Mzansi Toujours

After three months in South Africa, I am at a loss on how to best summarize my experience, what I’ve learned, and what has “stuck.” Perhaps more than anything else is the way that South Africa continues to defy categorical explanations. It is an incredibly old country; many claim that the San Bushmen living in the area are in fact the oldest form of Homo sapiens to walk the planet. Afrikaans and British history date all the way back to the 17th century. Yet, South Africa as we know it today is among the youngest nations in the world: a new, free South Africa has only been in place since 1994 at the end of the Apartheid regime. It faces the political and economic challenges of a country still trying to assure its footing in the socio-environment of a well-established, richly historical territory.

As I have explained in previous entries, South Africa lies at the threshold of development while also facing the extreme challenges of developing countries. Communities are grossly unequal from one to the next, and the spillover effects alter the underlying nature of all these communities. An entrenched white class of privilege lingers from the Apartheid era but a rising Black elite controls the reigns of political power. Affirmative action in employment strives to overturn deeply rooted racial inequalities by disadvantaging those historically advantaged.

The face of South African racial issues is so often painted in Black and White to the outside world, but the real dynamics are much more complicated than that. Cape Town’s coloured community is actually the majority group in the region, and their South African history also dates back centuries on the continent. In addition to the multiple ethnic distinctions among South African blacks, even Whites divide into Afrikaans and British camps. The mix of Xhosa, Zulu, Afrikaans, Indians, British, Cape Malay, Ndabele, ex-pats, and refugees truly makes South Africa a rainbow nation with an insatiably pluralistic national identity.

Much like the United States, South Africa is a nation characterized by the juxtaposition of fervent conservatism and progressive liberalism. The country’s conservatism dates back to the separatist ideology of Apartheid but flourishes today with the enormous population of evangelical Christians. In more rural areas ethnic groups cling to age-old values. South Africa’s constitution, on the other hand, is one of the most progressive Constitution’s in the entire world. Minority groups of all shape, size, and form receive both legal protection and advocacy. South Africa is the only African state, for instance, which guarantees homosexuals complete legal protection. Still masses of the population are anti-Gay. Gay pride parades pass through downtown Cape Town while lesbians are murdered in townships and raped in order to “turn them straight.” The Constitution guarantees all individuals the right to access education, clean water, and housing. In praxis there are substantial gaps between these proclaimed rights and achieved ones, however. Many live their lives without proper housing and education.

To answer the question: “What is South Africa?” or even “What is South Africa like?” thus proves nearly impossible. It is a nation of nuance, diversity, history, and future. Who knows where South Africa will be in the next century? Their open door policy brings in thousands of refugees, asylum seekers, immigrants, students, and laborers. From my own experience working at the Cape Town Refugee Centre I have witnessed first hand the rapidly changing dynamic of the Western Cape. It is not unlike New York City at the turn of the 20th century, I thought one day. People are pouring into the region and literally constructing its future socio-scape. Look how much the United States has changed over the past century and you can imagine what might be in store for South Africa. Adding 21st century globalization to the equation only further complicates the matter.