I came to South Africa for the first time – my first time anywhere in Africa, anywhere in the Southern Hemisphere, any place in the world besides my high school that was less than a quarter white – in June, 2004. I was a junior in high school then, anxious to get out and see the world beyond American borders. I wanted to see the world at the threshold of change, where the old was giving way to the new, where no single culture, race, or institution could claim a monopoly on the minds of the people there. I wanted to go to a place that understood the marching pace of history and was anxious to march along with it. I got my wish.
For four weeks I shared a one-room flat outside of Cape Town with a man who I only met three days after my arrival. In that time, I worked at a newspaper in Cape Town, spoke with anyone who would talk with me, and explored the city on my own.
Cape Town in that time was alive with energy. 2004 had marked the tenth anniversary of the end of Apartheid, and Nelson Mandela’s most trusted man during the struggle, President Thabo Mbeki, had just been reelected in a landslide victory. Together, the stories were a much talked about subject among media outlets on around the world. On the streets of the City Center, citizens and foreigners engaged in an ongoing, soul-searching public discourse about the country during Apartheid, the country since, and the future from that point on.
Coming back in January, 2008, I found that while the self-congratulatory celebrations had long subsided, that discourse was still going on. Currently, South Africans are experiencing a growing disillusionment with the once heroic African National Congress which, under the leadership of Nelson Mandela, brought the nation to freedom in 1994. After fourteen years of rule, the party is increasingly seen as repressing its rivals at home and cozying up to foreign super powers abroad while ignoring its stated mission putting the South African people first and foremost. Promises made upon the party’s ushering into power, from housing to education to land distribution, remain largely unfulfilled.
As the government fails, some have even questioned out loud if things were really any worse under Apartheid as numerous serious problems have arisen directly out of the institution’s demise. Crime, especially – the single greatest concern for most South Africans – has spread out of the townships and into the cities, bestowing the country the single highest violent crime rate of any state not at war. Unemployment remains high as well, even among non-black college graduates who leave the country in droves, unable to find work at home because affirmative action programs initiated by the ANC to correct Apartheid’s legacy of racial imbalance have shut them out of the workplace. Taking their place at the executive level are legions of township-born “buppies” or black professionals, known for their expensive tastes, lucrative earnings and (not uncommonly) ties to corrupt government officials. At entry level positions, a similar phenomenon is at work as blacks with little education have been ushered in to fill jobs once held by degree holding whites and Indians.
And within the last two weeks, yet another issue has arisen out of the shadow of Apartheid’s end: massive power outages have ricocheted throughout the country. The government has not shied from calling it a crisis, blaming it on a combination of steady economic growth and the provisioning of power to the townships – a necessity ignored during the Apartheid era. Though officials claim the crisis will not hinder South Africa’s long anticipated hosting of the 2010 World Cup, already it has resulted in the temporary closure of the country’s three largest gold mines, greatly hindering the processing of its most valued export for an unknown period of time.
And perhaps greatest of all, that ubiquitous four-letter acronym which was quietly consuming the African continent before 1994 is only continuing its march as the government quietly ignores its ravages. Officially, the Mbeki cabinet remains skeptical of a link between HIV and AIDS, claiming that symptoms of AIDS were unmistakable from “symptoms” of poverty, and therefore attributable to the injustice of Apartheid. In an age meant to yield unprecedented cooperation between races, the government has chosen to turn the greatest health crisis the nation has ever faced – effecting both blacks and white in record numbers – into a heated and racialized blame game.
All of these issues are colliding under the canopy of what some deem a time of judgment for South Africa and the African continent at large. As I write this, the fourth free election since 1994 looms. With Mbeki’s disappointing tenure nearing its end, the ANC has nominated his long time rival, a party boss within the organization who has been accused of rape by multiple women and is currently under investigation for corruption. The election could make or break the ANC’s stronghold over the country – a position it has held since 1994. As you will see, some are quietly afraid of what either result might bring.
As of now, South Africa is the cornerstone for the greater African project. If it fails, the whole continent will likely fail as well. If it succeeds, reconciling its past and taking on a greater role as diplomatic and economic leader in the region, the continent known foremost for civil war poverty may give way to a new era of progress and prosperity.
This blog will chronicle a semester in Durban, South Africa – Africa’s largest port and one of its most diverse cities – during this critical period in the nation’s history. It will document stories of crime, political dissatisfaction, refugee issues and other themes key to the current era through my eyes.
For four weeks I shared a one-room flat outside of Cape Town with a man who I only met three days after my arrival. In that time, I worked at a newspaper in Cape Town, spoke with anyone who would talk with me, and explored the city on my own.
Cape Town in that time was alive with energy. 2004 had marked the tenth anniversary of the end of Apartheid, and Nelson Mandela’s most trusted man during the struggle, President Thabo Mbeki, had just been reelected in a landslide victory. Together, the stories were a much talked about subject among media outlets on around the world. On the streets of the City Center, citizens and foreigners engaged in an ongoing, soul-searching public discourse about the country during Apartheid, the country since, and the future from that point on.
Coming back in January, 2008, I found that while the self-congratulatory celebrations had long subsided, that discourse was still going on. Currently, South Africans are experiencing a growing disillusionment with the once heroic African National Congress which, under the leadership of Nelson Mandela, brought the nation to freedom in 1994. After fourteen years of rule, the party is increasingly seen as repressing its rivals at home and cozying up to foreign super powers abroad while ignoring its stated mission putting the South African people first and foremost. Promises made upon the party’s ushering into power, from housing to education to land distribution, remain largely unfulfilled.
As the government fails, some have even questioned out loud if things were really any worse under Apartheid as numerous serious problems have arisen directly out of the institution’s demise. Crime, especially – the single greatest concern for most South Africans – has spread out of the townships and into the cities, bestowing the country the single highest violent crime rate of any state not at war. Unemployment remains high as well, even among non-black college graduates who leave the country in droves, unable to find work at home because affirmative action programs initiated by the ANC to correct Apartheid’s legacy of racial imbalance have shut them out of the workplace. Taking their place at the executive level are legions of township-born “buppies” or black professionals, known for their expensive tastes, lucrative earnings and (not uncommonly) ties to corrupt government officials. At entry level positions, a similar phenomenon is at work as blacks with little education have been ushered in to fill jobs once held by degree holding whites and Indians.
And within the last two weeks, yet another issue has arisen out of the shadow of Apartheid’s end: massive power outages have ricocheted throughout the country. The government has not shied from calling it a crisis, blaming it on a combination of steady economic growth and the provisioning of power to the townships – a necessity ignored during the Apartheid era. Though officials claim the crisis will not hinder South Africa’s long anticipated hosting of the 2010 World Cup, already it has resulted in the temporary closure of the country’s three largest gold mines, greatly hindering the processing of its most valued export for an unknown period of time.
And perhaps greatest of all, that ubiquitous four-letter acronym which was quietly consuming the African continent before 1994 is only continuing its march as the government quietly ignores its ravages. Officially, the Mbeki cabinet remains skeptical of a link between HIV and AIDS, claiming that symptoms of AIDS were unmistakable from “symptoms” of poverty, and therefore attributable to the injustice of Apartheid. In an age meant to yield unprecedented cooperation between races, the government has chosen to turn the greatest health crisis the nation has ever faced – effecting both blacks and white in record numbers – into a heated and racialized blame game.
All of these issues are colliding under the canopy of what some deem a time of judgment for South Africa and the African continent at large. As I write this, the fourth free election since 1994 looms. With Mbeki’s disappointing tenure nearing its end, the ANC has nominated his long time rival, a party boss within the organization who has been accused of rape by multiple women and is currently under investigation for corruption. The election could make or break the ANC’s stronghold over the country – a position it has held since 1994. As you will see, some are quietly afraid of what either result might bring.
As of now, South Africa is the cornerstone for the greater African project. If it fails, the whole continent will likely fail as well. If it succeeds, reconciling its past and taking on a greater role as diplomatic and economic leader in the region, the continent known foremost for civil war poverty may give way to a new era of progress and prosperity.
This blog will chronicle a semester in Durban, South Africa – Africa’s largest port and one of its most diverse cities – during this critical period in the nation’s history. It will document stories of crime, political dissatisfaction, refugee issues and other themes key to the current era through my eyes.
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