Sun Rises Over Africa

I watched the sun rise over Dakar and set in Cape Town. I am in Africa!!! Cape Town's beauty is unimaginable, its complexity unspeakable. Shocking as it may sound I have gone almost silent. From the airport I passed acres of shanty shacks held together by little more than tin cans (literally) and ascended through the city to gated colonial homes and trendy shops. Immediately I felt the weight, the anger, the shame of Apartheid oppression and its not even my home. What does post South Africa look like? I don't think I can say yet. I see the segregation and tentative relationships across cultural lines and it reminds me of 60's era U.S. I also see beauty, and this strange sense of accomplishment and hope, a newness, a sense of rebirth. However, I can't truly say what it is that I am seeing. I have not been inside this place long enough to see if these initial perspectives are accurate, if they are my own American lens. It could be that there may be much I can't see because of where I come from. Hence the silence, I will see what I can. I can say with definite certainty that I am have an experience unlike that of my group. What I feel here is heavy, pulling, speaking to me so that I cannot yet speak.

These first few days of this learning experience have been about framing the history of colonialism, South Africa and Apartheid. We have already perused downtown, traveled by Kombi (a van like Taxi run by Black South Africans) all the way to the Black Townships and visited the water side tourist spots. This initial part of the journey is the "White South African" experience. We are living in a beautiful bed and breakfast in a pristine White neighborhood, guarded by gates, alarms and patrolmen. Soon we will go to live with our families in the Black Town Ships and experience another South Africa all together.

Black or White, South Africa is fecund and vital. Something has happened here, something is happening, something will happen. I could not be more grateful to be here.

LOVE!

Forgot the USB cord so no pics this time :-( But promise to post some from here on out.

Bon Voyage!!

The time is upon me and I'm strangely calm. Of course I've been running around, preparing, trying to read up to understand this phenomena called the Truth and Reconcillation comission but I am ridiculously unanxious. Okay that's not quite true, I do have to admit to quite a few travel anxiety dreams...I arrive and everything I've packed is totally wrong. I am, I think, ready for this. This trip coming together has been miracle upon miracle...I have no other way to describe it except that I'm loved and supported by an amazing community of brilliant people who inspire and propel me.

We had a party, so many people could not make it, but we had tons of fun with those who did and I definitely got a good send off. It's real, I'm going, stay tuned...next post, South Africa!

Cry Freedom

Watched Cry Freedom again yesterday. I had not seen it since I was a child and its relevance to my trip hit me right in the heart. For those of you who are unfamiliar, Cry Freedom is a true story about Bantu Stephen Biko (played by hot, hot Denzel Washington) who was a South African organizer and activist who espoused Black Consciousness as a method for combating apartheid. For his political activities he was tapped, followed, harassed, banned and finally murdered in police custody.

The brutality of such regimes astounds me. How can we, as human beings, dehumanize one another to the level of such ghastly cruelty? Does it happen when we become so dogmatic in our beliefs that we are blinded from seeing anothers very humanity? Where can we even begin to have respect for varying worldviews while prioritizing global COMMUNITY!! Will "scarcity", politics and economics always determine the quality of our relationships?

In the movie Stephen Biko is termed a terrorist, Nelson Mandela was also termed thusly, which makes me question, who are terrorists? Is this term relative? Nebulus? Is it another justifying quanitfier? Was MLK a terrorist? Were the founding fathers terrorists? Who will be our future terrorists?

The Miracle

So it was like three weeks until I was suppose to depart and I had no ticket, I was freaking out. My dream of a South African reality was slipping away. However, I did not let it go. I knew that this is my time to go and not going was not an option. I could not get dishearted and give up. It was then that my miracle ticket came through and I have my friends and family to thank!!! It's official, I'm going to South Africa!!! Still a bit of fundraising to do, but I have ticket in hand and nothing to stop me. It's all coming together. It's a challenge not being a traditional student, but this is my time and I could not be happier!

No Justice No Peace

One of the primary reasons I decided to embark on this particular journey is to delve deeper into self, history and social reality. For me South African history, socio-political reality and struggles, paralell, to some degree, those faced by African Americans. I have some fuzzy ideas about how this may be so, which I plan to further explore in Cape Town. I need to see what restorative justice looks like. How can I import this concept to the U.S.? Can it translate? Is it a universal ideal, or a geographically specific miracle??

I'm suppose to depart in three weeks and still scraping the dimes together, but God willing and the creek don't rise, it will come together, albeit last minute. Well, what's new for me? :-)