Vusi Mahlasela

A few weekends ago I was fortunate enough to see Vusi Mahlasela perform with Gilberto Gil at the legendary Market Theatre in Johannesburg. They are both musical icons in their respective countries (South Africa and Brazil) and collaboration was ambitious and utterly stirring in parts. Here is a video of Vusi performing one of his classics "When You Come Back" live (he performed this solo when I saw him). Definitely check out more of these wonderful musicians.

Some words from a man far smarter than myself...

 The following essay is "reprinted" here with the permission of its author, Edwin Smith. Edwin is the director of the University of Pretoria-Mamelodi Campus where I work. He is a brilliant intellectual, a committed campaigner for his community, and a wonderful mentor figure to have here. He lived in exile for many years (due to his involvement in anti-Apartheid politics at a young age), but returned home to work in shaping the new South Africa. This essay explores the complex relationship between the present and past, between memory and reality. It also concerns itself with the transitional moment in current South Africa, and the, at times, uncertain direction the country is heading. Moreover, it captures the spirit of South African resilience far more eloquently than I ever could! Please read it if you have the time.

Repatriating legacies and building communities through honouring memories

On Saturday, 26 March 2011 the community launched the Moss Morudu Stanza Bopape Foundation at the Mamelodi West Community Hall in Mamelodi. The event was slated to last all of four hours given its extensive program and sincere attempt to represent all imagined stakeholders in the community legacy project the foundation represented. According to Mr. Mandla Skosana, a member of the Steering Committee become a member of the Board of Directors of the Foundation, the foundation was the culmination of 20 months of hard and enduring work, which also benefitted from the support and active participation of the late Dr. Nico Smith, another Mamelodi resident of note. By all accounts, the launch was a community event, albeit laced with a tinge of sadness as it memorialised community activists who lost their lives during the struggle against apartheid, many of whose remains were and possibly will never be found.

While a significant part of the audience were members of the families of those being memorialized, the 300 or so audience also consisted of interested and affected community members, among them the wife of the late Dr. Nico Smith who was treated with the characteristic deference reserved for senior and important members of the community. It was touching to witness how deeply a part of the community this old lady truly was as she was ushered in on the arm of one of the organizers of the event and set in the ranks of her peers in the audience. The gesture, subtle and sublime, is lost only to the deaf and blind.

Almost near the end of the program the event finally managed to mimic a celebration befitting revolutionary heroes. Jabu Masina, one of the Delmas Four treason trialists, who also commanded the unit in which Jabulani Sibanyoni, one of the people being memorialized, served in, reminded the audience that these men were brave men who fought valiantly against the apartheid government and that their supreme sacrifice culminated in the birth of a democratic South Africa. Their lives were not to be mourned but celebrated Masina, himself also a struggle hero who was sentenced to death for his role in the fight against apartheid, commanded the audience. In response to this charge, the program director, Ms. Morudu, encouraged the “comrades” in the audience to bellow a “revolutionary song” in honour of the fallen heroes. A handful of ANC t-shirt clad women managed to sing “Siyaya, noba kubhi” (We’ll proceed, even if it is perilous), which somehow seemed appropriate given the occasion and its intention.

Notwithstanding the sparse decorations and the simple community hall setting with the ineffective ceiling fans churning the heavy and hot air in the hall, the event was a serious and significant attempt at recapturing the memory of community leaders who could very easily slip from social awareness given the seismic changes ushered in by the advent of democracy in South Africa since 1994. Dr. Ivor Jenkins, another noted activist alongside Dr. Nico Smith, reminded the audience of the long road South Africa and Mamelodi have travelled to the launch of the Moss Morudu Stanza Bopape Foundation. Recalling incidents he personally experienced with the community, Jenkins repeated his injunction with, “Do you remember when …”, as he retraced the memory of the horror the Mamelodi community collectively suffered. With heads raised the community nodded in acknowledgment. They did remember. How could they forget; how could anyone forget. Following this harrowing journey down a dark memory, Jenkins then turned to the here and now and painted the current situation to assist the audience appreciate that while all was not well in contemporary South Africa, much was achieved since those dark days under apartheid. To transport the audience to his vision for the future of the country and community, he relied on another noted South African thinker, Prof Jonathan Jansen, the Vice-Chancellor and Principal of the University of the Free State, who recently published his thoughts on his kind of South Africa in the local media (The Times, 9 March 2011). For Jenkins, Jansen’s kind of South Africa captured the dreams of many, and he then read most of the text of Jansen’s thoughts on the kind of South Africa he lives in but is not read about on the front pages of newspapers or seen on primetime television news. Again, the point was acknowledged with the characteristic nodding of the heads in unison.

Sitting inconspicuously in the audience, I attempted to survey the mood and eavesdropped on the hopes, disappointments, misgivings, and anger I imagined issuing around me in subdued tones below the formal proceedings. Looking for the restless shuffling of feet, the listlessly hanged heads, the impatient wringing of hands, I found an audience around me mostly intent on savouring every word and thought shared by those who have come to remember with them. This extraordinary commitment was palpable and only interrupted by the exceptional divergence as at one point, one of the family representatives kept leaving the hall to attend to the incessant phone calls issuing from his pocket while those around him looked upon him with sheer astonishment. I did not know who he was until he approached the stage during the part of the program calling for family representatives to address the audience. He was a family representative who, for all intents and purposes, seemed more preoccupied with matters outside the community hall than the memory the community seemed committed to breathing life into.

Following the report presented by Madeleine Fullard from the National Prosecuting Authority’s Missing Persons Unit, which was augmented by Claudia Bisso, an Argentinian archaeologist or anthropologist, sharing the experiences of her country with people who disappeared as a result of the dictatorships Argentinia suffered over many years, the families of Moss Morudu, Stanza Bopape, Patrick Mahlangu, Oupa Mogale, William Lekhuleni, and Jabulani Sibanyoni took to the stage to share their views and thoughts to the news Fullard delivered about the prospects of the remains and final resting places of their family members. Speaking in a gentle and visibly sincere tone, I did not envy Fullard the task she executed with so much feeling and sensitivity. She was the bearer of not so good news and she was aware of this. However, she had over the years grown close to the families of the missing comrades and a clear bond and trust was visible even to an outsider like myself. The news was received with dignity and patience sourced from a deep well that has kept these families and community proceeding, even if it was perilous. Some were clearly upset and distraught by the news that their loved ones’ remains were never going to be found while others recognized the significance of the community actively remembering and celebrating their family member’s sacrifice and contribution to the birth of a free and democratic South Africa.

Jim Axelrod recently reviewed former New York Times reporter and editor John Darnton’s memoir, Almost a Family in The New York Times of 24 March 2011. Reminiscent of what Axelrod saw as Darnton describe[ing] “the poignant process of examining and debunking the elaborately constructed defenses erected to cushion a boy growing up without a father, a family member shared a letter from Patrick Mahlangu’s son who, like Darnton, had to grow up without his father and through the aid of his mother, imagined his father a large figure. Axelrod correctly notes that “[a]s coping devices go, mythmaking is a bit more sophisticated than vodka or pills, if less conscious. Especially when a son is trying to make sense of a father’s fingerprints on his soul.” With the launch of the foundation at the Mameodi West Community Hall this past Saturday, many of those family members in attendance were possibly suffering this challenge in reclaiming the memory of their loved ones.

Through the day, speakers rose as per the program to make known their feelings and views of the occasion, their grief, gratitude, and anger. Notwithstanding the public gesture, what their relationships were to the martyrs while they were alive, we may possibly never really know; what right they had to insist on retribution or reconciliation can be debated to no end; what was the correct way to proceed to balm the gaping wounds of the memory and loss can be greatly disputed. But it is certain that without a concrete, structured and impassionate quest to honour and preserve the memory of our communities, the void will of necessity be occupied by myth. That there are divergent narratives around those being memorialised, their family representatives and their various roles was made clear when one light-heartedly and dare I say honestly acknowledged his self-serving stance during the height of the political struggle, which, unlike his brother, led him to never being in trouble with the apartheid authorities. “I was a coward,” the brother declared to the audience. And like so much of South Africa, this paradoxical truth nestled comfortably alongside the acknowledgement of the heroic lives of the memorialized and the guilt the survivors carry with them every day they live and enjoy the fruits of their family member’s and community’s sacrifices.

That the family representatives were afforded only three minutes to share their reaction to the news that the remains of their lost loved ones were either found or mostly not found, may seem insensitive and inappropriate given the program commenced almost an hour late while those in attendance were all forced to wait for the very important dignitaries to arrive. When it became clear the dignitaries were not going to arrive, the delay could no longer be justified and the formal program commenced with great dignity and poise. During all this, the community suffered in silence and kept their peace and composure, almost as if they were more than accustomed to the waiting for important people to take their plight seriously. For those in attendance, the truth was that the loss was real and the memory, though fragile, tenuous and contested, was a living and painful reality. The truth was that the community hall was filled to capacity, notwithstanding the absence of the dignitaries and that the audience sat through the entire program, which lasted three hours instead of the planned four. The community remembered its loss and celebrated its achievement at such great expense. In Mamelodi, the people who could not forget, sat patiently and basked in the knowledge they were not alone. Others had joined them to remember and through their collective memory, to help them reconcile themselves with the bitter truth; together they looked to tomorrow with greater hope and enthusiasm.

For the detached observer, such exercises cut both ways. It is important to remember our past in order to understand and appreciate the legacy we have inherited as a result of our particular history and struggle. However, our history is a painful history marked by the sound of gunshots, screaming mothers, tortured children, and public denial of the injustice visited on the black majority of our citizens. To even attempt to plead a special dispensation to those who suffered severely under apartheid is today met with certain rejection from the middleclass in our country who see the wretched of our nation blaming apartheid and its legacy for their current condition as no longer necessary given we, as a country, have had sixteen years of democracy. That I sat in the same hall with mothers, fathers, brothers, sisters, family, and community members who lost their sons, daughters, fathers and mothers, their loved ones, who will never return, reminded me of the injustice we inflict on our communities every time we fail to acknowledge the persistent impact and legacy of our past on our present, and consequently underestimate its impact and shaping of our future. While the Mamelodi community showed their resolve never to forget the price they paid for freedom, we, as a country and a nation, do this at our own peril. For many of our people and communities, the hurt, pain, suffering, and loss are real. Only the foolish will ignore this, and ignore this at their own peril.

For many the launch of the Moss Morudu Stanza Bopape Foundation in Mamelodi should present us an opportunity to hold hands with our communities and dare the future Dr. Ivor Jenkins shared with the audience, a South Africa of real people engaged in real deeds to help one another. We must assist our communities regain their sense of being and purpose by building on their enormous reservoirs of strength, resilience, optimism, and enthusiasm while not denying them the opportunity to remember their pain, loss and suffering. All these experiences must guide us in our daily engagements with our work, our colleagues, families, neighbours, and communities if we seek to ensure a better life for all in our country. Tended properly, our memory can fuel our imagination of what is possible for us all and help us deliver the kind of South Africa worthy and deserving of the price our people paid for her birth. In their own humble gesture, the community in Mamelodi is showing this is possible. They dared to remember and are institutionalizing their memory for posterity. These will be their gift to future generations.

As I sat through the launch on Saturday, I scribbled a few rudimentary thoughts in between listening and looking around me. While the below are fragments of a tortured mind, they are sincere attempts at understanding what I experienced. For an outsider like myself, Mamelodi is a community fraught with deep divisions. One of the many features of our new democracy is the jousting for political office, power and control which further fragments the community, making its need to unite in order to claim its day in the sun in the new South Africa even more arduous. While it is apparent Mamelodi cannot compete with communities like Soweto and others in South Africa, it has distinct legacies it can capitalize on to draw interest and attention to itself. However, the tools the struggle made available to communities like Mamelodi seem lost even as I sat in the audience watching the community grapple with the significance and opportunities of the legacy of our struggle. Sadly, I noticed that even the symbolic significance of the fist thrust into the air as a sign of the power of the people seemed lost to many around me. That the significance of pulling together our fingers into a balled fist to enable us to collectively strike a lethal blow to any enemy be it poverty, unemployment, homelessness, disease, and the myriad of social ills running rampant in our communities, is a legacy of our struggle our communities can build on to unite against the challenges we face and engage the opportunities the new dispensation makes available to us, seems to be a major deficiency in many of our attempts to change the reality in our neighbourhoods. In our various manifestations across our land, we are well endowed with great traits. However, memory is contested terrain. The battle to turn our legacies into living memorials for posterity is upon us. Notwithstanding, one thing is certain, we can achieve a great deal if only we dare to remember together and learn from our past.

Thought 1                                                                   Thought 2

The song of the bones split my scull                          Memory is a sword

Into a million fragments, and                                    We grasp with conviction

with desperate fingers                                               If we are to survive the darkness

I gather the bits of my being                                    Enveloping us in broad daylight

Into a fractured whole

                                                                                   With the glint of its blade

The song of the bones gel into a glue                        It makes visible where we have been

As we weigh and exchange our loss                          And where we must not return

Yours against mine and mine against yours              We know what we have suffered

Seeking to find the greater one among them           150 were hanged in Pretoria Central

And when we do, how do we proceed?                      and buried in unmarked graves

What measure do we use to gauge                           next to our kin in our backyards

The hole in your heart and how do we fill it?

Can we make each other whole again—                  Their missing bones locked

You me and me you?                                                  In the hearts of their families

                                                                                  Through their undying memories

Perhaps only you with your gaping heart                While in three minute tributes

Can clearly see the hole in mine                              We demand: Tell us your pain;

And with your gentle touch                                      lets understand your loss;

Help make me whole again.                                     You have three minutes,

                                                                                  You better make them count!

                                                                                  In this game, claim their  glory,                                                                                   For our memory is incomplete

And it’s all you have left

Edwin T. Smith

DIRECTOR: MAMELODI CAMPUS and

HEAD OF RESIDENCE: TUKSDORP

My Apologies

I apologize for being lax in updating the blog the past month! I will definitely try to make up for it this month.

They even had it on the news...(track 4)

More news updates and insights from South Africa!

With huge local elections approaching on May 18th, much of the news has focused on the countless races across the country. This article delves into some national polling data to show most the African National Congress and the Democratic Alliance as the obvious front-runners in almost all municipalities. A two-party system developing in another country?

On a more polemical note, here is a trenchant critique of contemporary South Africa and the "hollowness" of the current democratic system. Can you imagine something so inflammatory being published in a mainstream US newspaper?

The following is a short commemoration of Andries Tatane. Tatane was murdered by police at a service delivery protest in Ficksburg, Free State. His death was caught on camera. Hence, the story has been huge news in the past few weeks. The article goes on to point out that the number of police brutality cases have been spiking in recent years...

Finally, here is an interesting editorial about the diminishing importance of African languages in the public consciousness. From my observations, it seems as if the author is correct. English or Afrikaans are seen, regrettably, as the more professional and/or intellectual of languages. This is evidenced by the fact that no SA university offers courses (outside of language classes) in any of the country's nine, official indigenous languages (at least not to my knowledge).

Some beautiful photographs from the Pretoria Art Museum's "South African History" Exhibit

From the top: A young Hugh Masekela, Mankunku Ngozi, Josiah Madzunya (a member of of the Pan Africanist Congress, historically a more militant resistance alternative to the ANC), the funeral after the Sharpeville Massacre, Robert F. Kennedy visiting Soweto in 1966, a girl in her parents' shop circa 1980, waiting for the bus 1986, outside of Mandela's inauguration, "naming of the child" in the Bo-Kaap area of Cape Town, downtown Jo'burg 1999, squatter camp in Jo'burg 2000, winter in Tembisa (a township outside of Jo'burg) 1991, a child saluting after the burial of the Cradock four (four Black activists killed by SA Security Forces) 1985.

Life Above All

I saw the film Life, Above All a couple of  weeks ago. The film recently won the South African Film and Television Award for Best Picture. It is a visceral and at times gut-wrenching depiction of a young girl faced with the burdens of a family who is falling apart. The film is notable for its use of non-professional actors, as well as for being entirely in Sepedi (the language most of my students in Mamelodi speak as their first). It is beautifully shot in vivid colors that captures small-town South Africa well.
While at times melodramatic, the film raises some provocative and urgent questions about disease, stigmatization, and community. While gritty and realistic, I think the film should be taken more as a fable; a contemporary, moralistic entry into the category of folk stories. It might send the wrong message to read too literally into the context of the events. But that is for you to decide, not me :)

It is directed and conceived by Oliver Schmitz, a white South African who has made a couple of other well-received South African films (read more about him and the film here).  The film was also South Africa's submission to this year's Academy Awards Best Foreign Film category.

Below is the trailer:

Around the way...

A few weekends ago I had the pleasure of spending a full Saturday as the guest of a few fellows in Atteridgeville, a township southwest of Pretoria. It was a tremendous day in which I was shown the very best of South African hospitality. The only white boy (or girl, for that matter) in sight for miles, I was treated with a mixture of amusement, confusion, intrigue, and a generally unquestioning, warm welcome!

The day took place over two events, one being a gathering of family (extended and beyond) and friends while the other was a wedding-cum-block party in another part of town. In both locations I had wonderful conversations and exciting moments with a wide-range of people. It would be impossible to recount (or remember for that matter. We were on a strict beer-drinking regimen!) the totality of the occasion. However, I have pinpointed a few choice moments:

- A woman quite my senior took a liking to me early on in the first location. She made her intentions perfectly clear: it was marriage or bust! However, when she noticed there wasn't any meat on my plate of food, she became distressed, "what am I going to eat when we're married?!" "Well," I responded, "it's something we're going to have to talk about isn't?" We both had a good laugh.

-Sitting with my friends in a circle of milk crates, a gentleman came up to us and started singing. With both hands clasped on two of our shoulders he bent down low and sang with intensity: "God is the misssssion... God is the misssssion." Within a few seconds he had us all involved in his harmony! For the rest of the day we were stuck with that catchy tune in our heads!

-Shortly after we appeased the man with our dodgy harmonizing, six or seven older ladies came out of the back room singing a song in Sotho. They marched out slowly into the party, singing in strong, full-voiced way that had other older folks quickly joining in. It was magical to me, but a bit annoying to the younger guys I was with. "Oh finally" one said after they had circled around the grounds and ended their song. "That was amazing!" I exclaimed. "Yeah, but we're so used it" came the rejoinder!

-Later on in the evening, after we had moved spots to the wedding, we were holding court with seemingly all young men in the neighborhood. I had the pleasure of hearing the perceptions of two really incisive people, in particular. They were notable for their difference in tone. One guy, an engineer at GM in South Africa, went to a top university in South Africa, and was optimistically pointing out the progress (especially economically) that the country has made. His basic sentiment was as follows: We are still young (as a country), but look at what I have been able to achieve already with the new opportunities presented to me. The other conversation was more negative in its outlook, but extraordinary for its passion: "We wanted alcohol, now we just get drunk. We wanted books, we don't read. We wanted TVs, we don't watch the news.  We wanted education, now we don't study" (this is pretty much word for word as he said it with such fiery conviction I HAD to remember). These are the voiced frustrations of a post-apartheid generation with itself. This gentleman also lamented that those who came up in the struggle were showing their disappointment with today's youth. While he is pointing the finger inwards in the figurative sense, it is important to acknowledge the other contributing (nay, controlling?) external factors that have constrained the transformation of the country. As one friend told me later, person #1 was more of an exception than the rule. That is, there weren't many people in this neighborhood who had the opportunity to study at a first-rate university. Furthermore, at the behest of his parents, person #1  went to a private school definitively outside Atteridgeville...

And finally, at the end of the night we got a small cypher going in which I beatboxed a bit for some cats to freestyle. Needless to say, I have completed one of my goals for the year! Hopefully, however, I will be able to replicate this entire experience many times over during my stay here.

                                             My hosts for the day

                                          A few fellows in the awesome neighborhood wedding band! They were kind enough to let me take their picture.

                                        Dancing on the street! Backed by the great music of the above mentioned bands. Some lady saw me filming and beckoned me to join! (Which I did, of course!).

They even had it on the news...(track 3)

Here is an article exploring the ties between Chinese businesses and Mugabe's government in Zimbabwe. Of course, the Chinese have been investing heavily in Africa for a number of years now (especially in the natural resource sector). However, the case of Zimbabwe is interesting because of Mugabe's oppositional rhetoric on foreigners somehow doesn't apply to the Chinese...

Here is a great article chronicling the southern Africa country of Angola's issues with water distribution. It also turns a critical eye towards the  discrepancy between the country's economic growth (measured in GDP) and the realities of poor folk. Using GDP as an indicator for "development" can be unrepresentative to say the least (just look at the United States!). Finally, this piece just reiterates how important effective infrastructure is to a country. They should be sending engineers on Fulbrights to engage in public works projects, not English teachers!

Here is a positive article on a successful public-private partnership in the province of the Western Cape. The program is countering rampant youth unemployment by starting young people off in apprenticeship positions with private firms. However, the students apply and are placed by the public sector. Interesting model that while just beginning, can hopefully be another route to putting people to work.

And another one

On another literature note, Tomorrow is Another Country by Allister Sparks is a terrific unpacking of the events that transpired from 85-94 in South Africa. Sparks is a prominent journalist in SA who has written a few highly regarded books on Apartheid, transition, and the new country. Tomorrow is Another Country is fast-paced and chock full of detail (a bit overwhelming in some cases!). However, it reveals a myriad of details on the unprecedented negotiation of power from an all-white to a mostly-Black government in South Africa. Sparks has a knack for latching onto personalities, and characters (major and minor) are finely sketched. Being a first-rate journalist, Sparks was also in and around the action. One particular personal account of being caught in police's gunfire onto protesters is quite shocking and riveting.
Reading this book one gets a real sense of how compromise can be utilized to good measure. However, it does underpin some of the more romantic notions of mass struggle producing change. While of course, without the agitations of citizens both in SA and internationally the Apartheid government would not have felt the pressue of impending collapse. Yet according to Sparks, it was the leaders at the top of the ANC and the National Party that argued, schemed, and finally decided upon the fate of the nation. Regardless, a really intriguing read for those concerned with the nitty-gritty of how it all went down.

Here is the Amazon page of the book.

Knowledge skills be priceless

Jonathan Jansen is one of the foremost contemporary South African academics. He is now the Vice-Chancellor of the University of Free State. UFS is quite possibly the most conservative, steadfastly Afrikaans educational institution in South Africa. Jansen is a Black South African who from 2000-2007 served as the Dean of the Education College at University of Pretoria (where I am working). He has written a book about his experiences entitled Knowledge in the Blood. The book is not merely a recounting of events during his tenure. Rather, it resonates on a much deeper level, serving as a unique insight into the post-Apartheid landscape.

Being an all-white and all-Afrikaans speaking University until 94-95, there has been tremendous pressure for the university (and all South African institutions really) to transform. However, transformation is not a smooth ride. Jansen came in as one of the few non-white people in any position of power within the University. His experiences are fascinating. Moreover, Jansen (a fantastic writer) supplements and enriches the text by exploring larger issues of historical memory, liberatory education, the psychology of the oppressed, the politics of language, and what it means to be white in the new South Africa. Again, he has a truly remarkable perspective on what he witnessed. This, coupled with the fact that he is a scholar of monumental proportions (the bibliography in exhasutive!) makes this a must-read for anyone interested in South Africa.

Here is the Amazon page for the book.
Here is an interview with him.
Here is a recent article about a new institute for studying Race and Reconciliation opening at UFS.

They even had it on the news...(track 2)

Again, here are a couple of insightful articles from the Mail and Guardian about issues in Southern Africa. The first one is about "urban living" in a dilapidated building in downtown Jo'burg. The article highlights some of the travails of being poor and without decent housing in South Africa.

The second article relates some of the problems the tiny country of Swaziland is facing currently. Many of these problems stem from the repressive and authoritarian  ways of the monarchy in control of the government. However, the article does well to focus on the resistance and dissent channels within the country. Hopefully these organizations can take heart at the happenings with their brethren in the north...

One more, just to lighten the mood! Here is an article about the most successful vegetarian food company in South Africa. They are family-owned and seem to be really principled in their approach to food (using completely vegan and non-genetically modified products). I just bought some of their faux-chicken burgers. I hope they taste as good as their ethics :)

Amakhosi for life!

On Saturday I headed to Jo'burg with a fellow ETA to attend the Soweto Derby between the Kaiser Chiefs and Orlando Pirates. These are the two teams from Soweto and a derby (a soccer term, I think) is a "subway series," where two teams from the same city play each other. Here is a short introduction to what the derby means in Soweto. More than just playing for pride, the two teams were/are locked in a battle for 1st place in the Premier  League (South Africa's top division). Pirates were 2nd and Chiefs 3rd in the league going in.

The entire experience was rollicking, to say the least. Attending the game with 15 other white guys (all of whom, except for my friend who I came with, I had just met that day) was novel in itself. We were probably the largest single contigent of white folk at the game. This, combined with our loud and cheerful behavior, for some reason made us a hit in the parking lot/giant tailgate party before and after the game.

Yet we are not the important actors in this story. The crowd, all 92,000 of them, created an infectiously festive mood for the game. As we were stuck in traffic with thousands of other waiting to get into the parking lot, I got the first sense of what the day had in store. There were people dancing alongside traffic dressed in their team's gear, honking vuvuzelas, and joyfully interacting with the cars they passed. This carred on into the stadium and after the game as well. Not like many other countries where soccer games are tinged with violence both symbolic and literal, this was a respectful, yet highly competitive affair. While the soccer was exciting, the fans made the experience...

Now that's what I'm talkin' about...

It's interesting to see the relationship between soccer and politics! This guy is urging you to make the right choices :)

Since I was ignorantly neutral entering the afternoon, I quickly made an arbitrary decision to support the Kaiser Chiefs. My cause was largely enhanced by a striking yellow Chiefs hat I bought outside of the stadium. Suddenly, I was on the team.
I quickly learnt that the peace sign was the proud signal of the Chiefs. The Pirates, on the other hand, were marked by a more aggressive (they are pirates!) crossing of the forearms into an X. These signs were to be happily flashed all day at both friends and "enemies" alike. More significantly, within an hour of supporting the team I was pledging my everlasting support for them through the phrase "Amakhosi for life!" As the afternoon wore on I was to be involved in some serious embraces where both myself and my embracer were "Amakhosi for life brother!" Needless to say I accepted these team symbols with gusto!

The stadium itself was the majestic Soccer City, where the 2010 World Cup Final was played.

and...

Below is a view from inside behind one of the goals where we sat. These seats, may I mention, were definitively NOT where our tickets told us to sit. However, we (and seemingly thousands of others), took are seat designations as mere suggestions. Myself and two others settled smack dab in the middle of Chiefs supporters behind the goal.

This is before the match commences

When the Chiefs scored on this goal during the first half, it was absolute mayhem. At this point I was completely dedicated to the cause, so when the ball was thumped into the back of the net I shot back my head to yell at the sky in jubilation, my fingers clenched in peace signs. Suddenly I was being hugged and high-fived from all sorts of folks in our section, all of us caught up in the mad frenzy only a goal in soccer can produce. And all from wearing a hat...The game ended 1-1, a last-gasp goal by the Pirates seriously deflating the Chiefs fans. But only on the walk to the parking lot, where again it was a positive atmosphere of teasing, laughing, drinking, dancing, and picture taking.

We exited on a high-note. Since we had all come in a mini-bus, with a driver who was a Chiefs fan and saw the game with us, we took to bumping loud House-like jams and rolling around the emptying parking-lot with the door open. As we passed people we would flash different signs to them (there was a mix of Chiefs and Pirates in the van!), occasionally get out and take pictures, and generally cheer for each other. This continued on the road as well. As we were still with our sliding-door wide open, we hooted and hollered with passengers from other passing cars, everyone enjoying the relative harmony and joy of the moment...

Tumi Molekwane

I "discovered" Tumi and the Volume (his live band!) a few weeks ago upon my arrival in-country. Their album was profiled in this article as the dopest South African hip hop group of the year. After downloading their album and having a listen, who was I to disagree? Absolutely electric. Here are a few videos and articles:

This first video is the MC (Jaco van der Merwe) from Bittereidner, Tumi, and Jack Parrow, a well-known MC who raps in Afrikaans from Cape Town. The song is a tribute to the three cities they are from: Pretoria, Jo'burg, and Cape Town, respectively. While the first and third verses are in Afrikaans, I can tell (thanks to the way the video is done), that they are love-letters. That is, there are many references  to places and events in Pretoria and Cape Town (I actually understand some of the Pretoria ones). I personally love hearing these songs, as one of hip hop's many fine qualities is its respect for place. To be an MC is to represent where you are from and its constituents.
However, Tumi's verse (and maybe this is because I actually understand the language its rapped in!) is a fully-drawn portrait of a city. Indeed, it is really a fully-drawn portrait of contemporary urban South Africa in all its glories and contradictions. The verse is a penetrating critique of unbridled capitalism, a discourse on racial injustice, a celebration of the hustler, an abstract rumination on the city as an idea, and a simple shout-out to dynamic New York of Africa...

Tale of Three Cities:

Here is a live medley video (its a great Tumi sampler):

Here is a raucous performance where he reps Pan-Africanness to the fullest:

I encourage you to search him out some more if you like what you hear. This is just the tip of the iceberg!

Hot Box Studios

 I was fortunate enough to see a great concert in Pretoria this past Friday. The venue was Hotbox Studios, a run-of-the-mill house only a few blocks from where I live, that has been transformed into one of Pretoria's hippest venues. The house/venue is lived in and operated by six or seven guys around my age, and I give them all the credit for providing an awesome space. The vast backyard is where the action takes place, as the stage is constructed backing into the house (so backstage is their living room), with picnic tables and a rudimentary but highly functional bar towards the back. There were hundreds of people there, and from what the people I was rolling with said, it was a smaller crowd. The two bands hailed from Pretoria, so it was nice to see local talent represented (as Jo'burg and Cape Town have a reputation for being more on the artistic cutting-edge).

The first band that played was Fulka ( their facebook page), blurrily pictured above. They are a self-proclaimed "folktronica" band with catchy songs and an affable indie tone. Four versatile musicians shared the duties of playing the violin, banjo, keyboard, and guitar while being backed by a laptop maestro pumping out electo beats. The result was quite fun. Check out their video:

The second band, Bittereinder, was comprised of three guys all with prior established musical credentials. They have joined forces to make an album, and actually this was their first live show! The group consists of two producers (who  also do back-up vocals) and an MC. The lyrics were all in Afrikaans, so I could not understand what was being said. But all indications pointed to it being pretty deep. My hunch was corroborated by people I talked to afterwords, who said it the verses "were like poetry." The crowd ate it up and it was fun to experience hip hop in a different language (I am gearing up for a whopping entry on South African hip hop, where multilingualism  will be further discussed). I chatted with the MC for a quick minute after the show and he was a kind, humble dude.

Here is an interview done with them


Here is their first video:

They had a guest MC come oon for a few songs. His name is Tumi Molekwane. That brings me to my next point...

Mama Africa singing the blues for Soweto...

Miriam Makeba was a world renowned South African singer and activist. Called Mama Africa by some, she embodied the political and cultural ideals shared by many in the liberation struggle. She was banned from the country in 1960 (early in her career) after she appeared in an anti-apartheid film called Come Back Africa (see clip from below). The Apartheid government, sensing she was a revolutionary, revoked her South African passport as she was returning home from performing in Europe to attend her Mother's funeral. She would not re-enter the country for another 30 years.
While she had been performing in South Africa for a number of years, her international career took off when she partnered with Harry Belafonte both in music and in business. The album they recorded together in 1965, An Evening with Belafonte/Makeba, won a Grammy Award for Best Folk Recording. It was one of the first albums released to American audiences to contain traditional songs in African languages (Zulu, Sotho, Swahili, etc.). She recorded a few succesful records in the following years, while gaining notoreity with American audiences and the mainstream press.
However, her marriage to Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee organizer and Black Panther Stokely Carmichael in 1968 found her practically blacklisted in the Unites States. Suddenly, her record deals and tour dates were mysteriously cancelled. She moved with Carmichael in his self-imposed exile to Guinea. Here, she continued to record music, but also acted as Guinea's Official Delegate to the UN. After she split with Carmichael in '73 she continued to travel and perform, although still not in the US. In 1986 she connected with Paul Simon and accompanied him on his Graceland Tour (see video below).
In 1990 she finally returned to South Africa at the behest of none other than Nelson Mandela. She continued to make music, starred in the film Sarafina!, and was involved in global humanitarian work until her death in 2008.

This afternoon I was introducing myself to a large group of high school students. We were doing an exercise where if I said something that they liked, they patted their heads in approval. When talking about what I liked in and about South Africa, I mentioned Miriam Makeba. I didn't notice a single student not patting their head.

This is Miriam singing a couple of songs and being interviewed in Sweden, 1966. She talks about the Apartheid system and its repression of black entertainers and protest music. She is so elegant and eloquent.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lExbPP8zmUg


This is a clip from the documentary Come Back Africa. It's a beautiful setting and reveals the the resiliency of character amongst the victims of Apartheid.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FyQUYJkvcUo&feature=related

Here is Miriam coming onstage with Paul Simon to sing a tune called Soweto Blues. This is from the Graceland Tour and took place in Harare, Zimbabwe in 1987. Her energy is electric and the song is rousing.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QhwAX_r99Ck

They even had it on the news...

The Mail and Guardian (www.mg.co.za) is one of South Africa's premier newspapers. It comes out once a week, and I have been finding that it certainly does takes a whole week to read it! The articles are usually of a fantastic quality and depth. The investigative reporting is superb, as I have witnessed on a number of occasions sentences that read something like: "according to confidential documents that the M&G acquired last week..." They seem to be always on the cutting edge of a story, and are dedicated to keeping institutions honest (what else should a free press be about, really?). Moreover, they provide a great insight into both South African and greater African affairs. Naturally, they are decidely left-of-centre in their coverage, yet they don't tow a party line. From what I have read so far, they remain a strongly independent source dedicated to exemplary journalism.

Now that I've sung their praises, I'll let you come to your own conclusions. Below are links to some articles from a couple of weeks back. I will try to provide stories of interest (at least my interests!) from the M&G either weekly or bi-weekly.

This first article is about inefficient and costly water service in Diespsloot,a township outside of Johannesburg. It strikes to the core of a sensitive and pressing issue in contemporary South Africa. That is, poor communities struggling with local and municipal authorities to either gain access to certain modern neccesities (decent housing, electricity, clean and accesible water, etc), or to prevent those same authorities from denying them these neccesities (through eviction, increase in prices due to privitization...). There is a fascinating book by Ashwin Desai called we are the poors that tackles these same issues with much more zeal.

http://www.mg.co.za/article/2011-02-04-diepsloot-in-deep-water

This second article looks at learners (what they call students in primary and secondary school) who are being denied admission at their local schools. I think it captures the frustration of communities who have had to put up with so much...and now on top of it all they are being told their kids cannot go to school! Now while there is a drop-out problem here, it is not as pronounced as in the States. So far, I have observed an almost fervent enthusiasm for education amongst the youth I have been around. I think this article speaks to that.
The article also makes allusion to "school fees." This is an interesting phenomenon that I will have to explore further. However my basic understanding so far is that public schools (ostensibly schools that receive money from the state) can and do set their own fees. I have been to a few schools now that have such fees, and they do need all the money they can get. However, since many of these schools operate in poor neighborhoods with really unreasonable rates of unemployment, it seems sort of counterintuitive to ask the families to cough up funds...

http://mg.co.za/article/2011-02-04-excluded-learners-take-to-the-streets/

Some news from Botswana, a neighboring country to the north of SA. Interesting for its focus on indigenous struggles within the context of postcolonial Africa! It is always deeper than just national liberation...
Also pertinent for its focus on land and water rights. I'm sure these will be recurring themes for this paper as they are major issues in this part of the world. In the States we don't really engage with these ideas on a practical level, but maybe we should...Check out the righteous Max Rameau and the Take Back the Land Movement for proof of more nuanced leftist thinking about property and access in the United States.
Anyway, good to see the courts supporting social justice and enforcing international mandates with their decision.

http://www.mg.co.za/article/2011-02-04-water-ruling-a-victory-for-deprived-people


There was one more I was going to highlight, but I think I will save it for next time as it demands more of a backstory than I have energy to address right now.

I am always up for receiving new information and/or perspectives so let me know if you find anything of note about southern Africa or just in general...It's all about absorbing knowledge

Microphone check 1,2...what is this?

So in an effort to consolidate information and streamline my thoughts, stories, and findings into one forum, I am starting this page. I am in Pretoria, Gauteng, South Africa as an English Teaching Assistant supported by a Fulbright grant. I arrived just about a month ago and will be on the continent of Africa until October/November of this year.

I hope to broadcast not only my own two cents, but much more importantly, to highlight articles, music, events, and historical information pertaining to this resilient, dynamic nation. I'll also probably post miscellanea from other parts of the world as my internet wanderings allow. I will try to keep a diligent eye towards South Africa, however.

Let me start with some basic information. You could probably get most of this stuff from wikipedia, but then it wouldn't be as charming would it?

South Africa is known mostly for its oppressive system of racial domination entitled Apartheid. Recently, of course, it is also came into western focus for hosting last year's joyous World Cup (go figure). The country was catapulted into the international spotlight with Nelson Mandela's victory in the 1994 election(see note 1), breaking the stronghold of white political hegemony and initiating a new era of multiracial (or nonracial as some call it, although that is more of a problematic term for me) democracy. The two subsequent presidents, Thabo Mbeki and the current Jacob Zuma, have been from the foremost party of liberation, the African National Congress (same as Mandela). While the main opposition party, the Democratic Alliance, garnered 16.66 percent of the vote in 2009, the ANC is perceived to be in a comfortable position of power at the moment.

The country's population is about 50 million people, with racial breakdowns (2010 estimates) as follows: Black 79.4, White 9.2, Colored 8.8, and Indian/Asian 2.6. As you can see, the apartheid system categorized people into four main racial groups: White, Black, Colored, and Indian. The term Colored has a different denotation than our historical derogatory usage in the United States. The people who ended up being classified as "Colored" were a mixture of "indigenous pastoralists who called themselves Khoikhoi" and slaves brought in by the Dutch settlers from places as diverse as Madagascar, India, Indonesia, Sr Lanka and Mozambique (Thompson 46, 36). The Khoikhoi were present in the mostly the western part of the country, hence their encounters with white settlers from the start who landed in what is now Cape Town in 1652. The Colored population then had "immense...biological and cultural differences" but were lumped together nonetheless (Thompson 65). Probably due to their proximity and numerous interactions with Dutch-Afrikaners, most speak Afrikaans as their first language.
While there might have been a small percentage of slaves brought from India in the 1600-1700s, the vast majority came a century later. The “first” six thousand arrived "between 1860 and 1866...from Madras and Calcutta" and settled in the eastern most province (now called Kwa-Zulu Natal) (Thompson 100). They came as indentured servants under a five year "contract." When in 1870 the "first Indians became entitled to a return passage to India, nearly all elected to stay" (ibid.). By 1936 there were around 200,000 Indians, comprising of two percent of the nation's population (Thompson 171). Most had come as indentured laborers during the period of 1860-1911 (when the system of indenture servitude stopped).

There are nine provinces in South Africa, with Gauteng (the province that I am in) being the smallest (in terms of landmass) and most dense due to Johannesburg and Pretoria being within its boundaries. Also within South Africa's borders are the two small, sovereign nations of Lesotho (pronounced Le-sutu) and Swaziland.

There are 11 officially recognized languages in South Africa. Afrikaans from the Dutch, and English from the Anglo settlers are the two European-based languages. The nine African languags are members of the Bantu language family. There are about 500-600 Bantu languages spoken in sub-Saharan Africa. The languages are split up into four broader categories:

The Sotho (again, pronounced Sutu, like tutu except with an s) languages are Sepedi, Sesotho, and Setswana. These are also known as Northen Sotho, Southern Sotho, and Tswana respectively. This language has no click sounds and a disjunctive writing system (meaning even whole words can be split up by a space).

The Nguni languages are Zulu (the most widely spoken first language), Xhosa, Swazi, and Ndebele. These are click languages (meaning that different words and sounds require a different sort of click) with a conjunctive writing system.

The other two languages are Venda and Tsonga. They are separate from each other and neither are attached to a wider language group. Less than 7 percent of the population speak either of these languages as their first language.

As I am told, if you speak one Nguni or Sotho language, you can approximately understand and speak the other languages (although all of the languages are distinct). I am highly ignorant of this subject, however, so I will come back with more information on the question of linguistic interchangeability.

Let me shift gears to discuss my first impression of South Africa.

Riding in a minivan packed with Americans and our luggage, we pulled into Pretoria in the early evening after having been collected from O.R. Tambo Airport outside of Johannesburg (Oliver Tambo was the longtime head of the ANC during its years of underground resistance and exile). As we drove through the streets of the Arcadia neighborhood (not far from downtown) to our hotel destination, I couldn't help but notice the emptiness of the streets, and the invisibility of houses or businesses. Instead, I only saw trees lining the sidewalks, and walls. These walls have now become commonplace to me, but they represent the securitization and sheltering of many South African domestic and commercial structures. If I was able to look closer in the fading light, I would have seen not only eight to ten feet walls/fences (some barred and see-through but others impenetrable and concrete), but also an electric fence, barbed wire, or two inch spikes lining the tops of the barriers. The fear of crime is so pervasive that it manifests itself in an unwelcoming, intimidating, but also highly secure fashion. I went to a grand house far from downtown that was in a gated community. Yet, the grounds of the house itself were only accessed through another gate...A gated house in a gated community.

My first night at the hotel/guesthouse I met a gentleman named Petric (not sure of the spelling) who worked as security. He was one of several men that sat around outside the gates all night, keeping watch. A gracious host, he told me if I needed anything to get him (I was staying in another guesthouse alone across the street from the main complex). "If you need anything, wine, anything just call me." I responded that I would only need wine if we could drink it together. He laughed and said his boss would probably look unfavorably at that. Being my first real interaction with a South Africa, he instantly put he at ease with his pleasant way. I have every intention of going by the guesthouse one future evening and shooting the breeze with him.

My fondness for Petric withstanding, I am trying to illustrate a larger concept. That is, the abundance of private security teams. Whether they be larger firms that contract out hundreds of guards all over the city mostly to business or sizable institutions, or a few informally dressed people such as Petric and his colleagues watching over a guesthouse, the city is rife with security personnel.

Coming from Philadelphia (a city with decent public transportation...kind of) by way of spending a few months in Europe (and getting to use some world class public transportation), being here is a hard gulp of African reality. There is a limited bus system that could be useful in a few situations, a metrotrain that runs irregularly and people of all walks tell me to avoid like the plague (for safety reasons), and that's it. This is a car-heavy society. The mode of transportation most car-less people rely on is the omnipresent minibus. These are white minivans that operate in a hybrid bus-taxi combination. You can flag them down like a taxi, and they can take you to the area you want to go (although my one experience so far didn't prove to be so accurate!). However, they are not exclusive to you, and they try to cram as many people in as possible to boost their profits. If they have seats available and are driving through an area with pedestrians, they will honk every few seconds to let you know of their presence.

Country-wide travel is facilitated mostly by bus companies (in the Greyhound mold. There is actually a Greyhound South Africa). There is a national train service, the Shosholoza Meyl, but in the past few months they have been going through some difficulties causing their website to be inaccessible and their service to be limited. There are also a few domestic airlines that have relatively cheap flights to and from the major cities (Jo'burg, Durban, Cape Town, Port Elizabeth...)

Finally, what the hell am I actually doing here (besides writing very long blog entries)?

I am teaching in a few capacities through the University of Pretoria. Myself and the two other Pretoria ETAs (English Teaching Assistants) are establishing a "formal" writing center. This center will be open for Education students (mostly Second year students) to bring their writing assignments and receive assistance on any aspect of the writing process. While all university students speak English, probably less than 10 percent speak it as a first language (it is nationally between 6-8 percent who speak it as a first language). At the University of Pretoria one can take courses in Afrikaans (it was an Afrikaans only university until 94-95) or English. In short, the faculty has recognized the need for English instruction, especially when it comes to writing.

My other main project is working at the University's Mamelodi campus. Mamelodi is a vast, sprawling township to the northeast of downtown. Townships are where black citizens made their home during apartheid since they weren't allowed access to most property in and around the city (Soweto is the most famous township). Townships are places of great cultural vibrancy, strong communities, and rich histories. They are also places of dire poverty, mass unemployment, indecent housing, etc. The US Embassy has helped to fund the Mae Jemison Reading Room on the University's campus. The Reading Room serves middle and high school students from Mamelodi as an after-school center, full functioning library, computer lab, and event center. It is a hugely positive place and kids literally have to be turned away some days because the place physically cannot hold anymore people!
At the Reading Room I will/and have been assisting students with their assignments. However, I am slowly defining my focus as a literacy and writing resource for the students. I will run some literacy workshops and be a writing tutor for students. The Reading Room is Science and Maths oriented (two of the subjects targeted as areas for national improvement by the National Dept. of Education), but since this guy isn't any use at all to the students in that regard, he has to create his own role!

Besides from these primary responsibilities there will be other smaller side projects that I will work on throughout the year. For example, this week we are hosting a couple of workshops on To Kill a Mockingbird for a specific high school that is reading it (as their one novel for the year). There will undoubtedly be more things of this nature that pop-up.

More to follow...

Notes:
1: Actually this isn't really true. There was much international media attention given to South Africa through the 80s as the build up to transformation slowly unfolded.

The book I reference earlier is A History of South Africa by Leonard Thompson (Yale University Press: 2001). This is a great introductory text. It is reasonably short, dense and comprehensive, but accessible at the same time.

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