South Africa Past and Present (Day 63)
A trip to South Africa is more than a safari. It is a chance to learn about the country’s dark past and its long walk to freedom. Although there are still many problems in this land of contrasts, almost everyone we talked to was optimistic about the future of the Rainbow Nation.
PAST
We read a children’s version of Nelson Mandela’s autobiography. This raised a lot of difficult issues for a 5 and 8 year old to think about, but we thought it was important for them to know about the history of the country. We then went to visit Robben Island, where Mandela spent most of his 27 years in captivity. It was a harsh place, and the tours are given by actual former political prisoners. Our guide was a proud man who was imprisoned there for 6 years for being a high school youth organizer in the 1970’s.
For years, Mandela was only allowed to eat corn gruel 3 meals a day, and he could only send or receive a letter once every 6 months. His cell was smaller than the space given to a prison dog at the nearby kennel.
We also visited 2 neighborhoods that are symbols of the past. One day, we toured District 6 with a guide whose grandparents lived there. The apartheid government forcibly removed all residents, and their houses were torn down.
Bo Kaap was a colorful neighborhood where local residents organized themselves to resist removal. Today, Bo Kaap stands as a proud reminder of this rare victory against apartheid.
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LANGA
We were lucky to attend a Sunday church service in the Township of Langa. The Langa Baptist church was full of energy, optimism, and great songs. It was the largest crowd we had ever seen at a church anywhere. The church had TV screens to allow the overflow crowd to see the action and sing along. Hazel said it was “part rock concert, part normal church, and part jazz.”
We also toured around the township of Langa with a tour guide who lives there. One great surprise was that Langa was no where near as poor as we expected. We saw lots of cars, many concrete houses, and even a few Apple laptops. This was partially because people’s lives seemed to be improving in the township. But the guide said the bigger reason was that Langa the “best” township (in contrast to much poorer and larger Khayelitsha among others).
When Jamie visited a few years after the end of Apartheid, there was a vision of a future where township residents could all move out, and the townships would be shut down. This dream has not been fulfilled at all. The townships are much bigger than ever before. And new ones are starting since the old ones are bursting at the seams. Although unemployment in the townships is very high, people keep moving in from rural villages where jobs are even more scarce.
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LAND OF CONTRASTS
Today’s Cape Town has a quirky creative side that we didn’t see anywhere else in Africa. It has fantastic organic farmers’ markets, a vibrant contemporary art scene, and the funkiest, best coffee shop we have ever been to. (Truth Coffee has won best coffee shop in the world more than once.) But South Africa also has a failing education system that is ranked last in the world in math and science.
Cape Town has gorgeous seaside homes, better grocery stores than the USA, and amazing international restaurants. But rolling blackouts are common because the country cannot maintain its electricity infrastructure.
The black middle class is growing. There are more black owned businesses, and some people have become very rich. But unemployment is an astounding 29% — around 8 times the US level. Somehow, inequality has actually gotten worse since apartheid ended. South Africa is now ranked as having the greatest economic inequality in the world.
Despite the challenges, people we spoke to seemed optimistic. South Africans work together on diverse teams. The country is full of immigrants drawn by the opportunities here. South Africans seemed to feel that they had come so far already and that many problems were simply “teething pains” for what is, in many ways, a new country that is only 25 years old. We hope they are right.