going deeper / Going Deeper After two weeks, I went deeper into the local language universe (dominated by English, because I do not speak any other of the 11 official languages \u200b\u200bof Africa deSud), but also in the spirit of the city of Cape of Good Hope. We found I think some lyrics that express very well the idea of \u200b\u200bAfrica (my translation):
Africa, you're not a country
a concept outlined in
each of our minds To hide us, each, fears,
To Us Visa, separate dreams.
(Abioseh Nicol, "The significance of Africa")
In recent days I managed to visit some places in Cape Town - otherwise a huge city (2455 km2), which occupies a good part of the peninsula, all suburbs, creating an area metropolitan.
I went by train to the last station on the Indian Ocean coast to Simon's Town, to visit the Pebbles Beach (Boulders Beach) - a place famous for its African penguins who gather here and also a protected area. I went to do some volunteering at CDRA, or Community Development Resource Association (www.cdra.org.za), which is headquartered in Woodstock neighborhood, a multiracial areas of Cape Town's (even during the apartheid ). From there I went to the Observatory (and I can not help but think of Cluj ...), which is a very crowded area and about international students because there are many different non-African countries. Also, I am very lucky with my hosts, which I always invite them in various "movements" that we do around here. Thus, an accompanying Sue walks almost every day on the mountain and we were one of them Muizenberg most beautiful beaches - a place famous for the large number of surfers who come here (and I took a bath in the Indian Ocean, which he is quite cold!)
am still shocked by how strong he feels, here, colonialism and all its manifestations - visible or not. Many cities in the Indian Ocean coast talking about the white settlers (mostly Dutch and British) who have tried to re-create his own universe in a very different place, physically and spiritually to Europe! I think almost continuously the attitude to be that these people had a new face to the world that have found it and they have destroyed a large extent on how devastated inside them must have been for as initiators so many acts of cruelty. No I never felt in my life, so that the guilty are white as I feel now. Moreover, I never questioned my skin color until I came here. Although they say about Cape Town and Western Cape province of those places that are less African in South Africa, I happen to go by train or on the street and I feel out of place due to the fact that there are "white." It is also an unpleasant and strange feeling, because it's as if I re-live the whole bloody history of oppression of blacks by local populations contain my white Europeans ... Of course similar things have happened in many other places in the world, throughout history (including my own country), but this seems I feel it much more acute than anywhere else I've been (except, perhaps, Auschwitz).
For a white person is not too pleasant thing to walk the streets of Cape Town areas, if you're sensitive to all the above, or if they touch you as little, deep down. Many parts of town are considered unsafe or unaffordable for whites - and you immediately realize it, how to get there. Blacks living in these areas are generally rather poor ordinary workers, who either left their villages and traditional way of life that to look for work "in the big city (where they have sufficient income to maintain and living in very precarious conditions) or were brought to work in various factories. In some cases may even be far descendants of various indigenous populations that were colonized blacks here. By default, there is immense frustration about white people who introduced and maintains a broad and deep social injustice in a place where the nature of things, had no right to do so. Is it "jungle law" applicable and people, but how far we can push the feelings of superiority?
I feel that this city is a place for anyone, "used" in a very interesting (but not necessarily equal) of whites and blacks alike. Preserves the atmosphere today, somehow, the sense of apartheid (which perhaps we do not we can actually understand, because I have not lived) quickly detect it, smell it easily, although you were never not known officially, those days ended in 1994.
For more information (summary) about apartheid can enter http://www.unmultimedia.org/photo/subjects/apartheid.html
Yes, says South Africa is a beautiful country and is in Cape Town truly a wonderful tourist destination, but it seems to me that if you come here with the simple intention to see the major tourist attractions, wildlife or enjoy the beach and sun, you do not really understand the spirit of these places - beautiful, but so disturbed in their history. And the deal is, I think, less comfortable, so Maybe more visitors to these places do not want it to have.
I added pictures to the photo gallery on Picasa. You will not find anything in Woodstock, because I declined to take with me valuable things there. I hope you enjoy and come back, because ... to come! **
tissue lines come to me so much more in English now, for I have Been "Exposed" to the English environment of Cape Town and it is so Powerful. I have found a set of Verses that I believe is very expressive about the idea of \u200b\u200bAfrica:
You are not a country, Africa
You are a concept in our minds
Fashioned, Each to each, To hide our separate
Fears ,
To dream our separate dreams.
(Abioseh Nicol, “The Meaning of Africa”)
I have only been visiting a few places in Cape Town over the past few days. I have taken the public train to Simon’s Town, the last station along the coast of the Indian Ocean, in order to visit Boulders Beach – a gathering place for penguins and of course, a nature reserve. I went to Woodstock, one of the few multiracial areas of Cape Town (even during Apartheid), where the Community Development Resource Association is located (www.cdra.org.za) and then I also took a short walk through Observatory, a rather busy area with an international flavour, because of the many non-African students who come here for internships or such. I am very lucky to have wonderful hosts who include me in their different movements around the area – so I join Sue on most of her morning hikes on the mountains that stretch along the Cape Peninsula and I have also been with them to one of the nice beaches in Muizenberg – an area particularly attractive to surfers.
It is surprising how impregnated this place is with colonialism and all of its manifestations – physical as well as spiritual. Many small towns along the coast of the Indian Ocean speak about the white settlers (mostly Dutch and British), who came ashore bringing along a whole other universe and initiating some sort of a strange cultural and geographic patchwork. I can’t stop wondering what was the attitude that these people came here with and that allowed for so much destruction and devastation. How devastated could they have been inside that they effected such cruel behaviours upon the new world they found? I’ve never felt so guilty about being a white person as I do now. I have never even questioned the colour of my skin before coming to Africa. They say that Cape Town and the Western Cape are the least African places in South Africa. Still, I walk in the street or take the train and find myself somewhat displaced – or in the wrong place – because of the colour of my skin. It is a terrible feeling, as if I were re-living the entire history of the white oppression of the black peoples here. Of course similar things have happened in so many other places in the world – including my own country – but the spirit of the places here withholds that in a much stronger way than in any other place I have been to (except, probably, Auschwitz).
For a white person, walking alone in the streets of Cape Town is not such a pleasant thing to do, if you are sensitive to all of the above or have the lightest touch of them in your heart. There are many areas of Cape Town that are considered unsafe or even non-walkable for the white and you immediately understand why. The black people living in those areas are mostly low-class workers, poor people who have left their villages and traditional lifestyles to follow the mirage of endless employment in Cape Town, or were brought here to work in various factories or maybe they are even followers of some black African populations that were colonized here. There is consequently a lot of frustration and negativity about the whites. I feel that Cape Town is a place that does not belong to anyone and is “shared” by the black and the white. The current-day atmosphere still keeps the feeling of Apartheid very much alive, even though it officially ended in 1994. There is some succinct information on Apartheid in South Africa on http://www.unmultimedia.org/photo/subjects/apartheid.html
Yes, South Africa is a beautiful country and Cape Town is a wonderful tourist destination, but I guess that coming here with the mere intention to visit a series of tourist attractions or enjoy the sun, the beach or the wildlife does not really allow for a real understanding of this wonderful but troubled place. However, I tend to feel Understanding That this is rather uncomfortable, so most of the visitors of Cape Town probably do want to reach it note. There is Some
That I have uploaded more photos on my Picasa gallery - however, none from Woodstock, Taking Because I avoided my room with me. Hope you'll enjoy - and There's more to come!
