Race Matters

May 25, 2005

We hired a driver to take us around the Western Cape of South Africa on Monday and Tuesday. We visited Table Mountain and the National Park, The Cape of Good Hope (the most breathtaking place I’ve seen) and the Wineland region. Ryan our personal tour guide was Afrikaner and a former policeman right after apartheid ended and during reconstruction.

He was also willing to talk about race issues at the drop of a hat. Driving around the national park, Ryan would point out protea, a beautiful flower native to the region, wild baboons and ostrich. Just as easily, he would bring up the subject of apartheid, segregation and oppression. The car would turn quiet. “What did you say that flower was called again, Ryan?” We were floored that he would bring up the topic while leisurely sightseeing, he was amazed we hadn’t.

We soon found out that all South Africans, not just Afrikaners, but Coloureds and Blacks alike speak openly and freely about the dark days of apartheid. He talked honestly about his role in helping to maintain segregation and incite conflict between communities, about homes being bulldozed and people forced out to the rural provinces. About the poor conditions in townships where blacks were concentrated in large numbers without running water, electricity, transportation and most importantly good employment and schools.

A new democracy is taking hold in South Africa – just ten years young and change is happening, new homes, jobs, educational opportunities, participation in a global community, and a stronger economy. Ryan explained his openness in this way; in America race was political. The people wanted segregation. In South Africa it was structural, the government wanted segregation, not the people. After Nelson Mandela’s release in 1990, he preached over and over not to cover up the past, but talk about it. Talk about it to understand and to heal. And that’s exactly what they do.

Coloured and Black South African’s should have much to be angry about. But all I’ve seen is hope. I’ve met proud people, ready and willing to participate in a new democracy and the global community. I hope they keep talking, especially to us, so that we may learn from them too.

Laura