I’m trying to compartmentalize my thoughts to not belabor my thoughts and observations. But, I have to admit it is difficult.
The Apartheid Museum:
You could honestly spend about 6 hours in the museum. We only had about 3 hours, so touched on what we could and fortunately had a tour guide to help fill in the blanks. It also helped that our tour guide was a 45ish yr old Black man. In S. Africa, it’s ok to capitalize the races. You’re also allowed to say Colored. It is a legal race in this country. And, its far different from the context we know. Here, it means you are of a mixed race. Or Dutch. Or something else. Anything but Black, White and Indian. Those are the 4 races.
Our tour guide – his name was Les. A very kind and gentle man, married with a 12 yr old son. He has been on a plane ride once in his life and it lasted 45 min to a nearby town. He wishes it lasted 12 hours. He hears people complain about long-haul flights and would give anything to be in their place. He’s taking his son to the coast over Easter weekend. He can’t really afford it, but feels his son is at the age where he should see the ocean at least once. The only way they are going is because he got a certificate for a tour of a time share in exchange for 2 nights. Pretty funny if you think about the disconnected marketing plan there. I wish I could be there to see the smile on his face, when he sees the smile on his son’s face. I wish I could’ve given him a ticket to anywhere he wanted to explore. If I were Oprah, I would treat him to the most amazing vacation of a lifetime!
Les’ birth name is a tribal name. I can’t remember what and couldn’t spell it even if I remembered. But, during the apartheid every human being had to carry a passbook. This passbook had to be carried with you 24/7. Police could stop you at any time, for any reason and ask to see it. The passbook declared your race, as if it wasn’t obvious. You could be arrested and sent straight to prison if you did not have your passbook on you. Les’ mom went to the passbook office to obtain them for her family. The clerk declared that she must have proper Christian names for her family and Les’ given name was changed to Andrew. It is quite apparent when hearing Les tell this story, that by this alone, he feels robbed of his dignity and his heritage. He can’t even pronounce Andrew. He speaks 7 languages. 6 of them are tribal languages. Fortunately, he now goes by Les, which is some abbreviated name of his tribal/given language. Although is birth certificate still remains Andrew.
The apartheid was legal, government sanctioned segregation and slave labor. The crazy people in office ‘believed’ that by separating the races, they would be more able to grow and flourish among their own. Only, White’s were given privileges that no others received. S. Africa is 80% Black. Under apartheid, Blacks could not own land. They were forcefully removed from their homes/townships because they were getting too close to the other races. So, in the middle of the night, they were forced out of their homes and send to townships elsewhere in the country. The stipulation; the new location must be close to train tracks because that was how they would travel hours each day to get to work. And back. In crowded conditions not suitable for humans. They did not receive medical care or electricity. They were not given furniture for their schools and they were given Black teachers that were uneducated themselves. In immensely crowded conditions. Les, felt privileged because his family was able to afford a chalk tablet in which he could practice his studies. The other kids had to find scraps of paper or trash to write on. Les has a bad back today because he had to kneel on the floor for his schooling and write on the ground.
80% of 45MM people. South Africans. And this ‘ended’ in 1994. I was a senior in college. What were you doing?
The museum donated a large portion, as you can imagine, to Nelson Mandela. He is the closest thing to God for these people. He was not perfect, but his leadership skills are more than admirable. Unimaginable is probably more like it.
Soweto:
It was the largest single township during the apartheid and housed 4MM Blacks in one very small area. Imagine, putting all the people of Miami or DFW into an area that’s about 5 square miles. And, I think I’m being generous on the area size. Today, over 1.5MM people still live there. Most still don’t have electricity. Their bathrooms are outside and they don’t have running water. And, these are the nice places with brick houses and front doors. Mandela was born here. Tutu (anther noble peace winner) still lives here on a part time basis.
Not too far away are the ‘shanty’ villages which are similar to the Sari Sari’s of India (think Slum Dog Millionaire). Remember, the people were ‘flourishing’ in these conditions.
Pictures of all this will be coming when I get back home.
So, I did not describe any of this in a condensed manner. And, I have not touched on the ‘1st ‘ world part. It’s a bit equally fascinating. I’ll try and give a brief update on that tonight.
I’m on my way to Cape Town as I type and I’m pretty sure the differences between what I’ve already seen will just get bigger.
The 'Shanty' part of Soweto
Some 'homebrew' beer we tried in a local Shabeen
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