Ubuntu

From my time in South Africa in December 2018:

South Africa felt like home.  I saw people around me who reminded me of friends, family, classmates, etc. that I knew in the US.  I visited 4 South African cities - Johannesburg (aka Joberg or Jozi), Pretoria, Cape Town, and Port Elizabeth (PE). I traveled by Greyhound bus (not the American company) from Pretoria to Cape Town, stayed for a few days, and then took the bus to PE. After a few days in PE, I rode the bus back to Pretoria. In each city, I experienced the spirit of Ubuntu.  Ubuntu is a Bantu concept from southern Africa, which connotes human connection, and is sometimes defined with the phrase, "I am because we are".  It essentially means that all humans are connected, and when we recognize our common humanity, then we treat each other with respect, humility, compassion, and love.

I had a bright idea to travel across Africa overland from Cape Town to Cairo, but I didn't have much time to plan the trip myself, and the tour companies were pretty expensive. I will return to the continent one day and make it happen.

South Africa was more than I expected, and it was exactly what I needed at that time. I heard several people from SA, Egypt, and Ethiopia describe the country as "different from the rest of Africa" and "Africa-lite". To me, it was a great blend of the familiar and the exotic. It was very western in many ways, and still traditional in other ways. The country is still shedding the cloak of apartheid and mistakes have been made along the way, yet there is hope and optimism as they continue to develop. I could see myself living there.

Johannesburg
Joberg seemed to be the soul of South Africa. It felt alive to me. The city buzzed with excitement and energy. It was in Johannesburg and nearby Soweto where many political fights against apartheid happened. One of the things I loved the most was that I finally had someone else wash, retighten, and style my hair, which hasn't happened in years. I also saw a movie at a small arthouse theater in Maboneng, called "High Fantasy". I purchased a ticket for the City Sightseeing Bus to go around the city and see the most popular landmarks, like the Apartheid Museum, Constitution Hill, and the Carlton Centre (Africa's tallest building). As much as I enjoyed Joberg, the city has a bad reputation amongst tourists and other South Africans. People like to highlight crimes committed in the area, however, I view it as any other big city where you always should be on alert. A Capetonian told me that "Johannesburg is like Chicago". Maybe that's true. He meant it negatively, but I know that there is much more good in Chicago than the violence that is continuously reported, and the same goes for Joberg.

 

Pretoria
When I was considering covering the continent, I reached out to a couple of friends with African connections, and one of them led me to Pretoria. The city is one of 3 South African capitals, and it is located about 45-60 minutes from Johannesburg. It is calm and relatively quiet compared to neighboring Joberg. I stayed with my new family in Pretoria. I was initially confused when they told me they spoke Swahili, because I knew it was considered more of a central/eastern African language. I also figured that Swahili wasn't one of the 11 official languages of South Africa. It made more sense when I learned that they immigrated from Rwanda by way of Congo to South Africa. The family made me feel so welcomed and comfortable in their home. I was the first American visitor they had, and they invited friends to come meet me while I was there. I was also the first vegetarian, which was a curve they didn't expect. I had great food prepared for me, and I also showed them how to stir fry broccoli with onions and peppers. We later added carrots and potatoes. It was the first time they had cooked broccoli at home.  They introduced me to the dramatic South African "soapies", like "The Queen", "Scandal", "Rhythm City", and other nightly soap operas with varied story lines that all seemed to run together.  The kids took me on a brief tour of the city. There's not much to see in Pretoria other than the Union House capital building. We also went to a nature park on a hill overlooking the city. We stopped at the city's bus station too. I wanted to rent a car and drive from Pretoria to Cape Town to Port Elizabeth along the garden route, but it was much cheaper and easier to take the bus. I also was unsure of my driving skills on the opposite side of the road and car. My new family helped me find the right ticket and took me to the bus station to see me off. They took great care of me. I returned to Pretoria for a couple of days before I left the country. It felt good being surrounded by family.

Cape Town
The bus to Cape Town took nearly a day and was a few hours behind schedule. We stopped in every little town between Johannesburg and Cape Town (almost 900 miles) with a break of 15 minutes every 3-4 hours. Most of the journey was at night. I know I could have flown, but I wanted to see as much of the country as possible. South Africa's landscape is magnificent. I passed by farmland, vineyards, mountains, and grassy prairies. The view of Table Mountain welcomed me into the city of Cape Town, the final bus stop.  The natural beauty of the city was captivating.  I found it very ironic though that this city that was surrounded by water was experiencing an extreme drought and so was the rest of the South African cape (coast).  Evidence of the drought was everywhere.  Residents and businesses were required to follow strict water restrictions.  For example, I saw public restrooms with 8 or 9 sinks, but the taps were only open for 2.  Signs around the restrooms asked visitors to restrict flushing unless necessary and use alcohol-based hand sanitizer.  Homeowners were not allowed to fill their pools and each home had a per person water quota that included fines for overuse.  It's a good thing I learned how to be efficient with bucket showers in Indonesia.

Once again, I found it cost effective to tour the city on the City Sightseeing Bus, so I bought a 2-day pass that included all the major points of interest, plus a canal tour, sunset view of Table Mountain, and a stop at wineries. I took the city bus downtown in order to start the tour each day.  I also purchased a ticket for a city bike tour, which included Bokaap, the former home of enslaved Muslims that is now being gentrified.

Table Mountain

"Tupac Amaru Shakur is alive...I think he's in Canada." - Mr. Steward

 

Port Elizabeth
I arrived on the bus from Cape Town not knowing what to expect in Port Elizabeth (PE).  What I encountered was much more than I dreamed possible.
The day before I arrived, my Airbnb host contacted me asking if I would be interested in a township tour when I arrived.  Of course I said "yes!".  My tour would include Zwide Township where my host, Nick, grew up.

The first night of my arrival, we watched the Global Citizen concert celebrating Nelson Mandela live on tv from Johannesburg. His daughters walked out on stage and greeted the South African audience with the familiar "Amandla!"(power), and I responded along with the audience, "Awethu!" (to the people). Nick was shocked that I knew the popular Nguni phrase used by freedom fighters during apartheid. I told him that I was in the process of creating a nonprofit organization focused on empowering communities through education, and it would be called "Amandla!" He was impressed.

The next morning, Nick and his girlfriend took me to the township, and pointed out meaningful landmarks along the way. Our first stop was the Ubuntu Centre. The center included a clinic for HIV/AIDS patients, a nursery school for families being treated by the clinic, a cafe, a vocational school, a computer lab, and much more. It started with a couple of volunteers tutoring students in a broom closet at a school several years ago, and became a beacon of hope in the middle of the township. Our tour was led by the Deputy President, Gcobani, who enthusiastically shared the history as well as the future goals of Ubuntu. He also tried to teach me Xhosa words along the way. We were only supposed to spend 30 minutes at the center, but we actually stayed for 2 hours, and I loved every minute. Nick knew from our conversation the night before that the work they were doing was important to me. I could have stayed all day. Seeing the Ubuntu Center gave me visual confirmation of my dream for Amandla! I saw what was possible.

After leaving Ubuntu, we visited the local school where the program first began, and where Nick attended. The students were on break, and we toured the building on our own after checking in with the office. I saw the broom closet. I saw the computer lab that was donated to the school by Ubuntu after they moved to a bigger space. I also saw the classrooms and schoolyard, and was quickly reminded of scenes from Sarafina. From the school, we went to a new business development center for entrepreneurs. The business that we visited was a bread shop owned by a woman. We watched her take the balls of dough and fry them on a hot plate. Her business was doing so well that she no longer had space to make the bread from her home, and she won a grant for cooking equipment that still needed to be installed after the electricity was properly setup. We bought a few pieces of bread and took them to Nick's mother's home for a snack. His mother reminded me of my aunt. She was generous, kind, and gave all praise to God for everything.

Many people have asked me if I would want to live in any of the countries that I visited on my journey, and I enthusiastically tell them that I could see myself living in South Africa and Thailand. I absolutely loved my time in South Africa, and I look forward to going back again.

A brief history of apartheid

Disclaimer: This is information that I synthesized from memory of various sources, including tours and visits to the Apartheid Museum, Constitution Hill, District 6 Museum, South African Museum, Groot Constantia Estate, South African Slave Church Museum, and more. 

When the Dutch first settled in what is now Cape Town, South Africa in the 1600s, they created a supply stop on the route from Europe to India in search of spices for their bland food. They planted fruit and vegetables and made wine to sell to the ships passing around the Cape of Good Hope. Without those foods, many sailors would die of scurvy, or vitamin deficiencies, on the long voyage. They needed laborers to plant and harvest the crops though. They also needed labor to build homes and other structures. Who did the work? You guessed it, slaves. The Dutch East India Company was under strict orders not to enslave the powerful local Khoe-San people, because they were valuable trading partners - in the beginning. Instead, they brought in slaves from East Africa, India, Indonesia, and Madagascar. Eventually, the Khoe-San were overpowered when the whites steadily encroached upon their land. When they filed official grievances with the Dutch government, they were basically told to shut up or they would be killed, because the whites had the guns. Later, the British took control of the Cape. Slavery was abolished throughout the British empire in 1834, but the people were not fully emancipated, and were forced to continue working in bondage until 1838. Just like in America, many of the former slaves returned to the same land as sharecroppers, slavery by another name.

Meanwhile, the area that is now known as Johannesburg, was a grassy plain without any permanent settlement until gold was discovered in the late 1800s. Workers came from all over southern Africa, India, and other places to earn a fortune, that never came to fruition. The mine workers, including whites, lived in poor, unsanitary housing, and the mines were dangerous, deadly places. Slavery was officially over at that point, but gold mining, was essentially a form of sharecropping. The only benefactors were (still are) white, corporate owners.

Poor people of all races lived in the same slums. The urban areas needed the workers in order to be sustainable, but the whites in charge didn't want all the races mixed. They thought race mixing led to crime and disease, and a degrading of their "superior" race. They created a system known as apartheid (separateness in Afrikaans), state sanctioned/institutional segregation, where everyone was classified by race and was subject to certain laws based on their race affecting every part of their life. The classifications included black (native), white, colored, and Asian/Indian.

"A White person is in appearance White and not Coloured; A Coloured is a person who is not a White or a Bantu"

"518 Colored persons were reclassified as White persons; 1 White person was reclassified as a Coloured person"

Apartheid was official policy from 1948-1994, but there were forms of segregation in place prior to it being codified after the 1948 election. From the beginning of Dutch and British settlement, there were mixed marriages and sexual relations between whites and the black people, which created offspring who were neither black nor white. They were called, "colored". In the early 20th century, each person was given a passbook that identified their race and indicated where they could go. (Ghandi's passive resistance movement began in South Africa when he protested the passbooks.) The racial classification was subjective, and there were many cases of people changing from one race to another. Not only did they look at your skin complexion, but they also made assessments based on hair texture, facial features, family name, etc. The classification system was very confusing. The classifications split families and sowed distrust amongst the various groups.

I was told that in South Africa, you are considered colored if you have any white ancestor/white blood. In America, there's the "one drop rule". If you have a black ancestor/black blood, then you're considered black. According to South Africa, in my nuclear family, my mother and my brother would be considered colored, my father would be black, and I would probably sit on the fence. My skin complexion would put me in the "colored section", but my kinky hair would make me closer to black. As my friends explained this system to me, I asked them if I had a baby with Trevor Noah, South African comedian and host of The Daily Show, who has a black Xhosa mother and a white Swiss father, would our baby be black or colored. (Check out Trevor's video below.) One person said black and the other said colored. In America, we're all just black.

The Group Areas Act of 1950 further codified housing segregation, and forcibly removed people from their homes to designated areas for their race. Blacks were forced to move to townships, poorly constructed areas without full city services - outside of the city, but still close enough to cook, clean, babysit, landscape, mine, and do whatever work white people wouldn't do themselves. District 6 was a predominantly colored area in Cape Town with thriving businesses and families. The people were forced to leave and their homes were demolished when District 6 became a designated "whites only" section in the late 1950s. White people earned the highest wages and lived in the prime locations. Black people earned the lowest wages and lived in the worst locations. Everyone else was in between. There was even segregation in jail/prison. White prisoners were given meat and vegetables and sugar for coffee/tea, more time outside, and less crowded cells. Coloreds received meat scraps, and blacks might get meat fat on their rotting food in their overcrowded cells. Most blacks/coloreds were in jail at some point because of passbook violations.

Apartheid's impact on prisoners

Apartheid was a systematic approach to reinforce the supposed superiority of whites over everyone else. The irony is South Africa sent troops to fight the Nazis in World War 2. Although non-white South Africans protested the system for decades, the world paid little attention until the government started jailing, torturing, and sometimes killing children. Students from Soweto (South west township) rose up to demand justice and freedom, and they were threatened and attacked by the police in return. Sarafina!, one of my favorite movies, tells the story of the Soweto protests and the punishment inflicted on innocent children and families. There were also calls to free the world's most famous political prisoner, Nelson Mandela. The world started paying some attention when global citizens demanded that companies and governments divest from South Africa in the 1980s.

The South African government was slowly coming to terms with the fact that the violence and war on the people was unsustainable, and negotiations began to take place for a transition. South Africa's democratic election of 1994 brought about a repeal of apartheid laws and Nelson Mandela was elected as President of the new South Africa. Things did not change overnight. Legal segregation was the law for nearly 100 years, and ended less than 25 years ago. That was in my lifetime! Some people believed that the transition to a black President would mean that white people would receive blanket punishment and would be subject to revenge. Instead, Mandela sought peaceful relations and tried to mend the country's deep divisions. The new South African constitution was written to be inclusive of all people, regardless of race, gender, sexual orientation, religion, income, etc. 

Archbishop Desmond Tutu led the Truth and Reconciliation Commission, which focused on restorative justice. The TRC allowed victims and witnesses to tell their stories publicly, and perpetrators also testified to their crimes with the hopes of receiving amnesty. Instead of sweeping decades of oppression and violence under the rug, South Africa shed light in those dark places to bring about healing. People are still learning to live together peacefully and overcome the challenges of apartheid.

Nobel Square: South Africa's Nobel Peace Prize winners - Chief Lethuli, Archibishop Desmond Tut, F.W. DeKlerk,Nelson Mandela 

Dreams really do come true!

When I was a child, I looked at a map, or maybe it was a globe, and I said I wanted to visit every place with my name. I only saw 2 cities with my name - Elizabeth City, New Jersey and Port Elizabeth in South Africa. I didn't know how I would do it, but I knew it would happen one day. I went to Elizabeth City for the first time around 2004 or 2005. Today, I fully achieved my childhood goal. I arrived in Port Elizabeth by bus early this morning.

"Hold fast to dreams..."

Welcome home!

For months, I have stood out because of my differences. Yesterday, I arrived in Johannesburg, South Africa, and no one noticed me. There were no stares. No one asked if my hair was real. I didn't see any fingers pointing at me. No one asked to take a picture with me. I just went about my business unbothered like everyone else. Being surrounded by people who look like my family and have hair like mine felt a little strange at first. I was part of the majority. The only thing I can compare it to is being on an HBCU campus again.

I am staying in Kensington near Maboneng, a trendy (aka gentrified) area of the city near downtown. The weather was warm and sunny, so I walked from my place to Maboneng yesterday. In between there were a lot of mechanic shops, beauty shops, and small grocery stores. It felt familiar. I walked around Maboneng for a while trying to figure out where I would eat. I settled on a restaurant and decided to sit at a table outside, because it felt so good. I moved inside a few minutes later when I felt chilly. The temperature seemed to drop so fast, and then it started raining. I wasn't prepared. It is summer in the southern hemisphere. Why are people wearing jackets? My weather app said it was 59 degrees. My shirt was sleeveless and I didn't have an umbrella. I finished my dinner and waited until the rain slowed to a drizzle before heading home. I wanted to get back before dark, and the sun was setting. There was no Wi-Fi for me to get a ride with Uber. I hurriedly walked down the sidewalks, cold and wet. After I passed the second or third liquor store with a cage (I think the total was 5), it finally dawned on me that I was walking through the hood. I almost started sprinting, but the sidewalks were cracked and missing in some areas, so I had to be careful and fast until I made it back home. As I neared my street, I said out loud, "Never do that again. You know better."

Today, I walked back to Maboneng for lunch. (I felt safe enough to walk in the daylight, but I was warned to keep my phone hidden.) I stopped at one of the salons that advertised relaxers, dreadlocks, manicures, pedicures, etc. on their wall, but this one stood out because they also had shea butter. I've been putting off retightening my hair for weeks and I need shea butter for my dry skin, so I decided to go in and check their prices. I walked out with a pedicure and shea butter, and I ended up making a hair appointment for tomorrow. I also stopped by a tailor's shop on my way to lunch. I'll have new custom-made outfits in a couple of days. It's a good thing I shipped my clothes from India back home, because I'm going to need the space. I went to a sushi restaurant, called "Blackanese". The waiter asked where I was from. (I might look like everyone else on the outside, but I can't hide my American accent.) I told him I was from America, and he said, "Welcome home". He also offered to make a list of the best places to visit while I'm here.

South Africa held the #3 spot on my travel bucket list for years behind Australia and Brazil. I'm so glad I finally made it, and I look forward to seeing as much of the country as I can. More to come.

P.S.  I started on my Dubai post, but I need more time to finish.  It's coming.