Elections in Zimbabwe

So prior to leaving the United States we planned our trip to Botswana, ending in Victoria Falls, which is just across the border in Zimbabwe. Of course, given how pitifully little information we receive in the United States about African politics, I didn't realize that we were to enter Zimbabwe on election day. And this is no ordinary election. Robert Mugabe has been in power since 1980--he started out as a revolutionary, someone who the people looked to with hope and admiration, but since then things have changed dramatically. Zimbabwe experiences some of the highest inflation in the world. A product at the store may cost more in the evening than it did in the morning. People are lining up to purchase gas. The stores have almost nothing on the shelves. When I was in Johannesburg, people estimated that one million Zimbabweans have fled the country into South Africa. I have watched a lot of South African coverage of this upcoming election, which many people have predicted will be rigged to allow Mugabe another term even though the country is suffering horribly under his rule. I heard rumors that 8 million ballots were printed for 6 million registered voters, that although international observers from several countries, including South Africa, were allowed in, that poll workers and police were "encouraging" people to say that they were blind and "needed assistance" voting.

So it is in this climate that we arrived at Victoria Falls on March 29th. We were told by some British tourists we had met in Botswana that going to the craft market would be difficult--the tactics used by the vendors there gave the term "hard sell" new meaning. But, after a day at Victoria Falls, which is admittedly unbelieveable, and a walk across the bridge into neighboring Zambia (where we saw a bunch of Australians bungee jumping into the gorge between the two countries...if someone asked one of these outfitters what they did for a living they'd say, "I get paid $90 a pop to push white people off a bridge, and they love it!"), we decided we needed to walk around town a bit and check out the market. Neither Inna nor I were prepared for the level of desperation we encountered--people chasing us down the street offering to unload carvings for nothing, and when we told them we didn't have any more money or couldn't purchase something, they said, "just please help me get something to eat", and then they started asking for our shoes...they wanted them in exchange for goods. But it wasn't just shoes, it was old t-shirts, even old socks. I have never been asked for the clothing off of my back. It was heartbreaking.

I was nervous to ask people about the elections, things had seemed so grim and I couldn't bear the thought of upsetting people by discussing it, but the day after the election, a man working at our hotel mentioned it so we took the opening...apparently, it looks like one of Mugabe's opponents, Morgan Tsvangirai, is winning. His party has taken many seats in the legislature, and according to word on the street he has won the election. Given what I have seen and the little I know, I hope and pray that they are right...this country deserves a chance. One young man said to me, "welcome to the new Zimbabwe!" It seems to me that if Mugabe has indeed lost, with all of the international attention, he will be forced to step down, and that will be another victory for African democracy.

Botswana

This morning we probably saw at least a hundred elephants, giraffes, a buffalo, hippos in the water, warthogs, dozens of beautiful birds, a crocodile eating a bird that it had caught, baboons, huge lizards, herds of various antelope...all in a stunningly beautiful setting along the Chobe river on the border of Botswana and Namibia. Yes, now I am a tourist, a vacationer, driving around in safari trucks with other tourists, capturing animals as fast as we can with the telephoto lens...but the experience is incredible. To sit and watch these animals, to have them watch you, it's unforgettable. We have visited three different areas of Northern Botswana, each with different vegetation, different ecosystems...from dryer bush to the Okavango Delta to the Chobe river...

The transition from the cultural exchange portion of my trip to the tourist part is strange, I admit. My interactions with Africans are now relegated to them providing me services because I've paid a lot of money...not really genuine. I now realize how unbelieveably lucky I was to have the experience I did. But I am also lucky to be able to see what I'm seeing, and glad to have some down time to prepare myself for going back to the US, which is happening a lot sooner than I would like. But I have so much to bring back with me...

White Girl in Soweto

Soweto is huge--2 to 3 million people huge...it's made up of many different communities, which range from big houses to squatter camps, sometimes side by side. I was fortunate to be able to visit with Mary and Sweetness, two colleagues from Themba, who drove me around many of the areas. I met Sweetness's grandmother, who lives in a tiny government built house, went to two of the new, glitzy malls, had braai on Friday afternoon amongst the cars pumping out house music, groups of guys drinking away their public holiday, and piles of meat and pap...for those of you who have never had pap, it's a maize and water concoction that is eaten with meat, sauce, just about everything...and is eaten with your hands. I have photographic evidence of my poor pap-eating skills. At the braai we met a young man who had already consumed a lot of beer and delivered what must have been the strangest pick-up line ever...he looked at all five of us and said, "I like how you ladies chew!" Yesterday evening I attended a church service/concert for good Friday, it was very musical and very participatory. Today I went to some of the famous sites in Soweto--the Hector Pietersen memorial museum, on the site where the Soweto student protests turned bloody. I will never understand what motivated the police to open fire on children...then we visited Nelson Mandela's house, which is tiny. He has long since moved to more comfortable digs.

It was a fitting close to my time here in Johannesburg to see Soweto, and to notice the stares that accompanied me everywhere I went...apparently it's not too often that a white person hangs out there. I am grateful to Sweetness and her family and Mary for hosting me and allowing me the opportunity...

Tomorrow we're off to Botswana, a country with arguably many more animals than people...a completely different experience, but one I'm very much looking forward to.

Last Day at Themba

My work with Themba is finished, at least for the time being...they seem very interested in having me back, which I would love. They now have a rough draft of a new play, and hopefully some new exercises and ideas...I certainly do.

We had a little party this afternoon to say goodbye to me and to their training manager, Thecla, who has to go back to her native Zimbabwe to start the work permit process all over again, her papers not having gone through...the situation there is very difficult, skyrocketing inflation and for many people, little hope for electoral change because, despite having two challengers, president Robert Mugabe will probably steal the elections in April.

At the party we did a closing exercise where Thecla and I sat in chairs, and each person at Themba came up to us one at a time and confidentially, in our ear, shared with us what they wanted to thank us for. It was a very moving way to end my time here...I received so many kind words about what people had learned, but also what people appreciated...one person said to me, "you know that in this country we have a legacy of apartheid, which was created and perpetuated by white people, but I want you to know that you are a white person who doesn't see us as black, you respect each and every one of us as people, you respect our beliefs and opinions without judging, and I thank you for that." I am definitely feeling a sense of sadness and loss--the opportunity I have had is so precious to me, and now I am no longer anchored to a community of people here...I have to hold what this trip has meant to me very close, so that I don't lose it when I return to the United States.

Some Great Pictures...that I didn't take

It has been challenging, with slow computers and slow internet, to get my photographs up on the web, much less on the blog. But my friend Whitney, who also attended the FITD in Ouagadougou, has sent me her picasa link--there are some really nice photos of the festival, of the workshop I taught, and Ouaga, and I was with her most of the time so they do capture my experience there...I will pass along my own album soon.

The link is: http://picasaweb.google.com/whitneyhuss

The Darker Side of Load-Shedding

Yesterday I got a large dose of Johannesburg-style chaos...and it all starts with load shedding. Load shedding is the term for alternating, scheduled power outages--at the end of apartheid, in 1994, only 30% of South Africans had electricity; now, 70% do, and the South African government did not adequately plan for this huge increase (they certainly had a lot of other things on their plate). So now parts of the city go dark...this has been exacerbated by several straight days of rain. Yesterday started out innocently enough--I attended a Themba performance at a local high school, which was very interesting because up until now I had only seen them perform at the jail. On the way back to the office in Eric's car, the traffic lights went out, and in the resulting standstill traffic his clutch started to burn out. We waited two hours for a tow truck, and were then driven to his house, since none of the taxi companies were answering their phones and I had no way to get home...

Since my first days in Johannesburg I have been repeatedly warned about one neighborhood: Hillbrow. It is a no-go zone...so yesterday evening, in our tow truck with Eric's car hitched to the back, we went straight through...Hillbrow. If I didn't know to be scared, I wouldn't have necessarily, because there is no way to tell that it's not safe, really, but I did know and I was scared. At 9:30, when I finally managed to track a cab down that would take me home, I instructed the driver to make sure to avoid a second trip through...the drive home was truly surreal. Johannesburg is deserted, every other block is pitch black, the days of rain making already drab settings even more so...it felt almost post-apocalpytic in some ways...as we turned down my street it was clear that the power was out in Melville as well, driving through a dark tunnel to my guest house and climbing into bed in a freezing room with no heat...I saw something different in this city last night, the flip side. There is much optimism here, but a not insignificant pessimism too...

I have only one full day left with Themba, which is sad...I will miss it here. Today I was interviewed by a staff member, what have I learned, what have I taken away about Africa? So much. I still have a trip to Soweto, a safari, and Cape Town ahead of me, but the transition from traveler to tourist will certainly be interesting...

Risk and Privilege

I've been thinking more about what leads people of privilege to take risks...in thinking about all of the major social movements...of course led by people who stood up against their oppressors, often in the face of great odds and at risk to their lives, but then there were also the people who could have done nothing but chose to stand beside...I think about the level of privilege I enjoy, and how I can use it to stand beside, even in some small way.

This morning I was waiting for the bus in the cold rain (of course we are having unseasonably cold weather here in Joburg...it's as if the SF winter rain followed me here), and an English woman who I'd seen on the bus one time before drove up in her car and offered me a ride. She is here on a journalism fellowship at Wits University, and as we made our way through horrible traffic, we spontaneously had a fascinating conversation about race, especially about her frustration with white South Africans who aren't holding themselves responsible to undo their racism--and then later this evening, another one over email with a friend from West Africa who expressed a frustration with the simplistic idea that white people are to blame for the challenges Africa faces...what am I saying? That it's complex, and fascinating, and that the most important thing is to engage fully in the dialogue...

Sharp, Sharp and Sophiatown

...one of the other South African phrases that took a little while to get used to is "sharp" or "sharp, sharp". The former, I think, means, "okay, good", while the latter means "see you later"...

So, sharp--today I went to Sophiatown...before Apartheid, this was an area that was known for being very racially diverse--sometimes it's called the "Harlem of South Africa" because many artists and musicians lived here. In the late 50's, I think, around the time of the Group Areas Act, the Apartheid government decided that such an integrated community wasn't acceptable so they moved all of the black, coloured, and indian residents, basically all non-whites, and tore it down to create a white neighborhooed. But the church that I went to has been around since the 1930's--the pastor was a major ally of the ANC and the anti-apartheid movement. There are pictures of him all over the place...I went because my colleague at Themba, Tshepo, runs a weekly drama group with some youth there, and today I was the guest artist. We first watched a concert, which, interestingly enough, was a cultural exchange with the Sophiatown choir and a quarter from St. Petersburg, Russia. So there was a big African choir and then four Russian guys--both were very good, but what an interesting combination.

Then I worked with the youth--we created a short play about teen pregnancy...they have been working with Tshepo for a while now, and it shows--they had some good solid skills, and were just like teenagers in the US, just a different accent. Different, but the same.

This coming week is my last with Themba--the time is too short...I can't believe that I've been in Africa for four weeks already. But I think I've learned and accomplished a lot.

Back to Prison

I paid a second visit to the Johannesburg Correctional Center today...this time the team had to perform outside on the edge of the soccer field, and the audience members kept interrupting the play with urgent questions like, "what's the risk for HIV with anal sex?" The actors politely asked them to hold questions until the end. Next week I have a chance to see them perform at a school, which will be very different. After the play, I accompanied two actor/educators who held a session with a group of inmates who they have trained as HIV/AIDS peer educators. We did some image theater together in a bare, musty smelling cement room with a few old pieces of weightlifting equipment and a sad ping pong table in the corner. Nonetheless, everyone participated and afterwards a few men told me how they are forming a theater group inside to create their own plays, and want to continue working when they are released. Everyone keeps asking me if I'm scared to be at the prison, but I'm still not...the facilities are much more run down than SF County, that's for sure, but otherwise, it's the same game.

I have now taken the minibus taxi home a number of times now and can honestly say that I could probably figure it out on my own, although it's much better to go with my chaperone, Tsepho. I am always the only white person in the taxi, with a strange accent no less, so it causes some curious sideways glances. But I've figured out when I need to get out, when I need to announce that I need to get out..."after robots". The strangest South African lingo thus far--they call traffic lights robots. Makes no sense.

The Rainbow of Desire...

This week we have continued our work on the play about gay and lesbian issues...one of the central scenes is about a teacher who can't be out at work and the struggle he faces when a student who is questioning confides in him. This plot line speaks to me, for obvious reasons. I also taught a TO workshop focusing on Rainbow of Desire...we worked on two women's stories about the challenges they face with their families' expectations...also a deep and universal theme. I am also learning more about the dynamics of the lesbian community here through talking to the women at Themba, and am reading a book about lesbians throughout Africa. Needless to say, life is very hard for them--the governments say it's unAfrican and a western import, and the church (itself a western import) says it's wrong in God's eyes. They can't win. But there is a community here and I'm glad to have a connection to it.

Weekend in South Africa

Yesterday I spent the day with Eric, the Managing Director of Themba, and his partner--we went out to Magaliesburg, an area of beautiful flat-topped mountains, rolling fields, rivers. The countryside of South Africa is stunning and diverse--I hope to see more of it. We were driving along and I was thinking that the scenery reminded me a bit of Northern CA, and then a huge baboon came out of the bushes on the side of the road, and we passed an antelope crossing sign...no, I'm definitely in Africa. This area is also called the "cradle of humankind", because human life essentially began here. We all come from these hills in one way or another...back in Joburg, Eric lent me a number of books, including one that presents an analysis of why South Africa is so violent...I have almost finished reading it. I'm fascinated, given that the US has its share of problems with violence. Of course, it's extremely complex. I remember the first day at Themba when I told some staff members that the US locks up more people than any other country...they were surprised. Most people are...the author of this book refuses to pin violence to poverty, rather he ties it to inequity, along with the legacy of racism, the tearing apart of the fabric of family and community, etc, etc. Sound familiar?

Today I visited the Apartheid Museum--definitely a worthwhile trip...also an extremely complex situation--just as the Holocaust didn't arise in a vacuum, neither did Apartheid (this is not to compare two very different things, but to consider the historical and cultural contexts surrounding two horrible things that happened during the 20th Century). And the dynamics between the English and the Afrikaners, the ratcheting up of increasingly oppressive laws when the existing laws didn't achieve the Apartheid government's goals, and the numerous resistance groups, including many multi-ethnic movements...on my way home in a taxi the driver told me that he grew up in Soweto, and stopped going to school in 1976. The year that the student protests happened--so I asked him if that was why...I have been told by multiple people that it is okay to ask such questions, that people want to talk about it, that it's important for them to share with the rest of the world so that we all understand. He replied that he had to leap over a six foot fence to keep from being shot by the police. And there you have it. It is so recent, everywhere you go there are people who have lived it.

A new play for Themba

Yesterday I we started work on a new play about homophobia. We did a lot of work discussing issues related to homophobia, exploring our own personal beliefs, and creating characters that represent diverse points of view around the issues...what was remarkable to me was that the issues here are not that different. It boils down to cultural beliefs and how people view culture...does it stay the same or does it evolve? The artists at Themba are extremely open to deep discussion about this subject, and several identify as LGBT, thus breaking the stereotype that many people hold that being gay is "a European white thing". I am so excited to be part of this process from the beginning...also had lunch with a Themba board member and learned more about the organization's history and values. It really is a model in many ways--I have much to learn from them about structures as well as content.

Today I am taking a tour of areas around Joburg, thus having a chance to see the countryside which looks so beautiful on TV, but I haven't had seen it in person...

Making Theatre

I have just finished two days of workshops with the Themba team...it seems like they got a lot out of it. They are on the whole very strong actors and have a lot of good ideas, so it truly feels like an exchange, a group of colleagues working together...and most of them are quite a bit younger than me, it's very impressive. My creative wheels are spinning and the dialogue is getting deeper and richer...I already have many ideas for the work I want to do when I return to the US. And tomorrow I begin working with them to develop a brand new play about homophobia and HIV/AIDS. I am excited and honored to be here at the beginning of the process and will be even more excited when they finish and begin performing this play and I'll know that I was part of it. I also realize that every second here I have the privilege and opportunity to immerse myself in theatre, nothing but, nothing else, no other day to day things to worry about. It's truly a gift.

Speaking and Singing

Some more random notes from Joburg...first of all, this is a multilingual city. Everyone here speaks at least two languages. Signs are printed in English and Afrikaans, the two white languages, but the Africans switch between Zulu, Sesotho, Xhosa, sometimes Venda, often in the same sentence. At the jail yesterday the Themba actors and facilitators took responses to their questions and interventions for their play in at least four languages. It's incredible...of course English is the main language, but the facility with which people move between the others is amazing to me. I feel proud to at least be ahead of the American curve with two and a half languages...

The other thing that strikes me about Joburg is the birds. Sometimes it's easy to forget that I'm in Africa...Joburg generally looks like your average run down, fading middle american city, it's just bigger, but then you turn a corner and there are the birds...the kind you'd think to see on a safari, brightly colored or with curved, spooned beaks, pecking at the grass in front of the university, or the weaver birds that have made their teardrop shaped nests in the trees at my guest house. Previous to this I've only seen them in National Geographic and now here they are literally in my back yard.

I taught my first workshop at Themba today--they are a smart group and we got into sophisticated work very quickly...I used some exercises I learned from FoolsFury and Michael Rohd, thanks to you both! All of this to prove that theater artists are connected in a web, across the globe...

Tsotsis and Share taxis...and a new handshake

On my second day at Themba I went with them to the Johannesburg correctional facility, e.g. jail--they kept asking me if I was okay and not freaked out and I reminded them that I'd been in jails in the US already and that we are the premier nation of incarceration...Themba performed their play in two units, and it was very well received. The men asked lots of questions and intervened in the play. They are just like the men I meet in SF County Jail, honestly, we just have spiffier facilities in San Francisco. I have already been invited to dinner by Themba's board and to Soweto this weekend with several women on staff who live there...they have been so very nice to me, as has everyone in Africa, again and again. This afternoon I experienced my first combi ride, along with Tsepho from Themba--there is no way I would have done it alone...combis are beat up minibusses with no markings as to their route and they leave when packed with people. People get on and off when they want. A true African experience. Tomorrow I teach a workshop, and am hoping that I'll be able to share something valuable...

Themba

So I started my work with Themba today and feel so much better. It's really a great organization--they have created a number of interactive plays based on forum theater techniques, psychodrama, sociodrama, etc about HIV issues that they perform in schools and correctional centers (e.g. jails). I'm going to a jail tomorrow with them to see them perform...I watched a rehearsal today and was so impressed by how they integrate the interactive components and different theatrical styles and reflection and dialogue. And I am excited in turn to support them in using more TO techniques, more gestural work, etc. They also provide interactive training to companies and community based orgs, so I'll go with them to some trainings and provide feedback. Their structure seems really solid--they hire youth as peer educators and then promote them up through the ranks and into managerial positions. The organization was founded by two British women who have now stepped out, and it is run by South Africans, although it receives funding from a lot of Europeans sources, including the Elton John AIDS Foundation...there is a pic of him on the wall with the Themba team...I am also going to work with them on developing a play specifically addressing homophobia, which will be very interesting. I have already had some discussions about this with various folks there--there is much more openness here than in West Africa, but still lots of prejudice...we'll see how that develops. My favorite moment today was sitting in on a training staff meeting where they were discussing program logistics and had a lengthy conversation about how to ensure that they had enough penises to keep at the office and then take to their sites...I mean practice penises to demonstrate proper condom use but they kept saying, "well there's a box of penises in the closet", "but are there enough penises to take to the center tomorrow?" "I think we need to go out and get a few more penises"...but the thing is you have to be completely frank about sex to teach people about safe practices and thus lower the rate of infection here, it's imperative. So tomorrow me, a team of actors, and some penises will be going into the jail. Wish me luck!

Culture Shock

So I expected this to happen when I returned to the States, not when I arrived here. I am realizing that I understand so little of what happened here...centuries of work to create a European mini-state here in Africa. I am trying so hard to reserve judgement and I know that things will change when I begin my work with Themba tomorrow, so I will restrain myself, but my first impression is not great. The place I'm staying in is very nice, though, and I'm finally starting to eat and sleep normally despite being told some horror stories by a drunken Afrikaaner last night about tsotsis breaking into people's houses....buildings here are encircled by high walls, razor wire. I know that some people find this analysis simplistic, but when you feel the need to build walls between people there is a great injustice happening. I spent much of my time at the Accra airport reading a memoir written by a black South African who grew up in a township near Joburg; I thought I knew about the realities of apartheid but I was too young I think to grasp it as fully as I can now. It's horrifying, and it will take years and years to undo, because it is the belief system that will take the longest to dismantle. And then who am I to say, coming from the United States--we didn't take over the land from Africans but we brought them here as property as we took the land from the people living here. Not much better. Last night someone told me that I should visit the Apartheid museum because he said, quite sarcastically, "you know we're all bad, bad people, and the only way that our image will improve is if we put up monuments to show how bad we were and how sorry we are." I was disgusted but kept quiet because I need to know more before I speak up.

So there you have it. Much, much more to come.