I feel like I have come home. Cape Town is absolutely beautiful. Since Friday, I have been staying on an eco-farm a little bit outside of the city, with strong winds blowing all day, an unbeatable view of Devil's Peak, community gardens, some Dutch Master's students, and a research assistant from Guam. Lots of hippies and vans and organic vegetables. Something akin to what I imagine Santa Cruz was like when my parents met in the '70s.
I am the proud steward of a 1978 VW Beetle, and now have two (2) days experience driving stick. I suspect that each and every car in Cape Town has honked at me by now. But I haven't rolled down a hill into anyone, so I'm counting that as a win.
I also found an apartment. A garden cottage way up in the foothills of the mountains. Five minutes from Long Street. Absolutely silent. So I'm back to center, in a way. I am slowly but steadily assembling a life here, a nest, a car. Andy will be here on Friday, long overdue.
For such a beautiful place, Cape Town still has latent weirdness. "Affirmative action hurt us all," they say. "Don't talk to him, can't you see he's colored?" [in response to the Muslim call to prayer]: "Man, does that guy have a stomachache or something? Does he have to let everybody know about it?" I listen and file these things away. I fear my silence indicates complicity. Some people speak Afrikaans here, but it's the language of oppression for most native Africans. "It's like speaking German to a Jew after World War II," one woman told me. English is more neutral. But they won't make you speak Xhosa or Zulu the way they will make you speak Wolof in Senegal. South Africa is on top as far as African economies are concerned - but what has really transpired here? Whatever it is, it may be irreversible.
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2 comments:
hey sarah,
i just wanted to say that it sounds like you've had a very interesting time in West Africa, and I really hope that you enjoy yourself in SA - and that you manage to do the research you've come to do.
Just a note on your initial observations of Cape Town. Your allusion to a 'latent weirdness' I think is very misplaced. You really can't tar everyone with the same brush - for example, Afrikaans is actually one of the major language in the Cape (albeit a second language for many). I'm also not entirely sure it's synonymous with apartheid and oppression. Your implication that people find it offensive is, in my opinion, completely incorrect.
As for the people you've overheard making derogatory and racist remarks about others, they are quite clearly small-minded and ignorant.
Hey Jono.
Thanks for your comments. I admit that my conclusions are based on a limited amount of time spent here thus far, and I have not, for the most part, experienced racist behavior in Cape Town. It is very different for me to see a part of Africa that is significantly populated by whites, and I am probably overly sensitive to race matters as I adjust to this.
But, in any case, I will reserve judgment until far in the future, perhaps indefinitely.
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