Visiting Africa to most people means safari camps, game treks, lions and elephants – in other words a grand adventure. My view of the country was no exception to these preconceived notions and these were the visions swirling around in my head as we made the nearly 24 hour journey from the US to Johannesburg South Africa. As we jetted over the continent of Africa the sun was setting over the land and I gazed wonderingly out the window A beautiful welcome to an extraordinary place. Fortunately on the advice of a savvy representative from our tour company we made the decision to arrive a day early not only to recover from the jet lag, but to maybe see what Johannesburg had to offer before we met up with our Overseas Adventure Travel group.
I know I have said it before, but traveling really opens your eyes, your mind and your heart to other cultures around the world. I had given little thought to the history and the people of this country (and this continent) – I should certainly know better than that! After spending our first day with a great tour guide who showed us the city my insatiable curiosity kicked in and I had to know more.
”Of the gladdest moments in human life, methinks, is the departure upon a distant journey into unknown lands. Shaking off with one mighty effort the fetters of Habit, the leaden weight of Routine, the cloak of many Cares and the slavery of Civilization, man feels once more happy.” – Sir Richard Burton
South Africa is a country blessed with a mild climate and an abundance of natural resources includingabundant wildlife, fertile farmlands and unique mineral resources. South African mines are world leaders in the production of diamonds and gold as well as valuable metals such as platinum.
But with all its positives, there are are few words more closely associated with 20th-century South African history than apartheid, the Afrikaan word for “apartness” that described the nation’s official system of racial segregation. To understand where South Africa is today you have to also understand its more recent history.
Historically, Colonial Britain was very good at using the “divide and conquer” approach to maintain control in many of their colonies. They pitted tribes against tribes, and where there were not tribes, made them up. As long as one group was on top and another one the bottom, they fought each other instead of the British rulers. And one can surmise that apartheid in South Africa really evolved out that system.
In the 1940’s strategists in the newly elected Afrikaner National Party invented apartheid as a means to cement their control over the economic and social system. Initially, the aim of the apartheid was to maintain white domination while extending racial separation. This concept become law in 1953, when the white-dominated parliament passed the Reservation of Separate Amenities Act, which officially segregated public spaces such as taxis, ambulances, hearses, buses, trains, elevators, benches, bathrooms, parks, church halls, town halls, cinemas, theaters, cafes, restaurants, hotels, schools, universities—and later, with an amendment, beaches and the seashore.
“For you in the West to hear the phrase ‘All men are created equal’ is to draw a yawn. For us, it’s a miracle. We’re starting out at rock bottom, man. But South Africa does have soul.” ~ Athol Fugard
To further divide the population and benefit the white residents, in 1951 the Bantu Authorities Act established a basis for ethnic government in African reserves, known as “homelands.” These homelands were designated as independent states to which each African was assigned by the government according to the frequently inaccurate record of origin. All political rights, including voting, held by an African were restricted to the designated homeland. The idea was that they would be citizens of the homeland, losing their citizenship in South Africa and any right of involvement with the South African Parliament which maintained complete control over the homelands. From 1976 to 1981, four of these homelands were created, denationalizing nine million South Africans. The homeland administrations refused the nominal independence, maintaining pressure for political rights within the country as a whole. Nevertheless, Africans living in the homelands needed passports to enter South Africa and in essence became aliens in their own country.
To top it all off, in 1953 the Public Safety Act and the Criminal Law Amendment Act were passed, which empowered the government to declare stringent states of emergency and increased penalties for protesting against or supporting the repeal of a law. The penalties included fines, imprisonment and whippings. In 1960, a large group of blacks in Sharpeville refused to carry their passes and in response the government declared a state of emergency. The emergency lasted for 156 days, leaving 69 people dead and 187 people wounded. Wielding these unjust Acs, the white regime had no intention of bending to the will of the majority of the South African population to change the unjust laws of apartheid as the policy was highly effective in achieving its goal of preferential treatment for whites.
“I have cherished the ideal of a democratic and free society in which all person live together in harmony and with equal opportunities. It is an ideal which I hope to live and to achieve. But if needs be, it is an ideal for which I am prepared to die.” Nelson Mandela
The penalties imposed on political protest, even non-violent protest, were severe. During the states of emergency which continued intermittently until 1989, anyone could be detained without a hearing by a low-level police official for up to six months. Thousands of individuals died in custody, frequently after gruesome acts of torture. Those who were tried were sentenced to death, banished, or imprisoned for life, like Nelson Mandela.
The plight of South Africa was brought to the attention of the world by a photo snapped by a journalist in 1976 during what was supposed to be a peaceful student protest in Soweto. When the young students were told by police to disperse instead they began to sing the banned liberation anthem and the police started firing into the crowd. An image of a dying 13 year old, Hector Pieterson, being carried from the scene hit the international wire agencies and was splashed across the front page of newspapers around the world. Suddenly the world could no longer ignore the horrible policy known as apartheid. It was a turning point in South African history, how could children be killed for simply claiming their rights?
Fast forward to the year 1990 which signaled a new era for apartheid South Africa: Nelson Mandela was released from prison, President F.W. de Klerk lifted the ban on Mandela’s political party, the African National Congress, and Parliament repealed the law that legalized apartheid.
“In my country, we go to prison first and then become President.” Nelson Mandela
The impact of apartheid, however, was nowhere near over when the repeal went into effect in 1990. While white South Africans only made up 10 percent of the country’s population at the end of apartheid, they owned nearly 90 percent of the land. In the quarter-century after the act’s repeal, land distribution was still a point of inequality in the country. Despite the post-apartheid government’s stated plan to redistribute one-third of the country’s land from whites to blacks by 2014, less than 10 percent of this land had been redistributed. Much of South Africa is still very segregated with those former legal barriers being replaced by financial ones as we saw on our tour around Johannesburg.
But for all of these challenges, there have also been huge successes. President Nelson Mandela’s insistence on a reconciliation process, run through the Truth and Reconciliation Commission, held the country together. It granted amnesty to those who committed abuses on both sides during the apartheid era as long as their crimes were politically motivated crimes and fully disclosed.
As we had arrived in Johannesburg a day early it gave us the opportunity to take a tour and visit some of the important sites around town. We walked through Soweto, a township originally set aside by the South African white government for residence by blacks, and down Vilakazi Street, the only one in the world that is home to two Nobel Peace Prize winners, Nelson Mandela and Desmond Tutu. Nelson Mandela’s home has been turned into a museum and is filled with mementos of his life and his contribution to the end of apartheid and wandering through it is a sobering look at South Africa’s history. Our tour also led us to the site of those fateful riots where school children killed by police marked the beginning of the end of apartheid.
The poverty that still exists in and around Johannesburg was evident in the numerous “shanty towns” as unemployment is high and those that do work may be lucky to get paid for their efforts. People are forced to live in these makeshift communities with no running water or sewer facilities that are often adjacent to neighborhoods obviously more upscale and wealthy. There doesn’t appear to be any middle class, only those with and those without. The tour we took of Johannesburg was disturbing and very counter to what the rest of our African safari would have in store for us travelers, but it is a part of Africa that shouldn’t be missed.
“What I quickly discovered is that our so-called new South Africa has as much material for a story-teller as the old one. The landscape hasn’t really changed. Who is in power now is different to who was in power then, but the squatter camps grow like cancer, the rich get richer, the poor get poorer.” ~ Athol Fugard
I think some of South Africa’s lessons can be helpful in today’s America. We are more tribal and divided than any time I can remember. We listen to the “tribal” news outlets that best support our political views of the world and use social media to amplify those views. And we even start “tribes” within our “tribes.”
But fracturing into smaller and smaller groups is not the way to get things done, especially on what should be common interests like preserving our magnificent natural resources for the next generation.
We need to develop our own ongoing reconciliation processes to make sure we work together towards common goals and don’t splinter apart. If South Africa can do it after years of conflict, I am confident we can too.
“No single person can liberate a country. You can only liberate a country if you act as a collective.” Nelson Mandela
As I boarded the plane to head toward our first safari camp in Zimbabwe I realized that what I had seen and learned in South Africa would stay with me forever. Traveling helps to open your mind, your eyes and your heart, and that is good for everyone.
”Wherever you go, go with all your heart.” – Confucius
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