenient'. The architects were actually Britain, going back to Rhodes in 1894 with the Glen Grey Act, then the British Parliament with the South Africa Act (1909), then Louis Botha with both the Mines and Works Act (1911) and the Natives Land Act (1913), all decades before Verwoerd. Looking at South Africa today, was Verwoerd misguided?