A Change in Scenery

This blog will probably be a little scatter-brained so please bear with me.  Over the past few days we’ve be given A LOT of information about the history of Apartheid and the reasoning’s behind reconciliation and there are a lot of questions that remain unanswered.  Looking at the topic of reconciliation, there are a few things that need to happen to achieve this goal.  We discussed the need for truth, and not just the tangible truths, but also the intangible truths.  Tangible truths include evidence from perhaps police records or historical records and intangible truths include emotions of victims and personal accounts of persecution.  Another aspect is that perpetrators must remain accountable and should be punished in some way or another.  Also, in order to progress as a society or a community there needs to be institutional reform and long-term development.  This entails the notion of forgive, but don’t forget.  A society must reconcile with the past, but it must also be able to look to the future because really the only way to look is forward.  Dwelling on the past does not get anyone anywhere. 

Here are some points, then, that I took from the discussions we’ve had. 

1)    The notion of a common history.  South Africans have for the most part experienced a similar history, that of Apartheid.  The experiences within the Apartheid history are, of course, different for each race or ethnicity.  The experiences, though, date further back than Apartheid; they date back to the beginning of colonization.  When comparing South Africa’s history with the U.S., they are both similar, but the U.S. has a different type of common history.  Americans have the common history of not really having a common history.  Americans are immigrants.  We colonized Native American land in search for the new frontier.  People from all over the world came to America to find a future.  We all have the common history of being immigrants to a nation that was never rightfully ours to have.  An interesting point that someone made during this discussion was the fact that we accept that we all have different histories, but then we move on with our lives.  We don’t take the time to understand where that person comes from, to see whom they really are.  I don’t think this necessarily helps the reconciliation process, but it hinders it.  It hinders the process because forgiveness cannot come from ignorance. 

2)    Touring all of the museums thus far has shown that South Africa makes it a point to incorporate symbolism into its architecture.  It is a way to remind people of the past.  Reminders are not only represented in museums and monuments, but also in the everyday buildings erected in Cape Town.  A lot of the architecture that stands today is from the colonial era.  The architecture is beautiful, but it also reminds people of their history.  It does not let them forget where they came from, which is one of the most important aspects of identity.

3)    There are two issues with understanding a country’s past.  Well, first, is the notion I brought up in number 1.  The other two issues are this question of personal ignorance versus is the government at fault for our ignorance?  Personal ignorance could be like voting during presidential elections, but not knowing what you are voting for.  It could also be the example in number 1.  There is also a large possibility that part of people’s ignorance does not even stem from the personal aspect.  Many democratic governments have a law in place that allows the government to keep documents secret for a certain period of time.  In South Africa it is thirty years.  This country has been a transitional democracy for only sixteen years and those documents won’t go public for another fifteen years.  There may be critical information within those secret documents that may help the process of reconciliation.

4)    Moving on to the topic of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC).  First off, I’ve realized that a lot of perceptions I’ve had thus far about certain things have been wrong and the TRC is one of them.  I do believe the TRC was a good institution to have after the Apartheid.  The problem with the TRC, though, is that it only focuses on one aspect of the event, specifically the victim-perpetrator relationship, amnesty and reparations, but that isn’t even half of the story.  South Africa has to look at not just the people involved, but also the institutions involved and the historical aspect, among other things.  How can South Africa reconcile its past when it only looks at a small proportion of the entire historical event(s).  On top of that, reconciliation may not have even truly worked within the TRC.  I have doubts now about how truthful people were when presenting their stories.  A perpetrator may ask a victim for forgiveness.  First, the apology may not be sincere.  Second, the victim has the choice to accept or reject.  Because the TRC was televised, there was a lot of pressure on victims to forgive past wrongs.  To me it seems that if the victim forgave the perpetrator, the forgiveness might not have been genuine.  The victim may have said he/she forgave the perpetrator, but that does not mean that deep inside those feelings go away.  An aspect of the TRC was to give victims closure, but it did not really help victims otherwise.  They went for closure, but afterwards, all they got was nothing.  They would return to their shacks in shantytowns and continue to live like they did during Apartheid.  So what really were the benefits of the TRC? Finding out the truth does not necessarily pull people out of poverty. Overall, the benefit was for the country as a whole to be able to progress as a society, and South Africa has definitely come a long way in such a short amount of time.  At the same time, individuals may still have grievances, which may not bode well for the country later down the road.  A major point, I thought, that was brought up during the lecture was the fact that there is no consensus among different groups, which in turns makes it difficult to move on and look towards the future.  This then brings me back to little knowledge of each other’s histories.

So my questions are: How does reconciliation benefit those that are in poverty or have lost everything? What can be done to make sure that those people benefit? Does this type of reconciliation really work? How do people get to a place of forgiveness?

Museums

The class took a visit to the Constitutional Court in Jo’burg.  The institution is built to incorporate The Fort Prison, which held Nelson Mandela and other political activists.  There were two separate prisons, one for males and one for females.  The prison guards violated countless human rights.  Gruesome tales of female mutilation and torture were part of the everyday routine for prison inmates.  The tour of the complex and the events that occurred in the prisons reminded me a lot of the events of the Holocaust.  The two events are certainly not completely comparable, but the human rights violations are certainly similar.  In the women’s prison, the communal cells were to only hold 25 inmates, but the guards would cram 80-120 inmates into one cell.  Sanitary conditions did not exist.  Buckets were used for refuse that were stationed in the corner of the cell. *Warning: this may be graphic for some* The prison would issue black women with sanitary pads, but they were not issued underwear.  These women would have to hold their pads between their legs and if they fell down they would be hit.  This was very undignified and embarrassing for these women. 

The buildings themselves had symbolic meanings.  The Court, which is still active today, was built in a way that symbolizes the fairly new democratic system.  The reception area of the Court consists of pillars that symbolize tree trunks and overhead are metal-wires in the shape of leaves.  Depending on the time of day, shade from the makeshift leaves are cast on the floor.  The trees represent equality for every human being, no matter the color of skin or cultural background.  The inside of the courtroom is made from bricks that were kept from old buildings of the prison.  These bricks are not held together by very much concrete, which symbolizes freedom.  Small rectangular glass windows run along the walls of the courtroom so that one can easily observe what is going on outside of the courtroom.  This is supposed to symbolized transparency. 

Much of what occurred in South Africa during the period of Apartheid was similar to what was occurring in the U.S. at the time.  The U.S. was also struggling with civil rights issues.  A really interesting aspect of the Constitutional Court was the constitution of South Africa.  Among other things, the constitution promotes equality, dignity and freedom, which is pretty much the same as the U.S. constitution.  The way these constitutions are carried out, however, are different.  In the U.S. it is a law that companies have to promote an equal opportunity workplace, where the number of blacks employed (don’t quote me on this) has to be a certain proportion (or equal to?) the number of whites employed.  You don’t really find that in South Africa.  There is still very much a division between the black and white labor force and the types of jobs each has. 

The Apartheid Museum had a lot of symbolism incorporated into the architecture as well.  The reflecting pool outside of the museum represents peace, while the seven pillars erected next to the pool represent the 7 pillars of the constitution: freedom, dignity, respect, democracy, equality, reconciliation and tolerance.  Inside, there are two different directions to walk, the white direction or the non-white direction.  When walking the white direction, there is a ramp to walk on that represents the ease with which whites lived in South Africa.  The non-white direction has stairs instead to signify the struggles that they had to endure. 

Both of these museums contain a lot of symbolism and it seems they use this as a way to “forgive but not forget”.  These museums have successfully incorporated significance into architecture.  The sometimes-subtle symbolic messages allow visitors, and hopefully South Africans, look to the future, while at the same time reminding them of the past. The Apartheid Museum and partly the history of South Africa remind me of The Holocaust.  The lecture we had on the divided histories of South Africa discussed the concentration camps during the colonial era.  Certain groups of people would be targeted merely for their race or ethnicity, which is extremely similar to what happened during the Holocaust.  Both countries also went through a white supremacist regime.  The Nazis strove for a pure Aryan race and in South Africa, the Whites strove for a pure white population as well.  Evidence for this is shown in the creation of the Bantustans, or the homelands, that the white people created to remove blacks from the white republics in South Africa. 

These museums definitely give a great overview of the history of South Africa.  I’ve noticed that while in Soweto I did not see much anger or resentment towards the white population, nor did I notice much racism.  The main reason being, of course, that Soweto consists of mainly black South Africans.  In terms of grievances towards the Apartheid era, though, they seemed actually quite content with their lives and it seemed like they were able to forgive in a very short amount of time.  This, of course, does not mean that there are emotions they are not showing.  In Cape Town, however, it is a different story.  There are still things that suggest that there is segregation in this society.  The groupings on campus suggest this.  Many blacks and whites don’t seem to mingle, or mix crowds.  This, I think, is also evident in the U.S. as well.  In both Soweto and Cape Town I definitely feel like the minority, which is something that I have never experienced before.  Today standing at the bus-stop I thought about how different history would be, and how different I would be as well, if the white population were the ones to be enslaved and suppressed, instead of the black population.  But that is difficult for me to imagine.  Trying to put myself in the shoes of a group of people who have been taken advantage of for decades is not an easy feat, but my attempt continues.

The Beginning

Arriving in South Africa didn't seem any different than arriving in any other foreign country.  I had assumptions, but no expectations.  Johannesburg is definitely an industrial city, built up from years and years of gold mining.  My driver, Isaac and the Program Manager of the trip, Chris, who were both very welcoming, brought me to Lebo's Soweto Backpacker's.  Isaac knows the streets of Soweto like the back of his hand; he knows all the back roads and each time he's able to take a new route back to Lebo's.  Lebo's is situated the Soweto township of Orlando West.  Orlando West is famous for being the birthplace and home of Nelson Mandela.  It is also currently home to Archbishop Desmond Tutu and Winnie Mandela.  Orlando West is a middle class, predominantly black African, township.  The only white person around other than the 8 students on the trip was Lebo's wife, Maria, who is from Sweden. 

I arrived in Soweto in the morning of the 11th and I had all day to adjust and settle in.  It seems I had adjusted pretty well because I was able to stay awake the entire day, purely due to my excitement of being, not only in South Africa, but being in Africa, as it is my first time ever on the continent of Africa.  At Lebo's, a visitor can enjoy the park across the street, or the shebeen in the backyard.  A shebeen is basically a makeshift bar.  There are tables to eat at, a pool table, foosball, a dart board and a bon fire (which is lit every night).  The park across the street didn't used to be there though.  Lebo, or Lebohang Maleba, built the Backpacker's from the bottom up.  Soweto is thought by most foreigners to be dangerous and poor, but I have a different view of it.

When I arrived at Lebo's I walked into the park.  There was a slight breeze going and it made me feel at home and welcome; it felt like paradise.  Before the park was a park, it was a trash dump.  The community would bring their trash to this large plot of land and dump their trash.  Lebo took the initiative and with help from his community, cleaned up the plot of land to benefit, not only himself but also his community.  He gave children in the neighborhood a place to go after school to play soccer or do other fun activities.  Lebo's is the only hostel in Soweto.  He created it to be able to tell the story of Soweto and its people from the perspective of the people that live there and not from the outsider's perspective.  Tourists used to come into Soweto in buses, but never step out of the bus to interact with the people of Soweto.  This didn't anger or frustrate Lebo, but instead it gave him the idea to bring foreigners to Soweto so they could live with its people and experience everyday life in Soweto.  He created bike tours of Soweto so that people would get out of their buses and onto the streets of Soweto to hear the stories these South Africans had to tell.  Now I am writing to convey Lebo's message to the rest of the world.  Get out there and see it for yourself, experience it, because whatever people tell you about a certain place, it may not be true, and that especially goes for Soweto.  Soweto houses some of the friendliest people I have ever met in my life.  I had the chance to talk to employees of Lebo's, one of which will remain a good friend for as long as I live.  His name is Shepherd, otherwise known as Rastaman.  Yes, he is a Rastafarian, but he welcomed me with an open heart and mind, every morning he would greet me and we had some very interesting conversations around the bon fire.  

A day after my arrival and the arrival of a few other students, the children were playing in the park.  I had the chance to interact with them as well.  At first Heidi and I would observe and take pictures, but at one point, out of no where, a little girl wrapped her arms around my legs and pretty much did not let go the rest of the day.  If I wasn't holding her, either on my back or in front, I had to be holding her hand, or she would be sitting on me.  At one point, I did have a child on my back, I was holding another in front and I had several children hugging my legs.  I think that was one of the best days of my life.  I love that even though the standard of living in Soweto is pretty low, these children are still smiling and enjoying life.  Because they were happy, I was happy.  This little girl, whose name I never found out, seemed to me, to be the face of South Africa.  She was smiling on the outside, and I am sure on the inside, but it was quite obvious by the surroundings that her lifestyle was due to not only the Apartheid, but events dating back to colonialism.  Spending the rest of the evening with this little girl really put things in perspective for me and gave me some ideas.  

First, it has always been my goal in life to help people.  I used to want to be a doctor, but I chose International Relations and even with that major I have so many opportunities to help people.  I hope to focus on conflict resolution, human rights and development.  Lebo's has given me a way to help people.  I hope to one day be able to help Lebo expand his hostel to other townships in Soweto, so as not only to give foreigners the opportunity to experience the everyday lives of black South Africans in Soweto, but to also give members of the community opportunities to work close to home.  Many people in Soweto have to commute by train to far away workplace locations.  The 15 employees of Lebo's are lucky to be able to work in an environment so close to home.  The employees benefit from working in their neighborhood, but the entire community of Orlando West also benefits because the money earned by those employees is circulated within the community.

My other ideas will come in later blogs, so for now I am signing off!

M