Posts

As I read part II of Winnie Mandela, one specific chapter stood out to me as I was able to step foot in the prison that she was sentences to a year in solitary confinement for. Chapter 11, “A year in solitary confinement” goes in to great detail about what horrible conditions Winnie was put through as she was ripped out of her house in the middle of the night and taken from her children, not to see them for eighteen months. This entire chapter really stood out to me because it gave a real life description of what went on with the Mandela family.

In the book, after Winnie is taken away, a quote for Nelson Mandela’s book is quoted; “Prison is designed to break one’s spirit and destroy one’s resolve. To do this the authorities attempt to exploit every weakness, demolish every initiative, negate all signs of individuality- all with the idea of stamping out that spark that makes each of us human and each of us who we are.” Although this quote is not directly from the Winnie Mandela book, it was quoted in it so I feel that it is acceptable to use it as a reference. I also feel that this is a very strong quote to both reference this to Nelson and Winnies time in prison.

On this trip, we visited Robben Island where Nelson Mandela and many other political activists were imprisoned wrongly. While here, someone who was imprisoned at the age of 18 with Mandela spoke us to. Listening to him speak as well as having one on one conversations with him was very inspiring. His act of forgiveness and acceptance of what he went though was so inspiring. He told us how things at one point did get better for them in Robben Island, but when he told us what was known as ‘better’ to him, we were all shocked. To him, ‘better’ was having to pick between a hot and cold shower. This shows how horrible things really were for them and it also shows the strength he has to believe that, that was a better condition.

Before Robben Island, we visited Pretoria where Nelson and Winnie both did time. Pretoria is where Winnie was taken for 18 months after being dragged away from her children in the middle of the night. For 18 months, Winnie was sentenced to life in hell but she came out, still strong and fighting for what was right. Like Nelson stated in his book, “Prison is designed to break one’s spirit and destroy one’s resolve,” but prison, solitary confinement specifically, did not break Winnies spirit. To me, this is so incredible and it shows how strong her determination is. Furthermore, not only did Winnie come out strong, but Nelson as well. Although they did not do the same time, Nelson much longer than Winnie, they both came out strong and their spirits were not broken like expected.

After reading Winnie Mandela’s biography, I could relate it to the prisoner’s discussion with us at Robben Island. He was only 18 years old when he got sent to Robben Island for blowing up an Apartheid building. He had a life and girlfriend, but that was all taken away when he was sentenced for 7 years. He told his girlfriend that she needed to move. I thought that was very respectful, and showed her that he really did care about her. He knew that it wasn’t fair to expect her to wait and not live her life. It made me think of how most of the prisoners had wives and girlfriends. It must have been difficult to see their loved ones get sentenced for many years, especially when a lot can change over the years. The prisoners and their loved ones had to really sacrifice for one another. It makes me sympathize for the loved ones of the prisoners, particularly for the wives. Not only did the wives lose their husbands, but they had to run the household, and be both the father and the mother. I empathize with Winnie Mandela, and now have a better understanding what Winnie must have gone through when Mandela was in prison. In Anne Marie du Preez Bezdrob’s book, Winnie Mandela a Life, she depicts to reader’s the struggle that Winnie Mandela went through and the sacrifices she made for a better South Africa. She had to keep her husband’s legacy going. She needed to be a role model, and a leader to the people. It must have been nerve racking; especially, because she was a woman who at that time was taking on a man’s job. Throughout history, women have always had to work harder for power. That’s why sons are so much more valuable to men. The question though is why? Women are just as capable as men. The only difference is what are bodies can do. Men carry on the last name, but why not women. Men earn more than women. Men have always had the upper hand. Even Winnie Mandela’s father was disappointed when she was born. However, you never know what someone is capable of; especially someone who lost everything from the Apartheid. She lost her best friend: her husband. However, why as women do we should we have to face doubt. Even from the time we are born. In Winnie Mandela a Life states, “When Nomathansanqa Gerturde Madikizela went into labour, there still was nothing to indicate that the day might mark something special. The new baby’s cry should have elicited happy exclamations and congratulations. Instead, initial reaction of the birth of Gertrude’s fifth child was mute disappointment. It was a girl.” (13)  Why during that time could a father not think that their daughter could become something great. Later in the paragraph, the author writes, “Little could the Madikizelas have known that the tiny girl to whom they had given such miserly welcome would become an icon of the twentieth-century South Africa, and leave an imprint larger and more important than any other women.” (13) Not only did Winnie have to raise her kids on her own, but she was able lead people to fight for their rights. She was banished and put into confinement, but that didn’t stop her for fighting. Most men would have given up. Not only should societies worry about racism but also equality amongst genders. Through Winnie’s biography book, I have learned women are just as strong as men, and that the women that the prisoners of Robbin Island left behind to serve their sentence just as strong if not stronger because they had to carry on the struggle on alone.

Yesterday, we went to the District 6 Museum, and I thought it was a really moving experience.  We heard from an old man who experienced the horrors of Apartheid and how it impacted his family all while living District 6.  The way he conveyed his story to us was genuine. He told us that even though there were bad times there were also good times.  I thought it was also interesting that he still doesn’t support certain things that remind him of the Apartheid, for example rugby.  It is crazy that the Apartheid government officials broke up this community because of their own racist views. District 6 was filled with Jews, Colors, Blacks, and other races.  It caused families to have broken homes. He talked about how his best friend was separated from his wife and three kids because they were considered black, and he was colored. He had to get a paper saying he could visit them. Based off what the tour guide said, his friend could only visit his family only once every three months for two hours. Which I just don’t understand how a human being can do that to another human being.  Families were torn apart, and their lives were ruined. It was due to the color of their skin. I could see there being a lot of tension between different racists, which could been cause gangs. It was neat walking around the museum looking at the pictures, and to see firsthand what District Six looked like, especially since I read A Walk in the Night by Alex La Guma, which is about District 6.  The story is about a man named Michael Adonis, who lives in District 6 and just got fired for being too “lazy” to his white foreman. The book tells the story of Michael’s walk through the night, and help depicts the scenery of District 6, the prostitution, gangsters, and thugs. Guma shows us the culture of the place.  I can especially relate to the picture on the wall outside the District Six Museum of the gangs.  It reminds me of the part of the book when Michael is in the Portuguese Café. When I saw that picture, I thought of Foxy’s gang, and how that must have been similar to the gang dressed liked and looked like. The ironic part about the book is that Foxy’s gang teases Michael for being a “good boy”; however, by the end of the night Michael ends up killing Doughty, and Willieboy ends up getting accused for the murder and killed by the police. In the end of the book Michael Adonis ends up joining the gang.  In the end of the book, A Walk in the Night, the author writes, “You’re ready, pally?” “Naturally. Why not? What about the scared boggers?” “Who’s scared?” the boy with the scarred face asked. Then added sullenly: “Your, mother, man.”  “And yours too, pally,” Michael Adonis said, smiling and led the way to the door. They all went out and Foxy turned off the lights and locked the door.” (90) He is now that thug and gangster.  By the end of the night Michael was part of the gang, and the cultural of District Six that was so famous for the gangs that was depicted by the picture that the museum had on its outside wall. Michael was no longer that “good boy”, but that “thug.”

Now that it is week two and I have finished Bessie Heads book, When Rain Clouds Gather, I am able to form a final thought on the book. It was overall a very good book and it was able to push the understanding of the different stories people have from the time of the apartheid. One quote that caught my eye the most out of the entire book was, “prejudice is like the old skin of a snake. It has to be removed bit by bit.” This quote makes me think of Nelson Mandela and how he had to work over time or ‘bit by bit’ to push to get rid of prejudice ways.

On May 16, we took a trip to Robben Island to get a look at where Nelson spent many years imprisoned for his political activism. While there, we were given a tour guide who was imprisoned with Mandela. He went into grave detail about how life was at Robben Island. When sentenced, this man was 18 years old and Mandela was much older than him and had already been a prisoner for a while. Personally, I felt that this man that spoke to us with such dignity was one of the most inspiring people I have ever encountered with.

To relate back to the reading, Mandela had gone through ‘hell’ and back while fighting for the prejudice to end. After being released from Robben Island, he eventually became president of South Africa and was able to change life for everyone drastically. Although it took many years to get to where it was when he was still alive and where it is now, things could be better than they are. Things still are not as great as they should be for South Africans and after living there for two weeks I really hope that Mandela’s ways of life can be carried on and life will improve over there.

May 22, 2017

Today, I am currently recovering from an amazing trip that has completely exhausted every single part of me. As I think about all of the amazing things I did while in Cape Town such as visit the District 6 Museum, look at all of the historic sites in the City Centre, visit the renowned Robben Island, and even have enough time to visit the penguins on the white sandy beaches; I do believe that one visit to Cape Town University was my overall favorite of this week. For starters, before getting to the campus, I did not know that we would be having lunch with some of the faculty as well as current students there. While at the table, I sat next to a girl named Thembi, who is a senior majorinf in English, Public Relations, and Media. While we ate, she and I talked about normal things such as the best places to go get makeup or hair done, the best clubs in town, and even things that I did not think she would know much about like YouTube. I was pleasantly surprised to find out that Thembi was not much different than the people that I hang out at school with. Now looking back, I believe that I underestimated how much Thembi had to offer because of these preconceived notions of me being American (perhaps superior?) and assuming that because she was from a different country other than mine, that she knew nothing about the things that I did. Nevertheless, Thembi and I hit it off and she even invited us to attend one of her lectures so we could see how a class usually works in this campus setting. Before going to class though, my classmates and I asked her various questions about growing up in South Africa. She told us that she was originally from Johannesburg and that she had grown up being the youngest with two older brothers. Being born just shy of the ending of apartheid, she informed us that even though her parents had experienced it and seen the effects in real time, she and her brothers were often aloof to what was going on around them because even though apartheid claimed to end in 1994 it didn’t really stop there. Previously knowing that it was somewhat difficult for an African woman just to survive simply because of her role as a woman in society, I decided to ask Thembi if she ever felt any pressures from home and how she was personally treated in her household. She did tell me that while she was the only girl, and the baby at that, it did not stop her father and brothers from being extremely hard on her emotionally.They often depended on her as being another version of the mother, in a sense. She said that even her mother taught her at a very young age that she needed to learn how to do simple household things: cook, clean, know how to keep your husband happy, etc. When she decided to go to college, hers mother was not as upset as I thought they might be, but instead her mother wanted her to find a husband while she was away.Her father was against her going in the first place because he did not think she needed a college education. Thinking back to myself being a young woman in college, close in age to Thembi, I look back on my childhood and realize that I was taught at a young age to clean up after myself, getting an allowance to do certain chores around the house, and other things of that nature. However, I did not think my parents were attempting to prepare me for being a wife and a mother by making me sweep the kitchen at nine years old.Also, as i thought about being in highschool preparing fro college, it was never a question of if i could or should go to school, it was simply a matter of where i wanted to go. I stopped here to think that perhaps here is where a sense of privilege came from (maybe from being an American or because of my place in the social class) because my parents never attempted to influence me not to go to school because the general consensus in America is that college is almost always the next step if you want to be successful. This was perhaps one of (if not the only) time on this trip that our cultural differences really became apparent to me, maybe because instead of an older man or woman relaying his life story to me and what he had to go through; I was much more open and understanding of Thembi’s story because of the closeness in age and our bond over similar interests. Over the weekend, I began to read bits and pieces of Gary Siedman’s article, entitled No Freedom without the Women, which to my understanding, essentially meshes together the different ways that South African women were being systematically oppressed by not having any rights before or after apartheid in many sectors. It was only after years of pushback from women for better pay in the workplace, ending subordination, etc. You might be wondering how does this article relate to Thembi’s story. Well, my take on Thembi’s story is that her family and her culture raised her in such a way that was mostly meant for her to be somebody else’s everything, whether it be her parents, her brothers, her husband, or her children and she was raised to think that it was okay not to have aspirations and goals. But somehow Thembi knew this was not what she wanted to do, and still pursued her dreams of attending school. It is women like her that were able to move forward their demands for equal rights in every sector of government, business, and politics. Without them, women would still be at an even greater disadvantage than they had previously been in (because the problem is not completely solved) and it is people like Thembi that are put in these situations to break the mold. A woman being bold and standing up for what she believes in does not make her crazy nor does it make her ungrateful for what men have given her up to this point; it simply is not enough. In my opinion, I want to know that I matter, that I was able to make a difference, not just be someone’s wife and mother.

Growing up, I heard a lot about organizations or mission groups dedicated to “helping” or “saving” Africa. Our class even watched a satirical video about doing charity work in Africa, using a lot of the clichés—such as referring to Africa as an entire country without specifying which country or issues are being addressed—that I would see in actual ad campaigns for these charity groups. I’ve thought a lot about whether Western intervention in helping disadvantaged groups in Africa, so when the UA in South Africa group visited District 6 and the District 6 museum on May 18, 2017, I was lucky to be able to learn more about some of the problems that arise when Western governments “help” through intervening in places like District 6 in Cape Town, South Africa.

When we first arrived to District 6, we stopped in an open field, and our tour guide, Daryl, gave us a run down of what had happened there. During the apartheid era, many racial groups lived in District 6, which conflicted the policies of separating races, so in the 1970s, thousands of nonwhite people were forcibly removed from the area. The government destroyed much of District 6’s buildings and roads, and today, only a few buildings from the original District 6, such as a few places of worship, remain. Most of the area now is completely unrecognizable compared to how it looked before.

At the District 6 Museum, we received a tour from a District 6 resident named Noor Ebrahim. Noor and his family used to live in District 6 but were forced to leave in the 1970s, so his perspective on the issue was very personal. We got a taste of what life was like for those who lived in the small, cramped houses in District 6. One thing that shocked me was how many fond memories Noor had of District 6 before its destruction, despite the area being very poor and a seemingly undesirable place to live. After the tour, our group discussed why he would speak positively of the old district. Daryl made a good point about how despite living in an oppressive society, people still have sentimental and happy moments.

The apartheid government justified demolishing District 6 by claiming that it was run-down. Today, it looks much nicer in some areas of the district, but it isn’t the same place. One of my readings, Nervous Conditions by Tsitsi Dangarembga, is about a girl named Tambu who is able to study at a missionary school in Zimbabwe after her brother dies and about the experiences she faces navigating a whitewashed and white-centered space. At one point in the novel, she discusses her brother who had learned English and lost his ability to speak his first language. Dangarembga writes, “When Nhamo came home at the end of his first year… he was no longer the same person … All this was good, but there was one terrible change. He had forgotten how to speak Shona… This restricted our communication to mundane insignificant matters” (52-53). I believe this quote reflects the problems with “helping” Africa. People in Tambu’s family believed learning English would liberate them, but in actuality, it hindered their connections with each other. I question what people in developed areas are supposed to do in impoverished areas like District 6 that struggle due to colonialism and white supremacy, but I don’t have any answers.

For much of the study abroad program, the group’s tour guide, Darryl, emphasized the various transfers of power in South Africa. From Dutch to English rule, to the rise and fall of the apartheid government, to the subsequent election of Nelson Mandela and the establishment of the ANC (or African National Congress) as the party of liberation, freedom, and democracy.

In the famously banned book July’s People, Nadine Gordimer depicts an alternative future in which South Africa has succumbed to civil war in order to rectify the indignities perpetrated by the apartheid government. The novel specifically follows the displacement of the Smales, a family of White South Africans who seek refuge from the war in the village of their longtime Black servant July.

The transfer of power in the novel is evident first and foremost in the book’s title. As a man of color in South Africa whose voice had been systematically silenced for years, as had those of his forebears, July’s name is presented on the cover and it is by his will and kindness that the Smales have a place to seek refuge from the national conflict. In their rapidly changing world, the Smales had to learn to defer to new authority figures, “paying respects to the chief” of July’s village in the hopes of safely surviving the civil war (p. 210).

While July’s People ends ambiguously with no real resolution, I would like to draw connections between the transfer of power from colonizer (for whom Bam and his family are symbols) to the colonized (July and the Black Africans of the time). I think this is in direct relation to Darryl’s explanations of various historical sites and museums that we visited over the course of the program as well as current events surrounding President Zuma.

According to Darryl, the struggle went on for so long to end apartheid that when the time came, many of the freedom fighters who had not been executed were elderly and did not could not serve long terms in various political offices. As a result, the next generation of ANC politicians in particular were often more concerned with their jobs and less concerned about keeping the struggle alive, often choosing not to recognize what was apparent to their predecessors: apartheid ceased to exist as a legal form of rule, but many of the inequalities that stemmed from apartheid were limiting progress.

In the case of President Zuma, he is only one of many politicians across the continent who has been elected through a democratic process but has chosen to use his authority to better the quality of life of his own family at the expense of the millions of people he has been entrusted to serve.

While this is not an issue unique to South Africa or even Africa, I believe that the ambiguity presented in July’s People and the process of the transfer of power that she depicts is deeply reflective of the current state of affairs in South African politics, nearly forty years since the publishing of the novel. In other words, with so many transfers of power throughout time, it becomes harder and harder to define any group of leaders in binary terms such as good or bad.

On May 18, 2017, I was given the opportunity to observe a seminar at the University of Cape Town. The seminar was about DRUM, a magazine created for black South Africans. On the day we visited, three students were giving presentations on pieces from the magazine. One student discussed a story written by a coloured (the South African term for a people of mixed race) writer. In this story, he demonstrates resentment towards his mixed race identity, claiming that he considers himself black. After the students finished their presentations, the class began to discuss identity in South Africa, especially about what it means to be coloured. The professor would call out specific students who were mixed race for their opinions, which honestly surprised me because I think it would be considered tokenizing to do that in the United States.

Much of the discussion was really interesting to hear from an outsider’s perspective. I heard many things that I’ve heard from previous discussions on race, but I normally only hear American perspectives. The conversation gradually evolved from a conversation about mixed race identity to one about what it means to be African. Many students discussed the issues of generalizing the continent and referring to it as a country. One student even mentioned an essay we had to read for our own class, “How to Write About Africa.” It seemed like the issue that they emphasized was the fact that being “authentically” African means to be living in a developing nation, which doesn’t exactly match the experiences of most people living in Cape Town. One of our UA students mentioned to the class that one of her friends back home said that South Africa isn’t the “real” Africa because it’s the “white man’s land.” The class also briefly discussed the term African American, since one of the UA students mentioned that she prefers being called black instead of African American similarly to the mixed race writer resenting being called coloured.

Conversations about race are complex. So many people have different takes on racial identity. The one writer discussed in class may consider himself black rather than coloured, but all of the mixed race students in the seminar made it clear that they consider the experiences of being coloured much different from being a black African. Alex La Guma writes about about black identity in America and Africa in his short story, “A Walk in the Night.” Michael Adonis, the protagonist, is arguing with a taxi driver and a man named Greene about moving to the United States. When one of them mentions a lynching in the States, Michael says, “Well, the negroes isn’t like us… Any way those whites are better than ours, I bet you,” to which the taxi-driver replies, “They all the same all over” (15). Although the characters are intoxicated, the scene reflects the complexity of identity, especially when later in the story, Michael, in a drunken rage, murders a white Irishman who lived in the neighborhood. Michael tries to justify his actions by saying, “He was a white man, too. Well, what’s he want to come and live here among us browns for? To hell with him” (41). Although this story is a dramatized work of fiction that represents the experiences of poor black Africans in Cape Town during apartheid, I felt that the conversation in the seminar and the story highlight the lack of certainty in conversations about racial identity. I believe at this point, all we can do is have an honest conversation like the students at the University of Cape Town did and hope that we can each grow as individuals in our own journeys toward equality.

While visiting Robben Island, it was a nostalgic type feeling due to the deep history that was rooted there. Nelson Mandela was jailed there for 27 years of his life simply for fighting against the apartheid and wanting to gain freedom for the black Africans in South Africa. The apartheid began after The National Party took control of the government. As stated in “A History of South Africa” “The National Party used its control of the government to fulfill Afrikaner ethnic goals as well as white racial goals” (Pg. 188). The government started to push black Africans out to land where they would live in shacks with no running water or electricity in the vicinity. The government ceased helping the blacks which led them into a deep poverty. Even education wasn’t the same for them anymore because it was teaching them to be used to abuse and to look clean for the white Africans whom they would presumably end up working for. Relating this back to “Miriam’s Song” and how they would get beaten if their fingernails weren’t clipped and clean or if their hair wasn’t up to the standards the mistresses had. Oppression against blacks and other colored people is a trope that white people have used for years in the worlds history. Nelson Mandela wanted equal rights for everyone in South Africa and fought against that before he was imprisoned to life in prison. I got to see the cell where he was held which was in a section for political prisoners which was no space for a man to live in for 27 years without proper nourishment. The tour guide who was 18 years old when he was imprisoned at Robben Island for 5 years for burning down a government building against the apartheid explained how depending on what race you were there were white doctors who decided what you should be given to eat. More than ever blacks were denied more food than any other racial group in prison. I think back to the mass incarceration we have in America with black men being wrongly jailed for things they didn’t do or where the sentence could’ve been significantly lower. While Nelson Mandela was in prison the apartheid and fight for freedom from the black Africans went on, many men, women and children died. There were plenty of protests and the government wanted Mandela to renounce violence from his prison cell but instead he wanted them to continue fighting against the unjust of the apartheid. Visiting this significant place has put a different view on my stance with fighting for freedom and resistance, especially with the current administration we have in office. I am not comparing the two but it’s important to keep fighting for what you believe in because it’s worth it, I believe the 27 years Nelson spent in prison were worth it for every single black African in South Africa because the reason he was in there was for them, he didn’t give up or in to the government but was released because they knew what they were doing was wrong. So, Robben Island will hold a special place in my heart.

Women are important and vital to every movement people across the world have, they are the anchors that hold men down who may be the frontrunners of resistance and fighting for freedom. In South Africa, black women were ostracized the most, they were under attack from the white oppressors, black men, and even white women who they would work for. Life in general was complicated for black Africans then, there was an outbreak of HIV/AIDS, unwanted pregnancy and more. With abortion being illegal it made it complicated for black girls and women to stay in school and hold jobs. In “Miriam’s Song” Miriam was taken advantage of by a boy she had met whom seemed nice and she ended up pregnant, her mother wanted her to finish school and become something in life as her brother Johannes did by leaving to play college tennis in America. Miriam ended up having her son but heavily ostracized by her family and getting back to school was complicated even though she had her mother’s help. While visiting Soweto it reminded me of reading that book because of how close people live together and the obvious majority of black Africans that live there.

Also, Winnie Mandela kept fighting for freedom while Nelson was in prison but she was betrayed by people she thought she could trust and was later imprisoned for a little over 500 days. In her first initial days, even though she was a woman, she was tortured into getting out false information that wasn’t true. The male officers even punched her in the face and she ended up falling unconscious. Winnie was mistreated in prison throughout doing her time as well as the other women who were jailed as well. We visited where she and nelson were brought at their initial times. Black African women fought more against the white supremacist state, they weren’t keen to being labeled as feminist because the issue was with their skin color during the apartheid. They felt it wasn’t the time then to fight on women’s issues because the black Africans were perished and being murdered for protesting. Yes, there was violence but in my opinion it was deeply needed to get the attention of the people. Our tour guide Daryl explained how the propaganda and media didn’t report on what was happening on the outskirts of Johannesburg and they only got the insight of black Africans acting violently and not the issues in which they were fighting for. The women played a vital role in South Africa during the apartheid, young women too who were forced to become comrades due to them being sick of following the bantu education system which was mentioned in “Miriam’s Song”. I enjoyed this book very much because it showed the view of a black girl growing up during the apartheid and what type of issues as women they would face. Miriam had a child and was cheated on and abused by the child’s father but she ended up getting away and moving to America which was empowering. I know that a lot of people wish to come to America but there are issues here as well that need to be fixed.