experiences, as a black female who went to a predominantly white private school and an educational system such as the University of Cape Town, I have personally dealt with the feeling of suffocation and questioning around my race. In school, through the system, we are taught to act and identify like white people, knowing very well that how both races lead very different lifestyles culturally. Suffocating in the sense that, culturally speaking, we as black bodies had to compromise our culture and traditions to fit the western culture, and would get ridiculed or punished, for example wearing an afro would be deemed punishable according to my school’s hair policy, for being expressive about who we were authentically. As mentioned before, the choice …show more content…
During the Apartheid era, black people were oppressed by the white people and the system, leaving many black people to suffer under the system and live in very uncomfortable conditions. Opportunities and certain privileges were stripped away from a black individual, proving to make the space that they may occupy, very limited and constricted for the black society. Now, post-apartheid, although there are more opportunities and privileges being proved to the black community 23 years after democracy, racism and the undermining nature of the capabilities of the black body is still alive and a constant factor in the everyday livelihood of the black individual. Although democracy has grown over the years, many black people are still dealing and finding a way to live in uncomfortable conditions. Although democracy changed, the black community still live in a country where who they are is not accepted and acknowledged as much as they rightfully deserve to be. As black human beings, we are still facing human degradation, and relating this back to my performance piece, I wanted to display this sentiment through the