End of the sampling

We had our last first class today.  We walked to school in the seemingly perpetual cloud that has overcast us for at least a week, draping us with thick, humid air.  We brightened the morning with a coffee and a quiche though.  Class was kind of humorous when a half-hour into the class the professor of South African Politics called two students out from the back of the class who had been too quiet for her liking.  She asked them as Americans what they thought of President Jacob Zuma.  The man barely mumbled, “Well I’m from South Africa, does that count?”  The Professor told the rest of us to take five while she sorted out the confusion.  Apparently the pair was meant to be in a POLS class at 8 on Monday mornings, rather than Thursday afternoons.  Oopsie.  The remainder of the class we discussed AIDS in Africa, President Jacob Zuma and former President Thabo Mbeki, and the transitional state of the political rule, economic system, and social order since the Apartheid regime fell seventeen years ago.  

We walked back, grabbed our laundry, and took a nap before going to a chic restaurant for dinner.  Finnezz is an upscale, posh bar and dinner joint where groups choose either a booth or couches to enjoy dinner on.  Even though the food and drink selection is very high end, the dollar carries us pretty far.  I was able to enjoy a glass of wine with calamari and prawns for about $15.  The seafood was great, and the other girls all got beautiful cocktails with ornate plant pieces and the like stuck on the edges of the glass. 

After dinner and a long week of “firsts” we went back to Langerry for an early night.  We have a big day on Friday with a tour from Bradley into the townships and Addo Game park on Saturday.

Culture Questions for Bruce

Professor Steyn-Kotze told us that South Africa has been the laughing stock of the world AIDS conferences in 2006 the chief health minister primary prescription for HIV was beet root, garlic, and the African potato.  Former President Mbeki supported scientists on the fringe who denied the connection between HIV and AIDS; rather, he claimed that AIDS was the result of absolute poverty.  Mbeki fired the health minister only after enormous pressure internationally to rid her and her policies for the sake of the South African people.  In 2005, when Zuma was leader of the National AIDS Council, he admitted to sleeping with a woman who he knew was HIV positive, for which he is on record saying that he protected himself by showering afterward.   

How can the president of a nation holds these ideas?  When asked about his points of view and allegedly underhanded dealings surrounding an acquitted corruption case that led to the dismissal of Thabo Mbeki from office, Zuma replies that he is absolutely not a crook and that the people love and respect him.  It is true that Zuma has a way with the people.  He only achieved about a seventh grade education and spent his life fighting the liberation struggle against the Apartheid government, even suffering imprisonment on Robben Island (same place as Mandela) and exile from South Africa for fifteen years (1975-1990).  For his rise through the political ranks from meager beginnings, he is a hero to the people.  But the people also latch on to his gangster-like attitude and arrogance in his power which allows him to disregard rules and allegedly engage in corruption.  None of the AIDS activists that we are working with buy Zuma’s brand of treatment, but one must wonder the effect it has in more rural areas where it is widely believed that AIDS and any unfortunate event is the result of a curse from a neighbor or townsperson who dislikes one.  How many men are out there eating beetroot and garlic, refusing to test for HIV and sleeping with many women? 

I suspect that Jacob Zuma’s example misleads African men in other ways, too.  Polygamy has a morally strong base in Africa to keep men faithful to their wives rather than searching outside the marriage(s), procreation in an environment of high infant mortality and farming communities that require many hands, and the support that it provides to women in childrearing and company.  Despite acquiring five wives, Zuma still admits to going outside the marriage.  He is publically soiling a viable practice for Africans that, although Westerners don’t usually understand it, is a moral and upstanding tradition.

I cannot say more now, but I am frustrated for the African people.  They trust the African National Congress who brought them out of the Apartheid to lead them to a future with running water, electricity, ARV’s for their AIDS-ridden country, balanced and adequate diet, education for the children, and jobs for the adults.  Zuma is a poor example of leadership at a time when South Africa needs people who can take responsibility and achieve goals to bring about the true democracy that they have been moving towards for seventeen years.