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.