So much has happened since I last blogged, one the world cup began, two I got a scholarship and will be going to Oxford in September and feel alive in the uncertainty of my future. I think I’ve had so many thoughts rumbling through my mind that I’ve been unable to write down or elaborate on any one of them… so what I have decided to post is a few of my thoughts from a trip to Soweto the other day and a number of the other things I’m stewing over based on conversations had, stories heard and newspapers read….
Soweto
Soweto, a place which this year has become a place I feel at home in, a place where I feel more fully South Africa, more aware of the different rhythms and textures of lives interwoven into the city I call home, Johannesburg, Jozi, Joburg….
Two weeks back I had planned to take some of my friends, like me, white and middle class very comfortable in the northern suburbs, to see a place that has bombarded our imaginations from history lessons at school on June 16th to the recent Blue Bulls Game at the Orlando Stadium. As we approached Soweto, there is in some respects surprise at the cleanliness of the pavements, the multiple flags greeting you as you make your way along old potch rd and the fresh coats of paint and signage making Soweto less of a maize to get around.
The simple act of greeting three ladies at the Regina Mundi church in their mother tongue, bringing an instant warmth to their big smiles enabled the simple humanity within all of us to be revealed. this stood in contrast to the stern interaction between us and the security guards at the power station where we were apparently trespassing. Within the same hour, two very different interactions. What was different: 1) the context, 2) our perceptions, 3) our own previous experiences….
It’s quite bizarre…amongst residents there is surprise first which could be masked as disappointment when you are acknowledged to be a South African yet soon after, that surprise or disappointment becomes appreciation, maybe because you are not more distant, more unknown but more predictable, vulnerable….
My current thoughts
- SA’s politics are predictable – ANC’s dominance is entrenched because of support it receives from poor in return for social grants
- Focus on softer (social) things is where change happens – attitude, ideology, vision, motive… need a new vision for our society – ‘when we acknowledge and reward optimism, virtue and excellence, they will become the driving energies of our society and we will conquer the pathologies of our society’
- Fear is fundamental to being human – we need to not give fear the power to silence or stop us but push us to step forward
- We cannot know the future, but we can change it, we can design it, we can plan it and we can action it
- South Africans will never have a common identity, our history and our diversity is too complicated. But there should be a process which enables us to share and identify with the common issues that are critical to our future success as a nation. Is this the essence of our South Africaness????
steph said,
January 18, 2011 at 6:35 am
You have a real gift to provoke thinking, dialogue and change through sharing your thoughts and observations – do not ever stop sharing the essence of who you are! Steph