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.
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