Friday, May 19, 2006 - Cape Town
On May 5th, we took a tour around the city with a group of ex-combatants in the liberation struggle for independence from the apartheid state. They showed us sites which were important to them and significant in the fight. For instance, we stopped at a site where the police ambushed a bunch of students who were protesting. The cops jumped out of the back of an unmarked van, which has come to be known as the Trojan Horse. According to one man I talked to who owned a gas station near by, there were around 100 shots fired in 5 seconds! The kids were completely unarmed, and the ammunition was live. At the end of the tour, we found ourselves in an open field in the middle of one of the black townships. Our tour guide finished by telling us that he was mad, and he would die mad. He was mad because when you see the way people are still living, it is not the liberation which him and his friends had fought for. He did not see any reason to reconcile when so little had changed.
The place we were staying the first couple of nights was really interesting. It was a backpackers lodge with a very landscaped yard and a salt water pool. The staff was also interesting, to say the least. There was Wayne, who loved...LOVED to smoke whatever was available to burn and inhale. There was also Eric, who was chef at an upscale restaurant, but who was watching the lodge for his friend while he was gone on a fishing trip. Lets just say he was much more sane, less annoying, and worthy of his occupation
My Traitor's Heart is a book we read for class about a man who is the grandchild of Dawid Malan, architect of the apartheid system. It is really well, and I recommend it to all reading this. It looks a lot at him struggling with his identity as a hater of apartheid and all the system stands for while not being able to escape the way it has socialized him. Really, you should read it!
We got to meet the author, Rian Malan at a restaurant right on the beach and ask him questions. He really wasn't interested in talking about his book though. He asked us about the war in Iraq, and whatever else came to his mind. I wish we could have asked him more about his thoughts, but I think talking about it is strange to him. Of course, imagine keeping a journal, having it published for the world to read, and then being asked questions about your thoughts twenty years later. It might be a bit odd. I know I think differently than I did twenty years ago...obviously.
After our discussion we went to Cape Point, which is where the Indian and Atlantic oceans are supposed to meet (though the currents don't touch until you travel much further off the coast than the eye can see) It really was a spectacular view. We also had the privilege of being attacked by baboons while we ate our picnic lunch at the bottom of the mountain. It is our fault, because we should not have had food there. However, I will tell you that this is by far the most danger I was in during all my time in Namibia and South Africa. Baboons are vicious, as well as smart. A word to the wise: if being attacked by baboons, make sure you can run faster than the guy standing next to you.
On Sunday, we took the boat 40 minutes out to Robben Island, the place where the political prisoners, including Nelson Mandela, were kept. Mandela spent 27 years of his life on this island, and emerged as president of the country. Quite a remarkable story. However, the tour of the island and prison were a bit unremarkable. You go around the island on a bus being told about it by ex-prisoners. Though they deserve our respect for their roles in the liberation struggle, the tour was not well done. I felt as though I was on a ride at Universal Studios rather than at a place so important in world history. It just didn't do justice to the mood I was looking for. The prison was a bit more interesting, but very general in the information which we received. However, we had also been studying the political situation for the past 4 months, and no one else had that privilege, so I must forgive the tour for this.
On May 5th, we took a tour around the city with a group of ex-combatants in the liberation struggle for independence from the apartheid state. They showed us sites which were important to them and significant in the fight. For instance, we stopped at a site where the police ambushed a bunch of students who were protesting. The cops jumped out of the back of an unmarked van, which has come to be known as the Trojan Horse. According to one man I talked to who owned a gas station near by, there were around 100 shots fired in 5 seconds! The kids were completely unarmed, and the ammunition was live. At the end of the tour, we found ourselves in an open field in the middle of one of the black townships. Our tour guide finished by telling us that he was mad, and he would die mad. He was mad because when you see the way people are still living, it is not the liberation which him and his friends had fought for. He did not see any reason to reconcile when so little had changed.
The place we were staying the first couple of nights was really interesting. It was a backpackers lodge with a very landscaped yard and a salt water pool. The staff was also interesting, to say the least. There was Wayne, who loved...LOVED to smoke whatever was available to burn and inhale. There was also Eric, who was chef at an upscale restaurant, but who was watching the lodge for his friend while he was gone on a fishing trip. Lets just say he was much more sane, less annoying, and worthy of his occupation
My Traitor's Heart is a book we read for class about a man who is the grandchild of Dawid Malan, architect of the apartheid system. It is really well, and I recommend it to all reading this. It looks a lot at him struggling with his identity as a hater of apartheid and all the system stands for while not being able to escape the way it has socialized him. Really, you should read it!
We got to meet the author, Rian Malan at a restaurant right on the beach and ask him questions. He really wasn't interested in talking about his book though. He asked us about the war in Iraq, and whatever else came to his mind. I wish we could have asked him more about his thoughts, but I think talking about it is strange to him. Of course, imagine keeping a journal, having it published for the world to read, and then being asked questions about your thoughts twenty years later. It might be a bit odd. I know I think differently than I did twenty years ago...obviously.
After our discussion we went to Cape Point, which is where the Indian and Atlantic oceans are supposed to meet (though the currents don't touch until you travel much further off the coast than the eye can see) It really was a spectacular view. We also had the privilege of being attacked by baboons while we ate our picnic lunch at the bottom of the mountain. It is our fault, because we should not have had food there. However, I will tell you that this is by far the most danger I was in during all my time in Namibia and South Africa. Baboons are vicious, as well as smart. A word to the wise: if being attacked by baboons, make sure you can run faster than the guy standing next to you.
On Sunday, we took the boat 40 minutes out to Robben Island, the place where the political prisoners, including Nelson Mandela, were kept. Mandela spent 27 years of his life on this island, and emerged as president of the country. Quite a remarkable story. However, the tour of the island and prison were a bit unremarkable. You go around the island on a bus being told about it by ex-prisoners. Though they deserve our respect for their roles in the liberation struggle, the tour was not well done. I felt as though I was on a ride at Universal Studios rather than at a place so important in world history. It just didn't do justice to the mood I was looking for. The prison was a bit more interesting, but very general in the information which we received. However, we had also been studying the political situation for the past 4 months, and no one else had that privilege, so I must forgive the tour for this.
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