More newspaper headlines

In browsing the archives of Cape Argus front pages, I've come across some startling images and stories (like the whale leaping onto the yacht, which I've discovered has been quite widely covered and circulated). Many have been entertaining in an "only in South Africa" kind of way, such as the latest episodes of scandal ("Zuma nephew in R71 000 booze row") and a story (also picked up by some North American media) on how some communities across the country, such as of Constantia in the Cape Town area, are "being held hostage" by a marauding troop of rowdy baboons (not to down play the very real danger posed by these primates...).

On a more serious note is coverage of the spike in xenophobic attacks, "Foreigners under attack" and of the on-going high rates of crime. On the crime front, I found particularly disturbing a story on hikers being accosted on Table Mountain's network of trails, "Mountain mugging alert." The article reports on a spate of attacks in some of the most wonderful hiking territory I've ever been in - territory where friends and I hiked while I was in Cape Town (at the same time as some of these attacks happened) and where South Africans I know are certainly still hiking, or perhaps not since a whole list of trails have been declared "'no-go zones' after muggers, brandishing broken bottles and knives, attacked hikers and residents in at least 10 incidents since May."

I had a chance to discuss life in South Africa at a recent dinner party when I was seated across from an American married to a man from Durban. Since the late 90's, they have gone back every other year for an extended visit. She acknowledged the risks and challenges of life there, but also said that, like anywhere, one just needs to pay attention and have some "street smarts." While I agree that I certainly felt "awake" during my stay (an exhilarating but exhausting way to live!), I consider myself lucky to have avoided being a victim of crime. She also mirrored the contradictory feelings that I've been having when she commented that she'd love to live in South Africa, but wouldn't necessarily recommend it to others as a travel destination. I'm eager to talk to people who went to the World Cup about their experiences.

A busy week for South Africa's icons

Last Sunday, July 18th, was Nelson Mandela's 92nd birthday. Celebrations, well covered on the Independent Online (IOL) website, included an appeal from President Zuma for national unity in the spirit of Mandela, a Madiba (Mandela's familiar nickname) "Fan Walk" in Cape Town to oppose xenophobic violence, and prayers that he reach his 100th year.

In an unfortunate twist that recalls an earlier post (see May 30th), armed gunmen attempted to rob Mandela's daughter Zindzi and her four children in their driveway as they returned to their home in Johannesburg. Here's the article in the British Mail Online (note the vigorous debate raging in the comments posted in response to the article).

A front page headline in yesterday's Cape Argus announced the news that South African icon number two, Archbishop Desmond Tutu, has decided to scale back his involvement in - and ultimately retire from - public life. According to a brief article that accompanies a video of Tutu's press conference on IOL, "The 78-year-old cleric and Nobel Peace Prize winner announced at a press conference today that after his birthday on October 7, he would start limiting his time in the office to one day per week until the end of February 2011. After that, he said, he would withdraw entirely from public life."

These moments hint at an uncomfortable reality for both figures: their remaining time is limited. It is hard to imagine South Africa, or the world for that matter, without the voices of these two great men who have been so instrumental and influential as South Africa has sought to emerge from and move beyond its dark apartheid past. Their voices have been exercised so eloquently, so effectively, and with such great moral authority that they have inspired millions and changed our world. Who, I wonder, will step into the void? A momentous question, especially in South Africa.

Terrific radio documentary: Soyinka on South Africa

I heard part of a great radio program the other night. It was a part of the documentary series "The Changing World," a joint project between BBC World Service and PRI (the partnership that produces the daily program "The World"). The description from their website offers this description:

"Nobel Lauriat Wole Soyinka fought apartheid from his native Nigeria. Now, with apartheid long abolished, he visits South Africa and meets with those who are still fighting to improve conditions there."

Soyinka, who narrates this thoughtful travel log, must have been in South Africa earlier this year. He includes discussions with numerous South African writers and also reports on two events I experienced and posted about while in Cape Town: the Equal Education library student protest (March 23rd) and the opening of the Fugard Theatre in District Six (April 9th). MP3 downloads and podcast of the two installments are available on "the Changing World" website.

World Cup post-mortem

Interested in how the hosting of the World Cup was being discussed in South Africa, I took a look at recent articles in my favorite South African newspaper, the Mail & Guardian. There are many articles that take on the question from a range of angles, from "Post-World Cup blues hit SA" to "Banks score from World Cup." I found this to be a particularly good one, "South Africans ponder life after the World Cup." It captures well the tension between optimism and anxiety which characterizes, in my experience, South Africa today. Here are some excerpts:

"That is something this World Cup has brought: nation building and social cohesion."

"The optimism of the early nineties was so unrealistically high that the only way was down. Many South Africans have since become disillusioned about political corruption and cronyism, a chronically slow response to the HIV/Aids epidemic and the failure to lift millions out of poverty.

There is now anxiety among South Africans about a similar fall from the euphoria of the World Cup. Can the momentum be sustained?"

"Not everyone shared in the World Cup honeymoon. Some missed the games because they had neither TVs nor electricity. People still died from Aids, or in poverty, or at the hands of criminals far from the world's cameras. Informal traders were driven out of stadium exclusion zones and protesters claimed they were evicted from their homes.

The voices of dissent, marginalised during the month-long jamboree, are returning to the fore: if we can spend billions on football grounds, why can we not build houses for the homeless or hospitals for the sick? They wonder why it took Fifa, an immovable deadline and a worldwide audience to concentrate minds.

Patrick Bond, director of the Centre for Civil Society, which ran a World Cup Watch project, says: 'The elite have pulled off bread and circuses for the masses. We live in one of the most unequal societies in the world, and we've just seen an amplification of that inequality. The costs will become increasingly clear.'

There are fears that an ugly side of patriotism is about to reveal itself with rumours of a fresh wave of xenophobic attacks on foreign nationals. Mindful of the violence that left 62 people dead two years ago, some are already fleeing back to their home countries or South Africa's rural areas. The army is on the streets and last week Reason Wandi, a Zimbabwean, told how he was thrown from a moving train

South Africans are accustomed to riding incredible highs and apocalyptic lows. They will go to work tomorrow knowing their moment in the sun has passed, and wondering with some anxiety what happens in the shade. But there will also be some lingering epiphanies and quiet satisfaction at what they achieved."

And, of course, South Africa's renowned editorial cartoonists Zapiro is offering his distinctive take on the nation post-World Cup, including the cartoon at the top of this post and this chilling reference to the xenophobic attacks that the article warns about:

Recycling champs attend World Cup game

These learners from Fezeka Secondary School (the high school in Guguletu that I visited frequently) got to attend a World Cup game as a reward for placing third in a recycling contest (see pictures in February 20th post) A brief story is on the Education without Borders website.

Education without Borders (EwB) is a Canadian non-profit that "aims to provide improved educational opportunities and facilities in disadvantaged regions of the world." The EwB website has lots of information about Fezeka, including a video about the school and a link to a blog written by a Canadian teacher who spent 2 and a half years teaching there.

Part of EwB's work at Fezeka has included providing personnel to support the school's programs, including the woman who helped coordinate the recycling effort (while also doing her main job of running a maths tutoring program). The recycling contest was sponsored by Coca Cola and inspired Fezeka learners to gather over 42,000 cans and bottles from their community. Unfortunately, once the contest was over, the school was on its own to sustain the collection program - and this proved too difficult given resource limitations. Hopefully, some other source of help and support can be marshalled to support such efforts at schools throughout the city and province...

SIFF weekend

At the beginning of the summer, Seattle has its annual international film festival (known by its acronym SIFF). It's a pretty big deal, and every few years I carve out the time to make it to a bunch of films. Although this year the incentive was a long weekend visit by Kristina (who chose the great selection of films), often I attend the festival thanks to a friend and former teaching colleague who makes the trip out for it from Pennsylvania whenever he can. He's a big film buff who often sends me his reviews and recommendations. Since he didn't make it this year, I wanted to return the favor. So, here's the report I sent to him on the seven movies we saw (in three days!):

"Mugabe and the White African" - a bleak but important documentary that follows a white Zimbabwean family's efforts to keep their farm in the face of heinous pressure. Complex because we resist the easy default of identifying with the white people in this context, except... they deserve it in many ways.

"Life During Wartime" - billed as quirky independent film with Alison Janney and Allie Sheedy... betrays all promise with a pointless - and tastelessly comedic - romp through the world of pedophilia with some infidelity included. What was anyone involved thinking!? - or what did I/we miss? I'd investigate/seek positive reviews if it were worth it.

"Winter's Bone" - almost brilliantly shot and near-perfectly acted exploration of a young woman struggling to hold on through crisis in a meth-tainted, impoverished community in rural Missouri (about a far from Seattle as I can imagine, and yet it's still America; go figure). Worth watching for.

"Son of Babylon" - we achingly follow a Kurdish woman and her grandson as they travel occupied post-Saddam Iraq trying to confirm the death of the boy's father, just one of the many victims of Saddam's wars. No revelations, but served effectively and without any heavy-handed politics or emotional appeals. Just a raw, real story. A good reminder that we are an occupying nation at war in places populated with other human beings.

"Turn it Loose" - 2009's world break dancing championships in S Africa. Engaging stories and some great dancing footage, but felt at times like a Red Bull (the sponsors) production.

"Cairo Time" - complex story of a Western woman waiting for her husband (working for the UN in the region) to join her for a vacation. Alone in an unfamiliar and not always welcoming city and with only her husband's Syrian colleague to hang out with, introspection and "before sunrise"-esque intimacy ensue - and with the pyramids as a back drop! Acted with terrific realism and depth, and refreshingly shot on site without sterilized locations and trained extras. This one should come to a theatre near you (well, maybe not that near to you...).

"Mao's Last Dancer" - Communist China sends a ballet prodigy to Houston in the 1980's... this could go in many directions, not all of which are good. However, with flashbacks and enthralling dance scenes, the strong cast tells this story with effective sincerity. Although it's a bit "Hollywood" and is sure to get a theatrical release, it deserves it - and it's a true story! This may have been my favorite of the batch; I think Kristina's vote goes to "Cairo Time."

All in all, a wonderful cinematic experience!

Brazen daylight robberies!

Over the Memorial Holiday weekend, I was struck to read about a spree of daylight robberies, all in northern neighborhoods near my Seattle home. According to the article in the Seattle Times, in three separate incidents (it would later grow to five related attacks), individual women were attacked in their driveways, perhaps after being followed home from stores. In each case the women had their shopping bags and/or purses stolen, and at least two of the victims were stun-gunned during the robbery.

Part of what struck me was how relatively minor the reaction to this news story was, especially in comparison to how accounts of a similar incident during my time in Cape Town affected the neighborhood where it occurred. The story that was related to me at a dinner party told of a resident of one of the nicer northern suburbs being followed home from the store and then robbed in her driveway. As a result, families all over the neighborhood had changed their routines; they were diligently watching their rear view mirrors, planning errands for daylight hours, and implementing other precautionary measures. This story had instilled a definite fear of victimization, and the threat seemed quite real. We, a gathering of expatriates, all shook our heads, tsk-tsked, and added another entry to our ever-growing list of "ways one can be a crime victim in Cape Town." A very different response than I feel myself having to this considerably dangerous crime spree happening literally mere blocks from my house.

In hindsight, I realize that if my dinner host had the details of where and when this crime had occurred, I did not get them, nor did I see then (or could I find now) a news story about this particular incident. That is not to say that the crime did not happen or that the story is apocryphal, for driveway attacks certainly have and do occur in Cape Town and elsewhere in South Africa (a quick search yielded two accounts of such crimes, from May and September of 2008; I also found an announcement for an ADT "Anti-hijacking/driveway robbery workshop," also from 2008 - "Snacks will be served"!). Rather, I recognize - even more now than before when I was living in the midst of it - just how influential the narrative of vulnerability to an omnipresent and escalating crime threat is in Cape Town, and perhaps throughout South Africa. It is a powerful psychological force that has a disturbing effect on people's daily lives, and, in a place where nearly everyone who can afford to lives in an alarm-equipped home behind walls, gates, and barred windows, shows in our response to the driveway robbery story.

Crime rates in South Africa are certainly high, but I am struck by how important of a role our perceptions and expectations play in how relatively vulnerable or safe we feel in particular places and situations.

Three weeks back, feels like I never left

So, I've heard from a few people in now about failing to update the blog. Sorry about that, and thanks for letting me know that you've been checking! It certainly hasn't been for lack of material, but it turns out that a weekend between getting home and starting back to school was not enough time to...well, to do anything much more than try to get my body adjusted to the 9 hour time shift. It's been great to be back at Northwest. The school community has been wonderfully warm and enthusiastic in welcoming me back into its comforting and familiar fold. At the same time, it has felt jarring to just abandon all of the routines and relationships that I established in Cape Town. For example, I have to admit (sheepishly) that I've hardly checked the news sources that were my daily diet during my stay. Did the ANC discipline Jacob Zuma beyond a slap on the wrist? Have there been more school protests? Has the World Cup squad been announced? Who made the team? Clearly, I need to spend some time on the Cape Times and Mail & Guardian websites!

As far as processing and synthesizing my South African experience, I have submitted an article to the Environmental Education Association of Southern Africa's Bulletin on the multi-school work party model, and a fellow Fulbright awardee and I have proposed a session on our experiences for the regional private school association conference in October. Beyond that, I still have a lot of notes and impressions to sort through. I may get a chance to present at a global education conference in July. If so, that will be a good target for organizing a coherent summary of my research.

For now, however, a very patient group of students deserves to have their exams graded!

Updates (in progress)

Based on subsequent events, and on looking through the newspaper clippings I've saved and the notes I've written, here are a few updates to previous posts:

On corruption in the ANC and its effect on the current conflict between Malema and the party leadership (President Zuma et al): "The extent to which the ANC has lost its hold over its own core principles is astonishing... If corruption, verbal or monetary, is not dealt with the moment it manifests itself, the corrosion will spread. The more it spreads the harder it becomes to stop... It all on boils down to a question of leadership. Good leaders lead by example. Uphold your principles and the rest will follow. Condone and cover-up and things fall apart." (Cape Times editorial column by Allister Sparks - journalist, author, and political analyst; 14 April 2010)

Amid letters on... (uh oh! can't find the rest of this file...)

to be continued

One word...

Eyafjallajokull !

(Saturday, April 24th: Actually, my flight from Cape Town through Amsterdam went off as if the aforementioned Icelandic volcano were still dormant. There weren't even masses of stranded travellers in the Schiphol Airport. Duped by media hype again! The only jarring part of the trip home was the superfluous stopover in Minneapolis. With all due respect - and one branch of my family has roots in the region, it felt like I'd been dropped onto the set of the movie Fargo. I won't elaborate except to say that I clearly was NOT in Cape Town anymore.)

Wrapping up my stay (draft)

I am trying to take full advantage of my final days here. That has meant fitting in some excursions, such as a summit of 1000m Devil's Peak (got there this morning on the second try! The first one ended with driving my hiking partner to the ER, but that's another story...) and a great mountain bike ride (followed by a dip in a reservoir!) on the backside of Table Mountain. On the work front, I have been quite busy getting in my last visits to schools - mostly by bicycle (after getting the car collision damage repaired, but that too is another story). I did join the photography intern here from Seattle U for an epic pilgrimage by mini-taxi back out to Hector Peterson School for a last visit there.

A huge highlight was organizing what turned out to be a quite successful multi-school environmental service project yesterday. Thirty learners from seven different schools turned out to do some invasive plant clearing at a conservation area (co-located with an active horse racing track! We would pause to watch the races go by.). I was thrilled with the turn-out!

tbc

Zuma in the US; SA social fabric continues to fray

As I assume the US media covered, President Zuma was in Washington DC for the summit on nuclear security, at which South Africa was proudly singled out and praised by President Obama for being the first country to abandon a nuclear weapons programme. According to allAfrica.com, "South Africa gave up its pursuit of nuclear weapons in 1993 making it the first and only country to start abandoning a weapons programme voluntarily." Zuma also met with President Obama as part of the trip. Although the picture only appeared on page 5. I find it interesting to see the difference between the image chosen for publication here (above) and those published in other sources, such as below (from IOL) where JZ looks oddly deferential to a stern-looking Obama. IOL reports that the meeting "covered a number of bilateral issues, including strengthening co-operation on areas like agriculture and HIV and Aids. They also discussed the promotion of African peace and security within the ambit of the African Union and United Nations." (Ambit means "sphere or scope"; I had to look it up.) One has to wonder what was going through Obama's mind about some of the issues they didn't talk about (lifestyle audits, polygamy, etc.).

In other news, questions of race relations are still in the forefront of the public conversation, as are growing concerns that the World Cup may not be the economic boon and boost for the country that its promoters have been promising. An editorial in today's paper (Cape Times) encouraged South Africans to skip the games and instead to donate an equivalent amount to education or other needs. Coincidentally, the front page story this morning was of pupils going on a rampage in Malmesbury (a town about 45 minute north of Cape Town) to protest their over-crowded school. As legitimate as their concerns are (over 60 pupils in some classes), there is something disconcerting about students resorting to torching portables to make their point and about the incident escalating to police shooting kids with rubber bullets. In the melee, a "criminal element" apparently exploited the chaos to rob and vandalize some shops owned by "foreigners" and to beat the shopkeepers. In a related story, municipal workers all over the country went on strike Monday in response to a lack of progress in on-going labor negotiations. The images of the march were celebratory for the solidarity and resolve that they showed, but they were also menacing for the anger some workers expressed and for the vandalism engaged in by some of the protesters, particularly the gleeful overturning of rubbish bins onto the streets and the damaging of other municipal property (see Cape Town strike video here). According to the Cape Town mayor's office, for every three rand spent on upgrading municipal infrastructure, two more rand are spent protecting and repairing it due to rampant vandalism and theft. A lot of resources are being devoted to containing these festering problems in the run-up to the World Cup. Whether or not those efforts can be sustained or victorious in the long-term is an open question.

My advice: come to the World Cup if you can, but all bets are off for what happens in its wake.

Anniversaries & commemorations (*updated)

Largely overshadowed in the current media storms was the anniversary on Saturday of the assassination of Chris Hani. On 10 April, 1993, Hani was killed by right-wing extremists as he returned home to racially mixed suburb of Johannesburg. Hani was active in the apartheid resistance from the early 1960's on, and he was, among other roles, a popular leader of the South African Communist Party. Hani's death is widely viewed as a critical loss to the nation's leadership cadre right when the new nation was being forged. His killers were caught and convicted, and the TRC determined that his killers, who are still imprisoned for the crime, were not acting as part of a right-wing conspiracy (although some of his family and other supporters still appeal for a full disclosure of the circumstances of his death). In an ironic twist, the new constitution that they surely opposed spared Hani's killers from death sentences. Here are links to an overview of Chris Hani's life and to Nelson Mandela's speech at Hani's funeral. Many prominent South Africans have paid tribute to Chris Hani, including Blade Nzimande, Jeremy Cronin, and Tokyo Sexwale. These are easily found on the web.


Another tragedy being commemorated in April, also in Africa and from the same era but of an incomprehensible scale, is the genocide in Rwanda in 1994. Starting on the night of April 6th, after the shooting down of a small plane which had the presidents of both Rwanda and neighboring Burundi on board, a mass slaughter began that would claim the lives of over 800,000 people (10% of the nation's population) in a mere 100 days. The details of this horror are numbing, and its roots and reverberations are complex. It was, as the title of an episode of PBS's Frontline declared "A Triumph of Evil," a near total moral collapse of an entire society. It was also a shameful abdication of responsibility on the part of members of the international community (including the US and the UN) who had the necessary information and means to have intervened to stop the bloodshed. (The Frontline website is an excellent resource to learn more.)

Here at UCT, the East African Student Society held a sober commemoration of the genocide. There were speakers, including officials from the Rwandan consulate, the reading of testimonies from survivors, and the screening of a documentary, "When Good Men do Nothing" (The BBC Panorama version of the Frontline program). Both titles come from words attributed to Edmund Burke:

"All that is necessary for the triumph of evil is that good men do nothing."

The professor of the course I took also spoke. He was typically eloquent as he warned us in the audience to remember "how quickly we humans succumb to base and low instinct" during these "extraordinary examples or barbarism." He also exhorted us to apply the privilege of our university educations to the meaningful work of "expanding the boundaries of inclusion." His conviction is powerful when he speaks, and it makes sense that he has been appointed to the position of deputy vice-chancellor, responsible for, among other things, the institution's transformation strategy. (The UCT website has published a nice profile of him.)

One more April commemoration is the upcoming 30th anniversary of Zimbabwe's independence. While the holiday in Zimbabwe is this Sunday, 18 April, UCT's active and numerous Zimbabwean student group is hosting a retrospective lecture presentation this Thursday evening. South Africa has absorbed a large population of refugees from its troubled neighbor (related article and slide show), and, despite continuing support for Robert Mugabe from the ANC government, South Africa has recently taken a more active role in helping bring peace and order to Zimbabwe after years of conflict and unrest. (See post from March 20th.) I look forward to attending that event.

Lenses & mirrors

Here's something different for those of you not captivated by South African political squabbling (which is what the previous post focuses on after the first two paragraphs):

Experiencing the world from a different vantage point is one feature of living here, as is the case I suppose for any American who spends time in another country. I have gotten a chance to see some of the ways that South Africans view international events, which is a quite different lens from the one my news of the world is filtered through at home. I have also been exposed to how the United States is viewed in South Africa. While both of these perspectives are accessible to some degree from home, I am appreciating the frequency, variety, and proximity that being here affords. The US is much discussed here, both in a current events context, such as this past week when, on environmental grounds, the US opposed (along with and Netherlands) a $29 billion World Bank loan to South Africa for the completion of a coal-fired power plant. There are also frequent (and logical) social and historical comparisons drawn between our two countries. For me, it has been particularly interesting to have my "home" society and culture reflected back to me through the mirror of South African coverage and commentary, both formal and informal.

Here are a few recent examples of how the United States has come up in public discourse here: numerous parallels being drawn in classrooms, the media, and conversation between slavery in the US (and also the treatment of the Native Americans during our expansion) and apartheid; hearing a climate change scientist mention US plans to dump shiploads of scrap iron at sea as one of the threats facing the South Atlantic Ocean; and listening to a speaker at a Human Rights Day assembly indict IBM for its role in facilitating the implementation of apartheid laws (the subject of a current court case against IBM and other major corporations).

One that has caught my ear is a radio interview excerpt that has been played for weeks now as a promotion for the talk show. It has an American journalist (I assume) claiming that a “dirty little secret” of the US is that soccer is actually very popular but a different impression is conveyed by a “racist” media because “soccer is not popular in the white suburbs.” With as popular as soccer is in the US, particularly in the often very white suburbs, this seems an incomplete explanation for soccer's perpetual neglect by a media dominated by football, baseball, basketball, hockey, auto racing, x games, and golf. Here, especially with the impending World Cup, soccer shares the media stage with cricket and rugby, although the fan bases are largely divided on racial lines.

Anyway, I won't be coming home with a passion for following either cricket and rugby, but I do plan to keep checking the websites of South African newspapers as a way to sustain my exposure to the lens and mirror that they provide.

* Speaking of South African newspapers, here's an UPDATE for those rapt by the “ET” and Malema dramas... reports emerged this weekend, though from where it is not clear, as they conflict with official police statements, that Terre'Blanche was found naked and with a used condom nearby. The obvious inference is that he may have been engaging in a sexual liaison with one of his accused murderers. To me, this information smacks of a smokescreen or other such effort to discredit Terre'Blanche (as if he hadn't done a good enough job of that on his own!). Click here to follow the saga and its breaking news for yourself.

Meanwhile, Malema continues to stir up daily controversy and to be defiant toward more moderate voices in his party. The latter seems both a growing group and increasingly impatient. In a shrewd and hopefully sincere move, President Zuma came out strongly against the ANCYL leader's recent conduct.

And, of course, Jonathan Shapiro is offering his astute commentary on it all...

Eventful Easter

It’s raining this morning, not for the first time in the last three months, but in a more determined, ominous fashion than before. Even though most of the days are still sunny and warm, summer is definitely over here. I've actually been cold a few times in the evenings now, which was an unfamiliar and welcome sensation. Capetonians are starting to bundle up and even grouse a bit about the wind and the cool. For me, heading home (in a few weeks now) to springtime will make it easier not to miss this climate.

So, where have I been for almost two weeks? Well, the secondary schools have all been on a two-week Easter break, and, even though I still had UCT class and soccer commitments, this was a perfect time to host Kristina, my first and only visitor. (Everyone else I know seems to be waiting to come down here for the World Cup; go figure.) We rented a car and did some touring around the Cape Peninsula before heading into the Cederberg mountains for the long weekend. The towns in the mountain foothills were small and agricultural (Ceres, home of the juice, and Citrusdal, for example), and the setting was perfect to meet our goals: some hiking (we carefully selected hikes with swimming potential!), some relaxed meals, and some visits to the Atlantic coast. We also went to see Athol Fugard's latest play, which he is directing as the inaugural production at a new theatre named in his honor. The two-actor production was intense and provocative; it addressed the complexity and brutality of apartheid both in its time and in its legacies - and it did not provide any easy answers or happy endings.

Meanwhile, South Africa's problems and politics did not, of course, take a holiday. In news that I'm sure made the US headlines, Eugene Terre'Blanche, the leader of the white supremacist Afrikaner Resistance Movement (know by its Afrikaans acronym: AWB), was hacked and bludgeoned to death on Saturday by two disgruntled farm workers. Long controversial for his white-supremacist, secessionist, and racist views, Terre'Blanche's death comes amidst a furor over the singing of an apartheid resistance song by another controversial public figure, ANC Youth League leader Julius Malema. The song, "Kill the Boer," celebrates (and some say advocates) violence against white farmers, and Malema has taken to singing it quite publicly (and now in defiance of a recent court order). South Africa does have a problem of attacks on white farmers. According to the South African Institute of Race Relations there were 10,412 attacks on farmers and their families between 1991 and 2007 with 1,560 killed. Other sources have been repeating the statistic of 3,000 deaths in farm attacks since 1994. Either way, the numbers are disturbing (especially with the spectre of Zimbabwe's experience always looming). Some commentators have observed that these deaths represent a fraction of the total murders in a nation that contends for the title of murder capital of the world (18,000 people were killed in 2009), but there's little consolation to be found in pursuing that line of argument.

The Malema and Terre'Blanche stories have made an obvious point of dramatic comparison, and there is a strong sense that racial tension is reaching a dangerous point. This means that the ruling ANC government has a new and urgent item on its already full agenda, and expectations are high that it act to calm the situation. In a call for President Zuma to “show decisive leadership” and “rein in users of hate speech,” an editorial in Tuesday’s Cape Times reported on the tension: “FF+ (Freedom Front Plus) leader Pieter Mulder did not exaggerate when he said “the dream of national reconciliation and nation-building is at risk. The interracial atmosphere is brittle and potentially explosive. As [a University of the Orange Free State professor] noted last week, before the murder of Terre’Blanche, South Africa is in a dangerous state, on a ‘precipice’ regarding race relations. Has the ANC lost sight entirely of the Freedom Charter and their reconciliatory heritage which under Nelson Mandela’s leadership looked to be a happy and peaceful future for all in South Africa?” Despite its alarming tone, the commentator, Gerald Shaw, is the author of a book called “Believe in Miracles, South Africa from Malan to Mandela and the Mbeki Era.” (Link to the Cape Times website for more information and related articles.)

To add more calming perspective, the newspaper editor’s piece on the same page makes a case for not equating this year’s events with those of “Easter 1993, when a rightwinger shot dead SACP (South African Communist Party) leader Chris Hani and South Africa seemed to teeter on the edge of civil war.” The editorial does a succinct and cogent job of condemning both the murder of Terre’Blanche (along with a blanket condemnation of any and all murder) and any “foolish or conceited politician who dares to play with the threat of violence.” This is a clear reference to Malema, whose ilk the piece goes on to denounce as “tawdry populists.” Meanwhile, Malema finds himself besieged with scrutiny and criticism, even from within his own party's notoriously loyal leadership cadre. He just returned from a visit to Zimbabwe, where he managed to attract even more negative attention by getting provoked into a profane tirade by a BBC journalist at a press conference yesterday, and was on the radio today to explain himself. Although he can sound reasonable and thoughtful at times (and he does make some valid and convincing arguments), overall he seems disingenuous about reconciliation and dangerous in his revolutionary fervor.

The Cape Times editorial offered an important analysis of the current controversy: “Making Malema into a bogeyman is a convenient way to avoid the difficult question: why exactly is it that this rather unimpressive political leader can garner the support he clearly enjoys in some places? Is it perhaps that he offers an outlet for some of the frustration and disappointment of those who feel left out of the celebrated political ‘miracle’ to which Terre’Blanche was so hostile? Whatever one thinks of Malema, the question demands attention.” Indeed. What to do for the impoverished, disaffected, and increasingly discontented is the big question and challenge for South Africa - and perhaps the world. Clearly a topic worth returning to on another day.

(Here's a link to an interesting opinion piece that comments on the issue and specifically responds to the Cape Times editorial.)

Since last post

2 more days at Fezeka school,
2 cultural events - the Taste of Cape Town and an Elton John concert,
2 long days spent in the UCT library and computer lab,
2 laps around the Rondebosch Common (5km) this morning,
and
2 more flat tires!

Human Rights Weekend

After a Saturday that started with a nice group hike up onto Table Mountain, my Sunday involved heading downtown to join the Human Rights Day rally and march for school libraries. It was awesome to be among over 10,000 students marching, singing, dancing, and chanting for a library and a librarian in every school. According to one of the speakers, only 8% of public schools in South Africa have libraries. That certainly fits with what I've seen in the schools I've visited; libraries are uncommon (at least in the under-resourced schools), and well-stocked, staffed ones are quite rare. The protest was coordinated by Equal Education, a relatively new (2008) organization that "advocates for quality and equality in the South African education system and engages in evidence-based activism for improving all of the nation’s schools." A highlight was running into the delegation from the Hector Petersen school, including one of the learners we worked with in 2008.

I stayed downtown for the afternoon - I browsed a bookstore, changed a flat bike tire, and ate a late lunch with the Man-U/Liverpool game on in the background. I was hanging around to catch the 6:00 p.m. screening of "Streetball," the documentary about South Africa's Homeless World Cup team. It was great, and the team, its coaches, and the filmmakers were all present. (I hope to schedule a mini-tournament with them as practice for the UCT team.) The screening was part of the Cape Winelands Film Festival, and it happened in the planetarium, part of a museum complex on "the Company's Grounds." This site, named for the Dutch East India Company who oversaw it until going bankrupt in the 1790's, has been a park since 1848. It includes a botanical garden, the Houses of Parliament, and St. George's Cathedral - all in the heart of the city! This weekend, the Grounds hosted the annual Cape Town Festival. This celebration of the city's diversity, with its slogan "One City, Many Cultures," made a great place to hear some music and get more food while waiting for the movie. With the "Taste of Cape Town" opening tomorrow evening, the end-of-summer celebrations appear to be in full swing!

On the work front... This week I'm back at Fezeka doing some demonstration teaching and putting on a workshop on "group learning strategies" for the social studies teachers. Today I taught a lesson on population distribution to grade 10 Geography students. I had a room with an interactive white board for two classes, and in between I taught a class in a room with just a chalkboard and no electricity - and over 40 students! Here, as anywhere, smaller classes - and consistent technology! - would sure help facilitate greater student engagement and more interactive teaching! The most "functional" schools here have both.



Other recent school visits have included: "International Day" at the American International School, a cultural performance evening and a Human Rights Day assembly at a public girls' school, and a tour of an ambitious recycling program at "the oldest school in South Africa," an all-boys public school. I also got to accompany 75 learners on a field trip out to "GIS Week," an annual event hosted by the Geography Department at the University of the Western Cape.