Steeped in Apartheid

This morning we had a stereotypically African experience when our service mentor couldn’t make it to our early-morning meeting because her nanny didn’t show up and there was no way to reach her.  Instead, we watched a movie for our Lit class that was directed by Tsitsi Dangeremba, a world-renowned Zimbabwean author who dabbles in film-making.  She will be visiting our class April 13^th. Although the movies left a bit to be desired for in the action, acting talent, plot intricacy, and cinematography categories, I appreciated the emphasis on women’s liberation, music, and class struggles.  I look forward to reading her books and meeting Tsitsi.  After the movie, I grabbed some lunch at Madibaz café on campus (Madiba is Nelson Mandela’s clan name).  Then I wrote a long-needed email to mom and headed to Lit. 

In Lit, we discussed two films and the South African classic Triomf.  Triomf is the new name of a formerly black settlement called Sophiatown.  When the Group Areas Act was inacted in 1950, non-European people were moved from their homes into townships.  Black, Coloured, and Indian people were relocated into townships filled with matchbox houses and no infrastructure in order that they might develop and grow in what President Botha referred to as a policy of “good neighborliness.”  In reality the policy put all non-Europeans away from whites, neither seen nor heard of without permission from white employers who signed non-Europeans’ passbooks to be in white areas.  Sophiatown was a vibrant artsy township outside of Johannesberg that was bulldozed and, as the story Triomf describes, was filled with white-trash families moving into the city to find work.  It is a hard book to read, as it is a string of narratives from different family member’s viewpoints, so there is no overarching plot.  And the characters are all incestuous people who represent the epitome of Apartheid’s aim to ‘take care of your own.’  Needless to say, it is a bit disturbing, but the comic relief is often hilarious, and we were lucky enough to act out those funnier parts in role play in class last week.  Although it’s embarrassing to get in front of one’s class and act like a complete idiot, it set a lighter tone than the normal intense discussions surrounding the incredible harm of Apartheid which fill every one of our classes.

Culture for Bruce

I may not have expressed it before, but it is emotionally taxing rehashing Apartheid events in each class (except Bio).  We are learning about township jazz in music, which is music born of the struggle of being relocated.  In lit everything is about race, class, and gender struggles, and in seminar we are rehashing the Truth and Reconciliation Commission which aimed to put the past behind and move forward as a united country.  It can be depressing when we see these issues drug out and considered from every possible angle.  I never realized how tired I would get, not like bored tired, but just exhausted from trying to really understand what people went through and are still going through because of Colonial rule and its culmination in Apartheid. I really look forward to weekends to try and clear my mind for a while (when I'm not reading about it).