Tuesday, July 9th
I have just finished an “indaba” with my class. “Indaba” is a Zulu word for a “gathering.”
Zulu people used this word to describe the gatherings of important
matters. They are very laid back, with a
sense of togetherness and comfort in order to create an atmosphere of
collectiveness and openness to feel free to express opinions, ideas, and
questions in a safe environment. To give
you a sense of how these indabas feel, when I walked in to today’s indaba
Professor Moja was sitting on the floor of the hotel conference room with her
feet out and we all sat together in a circle on the floor. I wore my sweatpants
and t-shirt, brought wine, and my professor asked my friend Marc for wine and
said “I will get drunk with you too.”
At today’s indaba, we shared out our stories of our home
stays in Soweto, which helped us all to gain an even broader perspective. Some shared stories of staying with a wealthy
family who owns a national football club, some stayed with the priest, some
stayed with families with children, some stayed with families with no
children.
During this indaba, we discussed a book we read, “Country of
my Skull” by Antjie Krog about the findings of the Truth and Reconciliation
hearings and discusses the effects of post-apartheid South Africa, as well as
other issues we felt important to discuss and other issues that organically
came up. This blog will be my attempt to
write out some of those topics and my findings/thoughts.
First topic: APARTHEID.
(Big topic for one blog, but here we go…)
First thing many of us noticed is the people we have
encountered have different views of apartheid.
As I shared earlier, Khaliswe wanted it to return, although she never
lived through the horrors of actual apartheid.
Some stories that some shared was many South Africans have a sense of
nostalgia for it and can see many positives.
For example, Jess shared that her host family had a “shabeen” during her
homestay. This is a gathering of people to
drink alcohol in which the host person charges people to get in. This dates back to apartheid when people
gathered in people’s homes to escape the harsh realities of everyday life. Interestingly enough, this family continued
to host these gatherings every Friday with their friends and strangers. They are able to collect money while hanging
out and drinking with those they want to see and even tell some to leave who
they do not want there. Genius. This is an example of a South African saying
these times were better during apartheid.
They seem to miss that sense of unity and togetherness that came about
from the struggles of apartheid life as a Black South African. Interestingly enough, many argue the quality
of education was better during apartheid as well because of the sense of
togetherness and the motivation that came about from the struggles of
oppression. Again, Ubuntu, and the idea
that “I am what I am because of who we all are.”
While these perspectives shed light on the few positive
things that arose from apartheid, there were obvious horrors and negative
aspects as well. Many South Africans
received assistance from the government post apartheid and many consider these
people to be extremely lazy and hurting the national economy. This is the argument against welfare in
America. Is government assistance
perpetuating the cycle of poverty and is this assistance enabling a helpless
population? “Give a man a fish and you
feed him for a day. Teach a man to fish
and you feed him for a lifetime.”
Perhaps welfare funding could be better allocated to educational funding
and support to create productive citizens who can sustain themselves and their
families. Not pretending to have the
solution for poverty, just food for thought.
NELSON MANDELA’S LEGACY OF TRUTH, RECONCILIATION AND FORGIVENESS
During the Truth and Reconciliation hearings, forgiveness
was a major theme. While the oppressed
people of South Africa faced unimaginable atrocities, they found ways to
forgive their oppressors as a means to look forward to the future. The strength in these people is extremely
admirable.
A local article I read here titled, “No Future In Hate: What
Mandela Taught Us All” described that
Mandela’s lasting legacy to South Africa and the world is his preaching of
forgiveness. Mandela is a hero in South Africa and his presence is undeniably
seen in every person and every aspect of South African life. While this may be true because of the
sensitive time I am spending in South Africa as the country awaits for his
passing and psychologically prepares for their hero to pass on, he has truly
left a lasting legacy that I hope other countries can learn from. After all, he is a heroic symbol of a better
nature- the personification of humanity, forgiveness and non-racialism.
To further personify his character, at Robben Island, where
Mandela was held for over 2 decades, the tour guide told us that after Mandela
was beginning to take a role as leader of the prisoners and a diplomat of
sorts, he was offered a bed for his cell.
He asked if everyone would get a bed.
When told “no”, he declined the bed and said “If I get a bed, everyone
must get a bed. If not, I do not want a bed.”
Ubuntu.
Furthermore, after being oppressed and held in prison for 24
years, he insisted on replacing anger and resentment with forgiveness and
tolerance. I have spoken to South
Africans who do not know the whereabouts of family members because of
apartheid, but they’ve found inner peace to these unanswered questions. This period of post-apartheid was perceived
as a national cleansing. Mandela
famously responded to a question in 1993 regarding South Africa’s
post-apartheid future with, “I see a country for everyone, a rainbow nation, a
country at peace with itself and with the world. I see no future in hate.” Once again, Ubuntu.
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| Me outside Nelson Manela's prison cell on Robben Island |
A quote from the article I read, since I can’t
imagine attempting to word it any better:
“This remarkable human being was able to see the humanity in the faces of the prison warders who tortured him, of the police officers who ruthlessly killed his friends and comrades and, of the indignant westerners who turned their backs on non-white South Africans at a time when they needed them most.Mandela chose forgiveness as a tool to liberate himself from the shackles of resentment and in so doing, inspired his fellow South Africans to do the same. He helped the African National Congress, the ruling party, to transition from a liberation struggle party to one that governs and accepts a government in which ex-revolutionaries sit alongside ex-enemies.
Simply put: Mandela helped birth a unique leadership and magnanimity which astonished and impressed the international community in equal measure.”
To many non-South Africans, this idea of forgiveness may
come off as foreign and even difficult to understand and accept; forgiveness is
extremely difficult as a human emotion.
Indeed, hate and anger are the easier choice. I have seen this in the South African
people. There is no bitterness or
anger. There is only forgiveness and a
happy go lucky feeling amongst people who I had only imagine would have decades
of anger and hate pent up. Even walking
outside of my hotel, I am approached by several men a day asking for money, but
the wording and tone reflects these values and ideals too. In fact, when I was in line at McDonald’s to
get coffee before class, I was approached by several men asking me to buy them
food. The New Yorker snapped back and I
began to get frustrated as I just wanted to buy a cup of coffee. I had a natural instinct to not help them for
many reasons: Will they use it for drugs? Will they continue to ask me? Will
more come if I help? Is this person deserving? Why don’t they have a job?” As I
waited for my coffee, a white South African woman (or so it sounded) bought the
same man food and even an ice cream cone! She asked what he wanted to eat and
bought it for him as he patiently waited.
Wow, I felt like an asshole and again, I realized the effects of the
society I was raised in and the difference of values: again, a lack of
Ubuntu. Of course there’s the reality
that you can’t help every person who asks for it, but there is definitely a
culture of giving homeless people here extra food and it is not seen as strange
and is certainly not the exception.
During the indaba, a question arose with “How did the
atrocity of apartheid occur?” and how did it occur during a time when I was
living such a different life on the other side of the Atlantic Ocean. When I was born, apartheid was going strong,
resistance movements were rising, and not until I was 7 years old did apartheid
officially end. Furthermore, “Could this
happen again?” A colleague of mine
expressed the idea that America has a culture of punishment and we lack the
power of forgiveness. Of course,
Americans are not the only ones who behave this way, but as Americans that is
our vantage point.
Then it clicked in my head.
I began to think about all the different groups in America. I began to think about all the challenges and
terrible forces of oppression these groups faced, including my own family. For example, the racial segregation of the
early and mid-1900’s, slavery, the Chinese Exclusion Act, Japanese internment
camps, anti-immigration sentiment, inter alia (“amongst other things”---Thanks
Mike---helps to have a friend in law school).
I then realized that because these groups have never experienced
forgiveness, these feelings of anger and resentment that have been passed on through
generations are the driving force between the divisions that exist in
America. There is an underlying national
psyche that roots back to all these terrible acts amongst our own people that
have never been settled. There was never
inner peace or forgiveness. Even if
forgiveness is idealistic as I myself find it difficult to forgive at times, as
I’m sure many people do (and I’ve never had to experience true oppression and
suffering) there is an absence of that discussion, which is the real
atrocity. In comparison, South Africa is
at a turning point in their history and it gives me great hope for the people
of South Africa knowing they confronted their issues, had a leader who
instilled ideals of truth, reconciliation and forgiveness. It is for this reason that South Africa is a
model for forgiveness for unity and looking to the future. In fact, a colleague of mine from Sri Lanka
explained that the Truth and Reconcilation hearings were a model for the
government of Sri Lanka who just ended a civil war as recent as 2009. This is an example of collective healing
versus individualistic healing that stems from the character of Nelson Mandela,
a personal hero of mine for these reasons.
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| Image of Nelson Mandela's profile from the Apartheid Museum. Can you see it? |
And bringing it back to my experiences in South Africa, that
question of “How can these bad things like apartheid happen?” is one that I’m
sure all of my friends on this trip have struggled with and questions that we
did not just sit on, but found a way to find solutions to solving these
injustices. It gives me a sense of hope
being around these people who I know have struggled with this question for that
struggle is what brought them to this program.
They are all here to focus on the struggles of humanity. Some are here for masters and doctorates in
Educational Policy, Educational Leadership, Sociology, International Relations
etc, but they all have a focus on helping to solve these global injustices and
that is what I will remember when I begin to lose faith and hope in the human
race. It is the enduring resilience of
the South African people that I will remind myself of when I lose hope
myself. And while my Professor has
explained that these experiences will take a long time to process and when I
return to the states, no one will truly be able to understand these experiences and I may feel a disconnect
from people from home for this, I know I have a family here to fall back on for a long
time. For that I am grateful that I know others who carry the lessons that I have learned and who I know will bring
these lessons back to the people they encounter in the coming future.
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| My NYU family at The University of Western Cape |
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