Cape Town: A Drop in the Ocean

Yesterday, we went to a township called Bonteheuvel outside of Cape Town. Before I talk about the actual visit, I want to explain what the townships are and how they developed.

When the apartheid regime came into power in the late 1940s, the nation was full of different races, namely the blacks of the nine main African tribes, the Afrikaans and English-speaking whites who were descended from the colonizers of earlier days, the Indians, the Malays and the mixed race of people who are descended from some or all of these groups.

These races had lived mostly in harmony until the apartheid regime happened. As such, Cape Town were a diverse mix of people. The apartheid regime began an aggressive campaign of forcibly removing the blacks and the "coloureds" (everyone who was not wholly white or black) from Cape Town and pushing them out into the Cape Flats, an inhospitable and largely unsettled area outside of the cities. The blacks and coloureds were essentially put into concentration camps which developed into the townships. These areas had lower quality education than that of the cities and had no recreational facilities for youth. They were breeding grounds for gangs, which thrived then and now in these areas. Violence and drug addiction skyrocketed. Those in the townships had little hope for a better future, given that achievement past a certain level was forbidden by the state. They had been torn from their homes and their neighborhoods (people who had lived in a certain district of Cape Town would be relocated in different townships) and were suddenly treated as non-citizens of their own countries.

Now that apartheid is over, as of 1994, people can move around as they please. But the gang culture and everything that accompanies it (violence, drugs, black market arms, prostitution) is embedded in the townships. Families were fractured and torn apart all those years ago, and the voids have never been filled for the younger generations. Economic equality is slowly, slowly coming about, but for the people in these areas, higher education and good jobs might as well be on the moon for all the access they have to them. (The Black Economic Empowerment is in place, but that still has a ways to go and leaves out a lot of mixed race people.)

This is where Bonteheuvel, a largely coloured settlement, comes in. We went yesterday and met Omar, who was placed in the township in the 1960s. He told us about the development of gang culture and also the struggle for freedom from apartheid. A lot of the young men who were involved in the liberation struggle in the 1970s and 1980s were in and out of jail and fell into drugs to deal with their lives. A woman who has lost three children to gang violence in Bonteheuvel told us: "You must stay together. You cannot give in to despair, or you are dead."

We went into the library, which is quite nice and has a lot of programs to help kids learn and keep them busy, and to one of the preschools, where we met one of the most passionate men I've ever encountered in my life. His name is Mike, and he prepares kids for kindergarten. He loved those little kids so much, and they listened to every word he said. He told us,"This is where my heart is. And every year, we have a little graduation...and I cry at every bloody one! You take care of these kids, some from 3 months old, and then you have to let them go. I can't let go." He had them sing the South African national anthem for us (it's in 5 different languages) and it was the most adorable things ever (these kids are like four). This man makes very little money and works in a gang-infested area for love of these little children, who he believes are the country's future. It's a beautiful thing. Mike may just be a drop in the ocean, but he's doing a lot of good.

We then went to Mamelani, a program for young men who have been on the street, that teaches them skills so that they can get jobs and tries to help them stay off of drugs. We talked to the guys about what they want to do in five years, and they all said something that related to preventing others from experiencing what they had in their childhoods.

"I want to be a father," one said. "I want to be one of those parents who has a permanent job and who is there for his kid. I want to be a dad."

I think that speaks for itself.

Today, we spent the morning at Robben Island, where Nelson Mandela was imprisoned for 18 years. Many other political prisoners were kept there during the apartheid years. I'd talk more about prison conditions if this post wasn't so long already. But what struck me was the fact that ex-prisoners showed us around the prison--many have moved back to Robben Island (which is no longer a prison) in order to preserve the memory of where South Africa has been. And they say they are now friends with the guards that beat them and locked them up--they have forgiven them. It was a theme of the place, and it's a theme of the country. The oppressed have forgiven the oppressors. Have they really? But the fact that they are at least trying says a lot.

On a less serious note, we spent the rest of the day in the Winelands, essentially the Napa Valley of South Africa. Northwestern arranged for us to go do wine tastings at two different vineyards. I have no idea why, but they did. It was fun, but I HATE wine. Especially red wine. It was a weird day today--serious history and heavy drinking. Apologies for the long post!