Zulu Word of the Day:
Ilikishi- Township
Classroom Update
We made a visit to the Edgewood campus of UKZN for the second lecture of the week, with Mr. Crispin Hemson and Dr. Dennis Francis. Both professors work in education but with specific scholarship on HIV/AIDS and social justice. Dr. Francis also holds the position of Head of School and has extensive research concerning race, gender and class relations within post-apartheid South Africa. Our lecture revolved around the racial climate in South Africa today. Since arriving, race has been something we are consistently having to reconsider because it is constructed differently from what we are used to in the US. Dr. Francis and Mr. Hemson challenged us to extract culture from race and not just consider the two mutually exclusive. This is because within South Africa and certainly anywhere else, race doesn't necessary define culture and nor does culture, race. This theoretical breakthrough has helped the three us see yet another dynamic that is crucial to the relevance of cross-cultural collaboration. Building Bridges serves as a means by which students can engage with other communities and individuals, yet mainly functions as a learning tool which can't be gained in ones own bubble of understanding. Being here has pushed us academically and socially, and added to our base of beliefs and understanding. We will return home with a new way to see our home. We will return to our classrooms, social settings, jobs, and families with something new that we believe would not have been gained without this experience.
Out and About
In conjunction with the community engagement portion of our program, we had a chance to visit Umlazi Township for the weekend. As previously mentioned, Umlazi is the second largest township in South Africa. The history of townships involves mandates from the apartheid government to segregate "races" (Black, White, Indian, and Coloured) from each other. Umlazi is primarily a Black African township.
This experience is quite difficult to convey, so bear with us. It is important to note that this type of community would not be recognizable in its entirety in a US context. The township combines a wide range of living situations, from self-built structures (informal settlements) to government-issued, four-roomed homes, to mansions. These structural elements do not completely define township life, however. It is easy to question the place townships now hold in post-apartheid South Africa. In fact this very question was raised at our dinner meeting with Consulate officials (as mentioned in another blog). The consensus in that conversation was that the defining feature of townships was the sense of community that is fostered there, but that did not become fully clear to us until our home stays.
From Friday until Sunday, we were hosted in different sections of Umlazi; John stayed in K section, and Alex and Whitney stayed in M section. We were informed that it was only appropriate for John to stay with a man, and Alex and Whitney to stay with a woman, so on Friday, we parted ways. Our hosts were formerly involved in a service learning program, headed by Garey, thus our connection to Umlazi. The weekend provided an opportunity to get to know our hosts and their family, and to also learn more about their community.
Alex and Whitney spent the weekend with Nokulunga, who lives with her mother and father, and a host of sisters, brothers, and other smaller children; other family members periodically stay with them, such as her grandmother. In addition, it is a part of Zulu culture for young men to move out of the main house, and either into a smaller sleeping area on the same grounds, or to another relative's house where no young women live, as they approach adulthood. One of her brothers lived in such a place directly behind the house. The idea behind this is to encourage independence and responsibility.
A large portion of the weekend in M section was spent walking with Nokulunga, where we soaked up every part of the environment, including catching up with family and friends, food shopping for the family, hailing taxis, and taking care of other family business, like buying electricity and Airtime cards. Nokulunga took us to visit an nyanga and a sangoma (traditional healers), which was both a humbling and exciting experience. The nyanga happened to be her grandfather, and the sangoma lived very close to her home as well. The proximity of these individuals showed how accessible these types of resources are in many areas of Zulu culture. Each explained how they came to fulfill their respective roles, and how those roles affect their lives. The experience with both was enlightening and personal, and a rare opportunity to better understand such a vital part of Zulu life.
Because of safety and the community norms of Umlazi, women aren't as freely able to travel without a man after dark. Since Nokulunga lives with mostly women, our evenings were spent indoors, watching movies, and talking. In yet another way to enlighten us about South African history, we watched Sarafina, a South African classic. The movie details the 1976 uprisings against the oppressive apartheid regime, and specifically the education system, which mandated that students learn Afrikaans. We also watched Yesterday, a more recent movie illustrating the struggle of HIV/AIDS stigma, as well as the gender dynamics of the virus, and the limited access to healthcare for people living in rural areas. Watching these two movies provided a comprehensive look at two of the biggest struggles within South African society: Apartheid (and the struggle to dismantle it), and the broad-reaching effects of HIV/AIDS. For more information about these movies and the events that inspired them please visit the following links:
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0303297/
http://www.yesterdaythemovie.co.za/
http://www.sarafina.co.za/
On Sunday morning, before leaving, we had the opportunity to attend a church service with Nokulunga. As we arrived we were greeted by congregants, and were throughout the service publicly thanked for attending. The service was entirely in Zulu but Nokulunga did a wonderful job in helping us to understand what was being said. The church experience certainly gave us a window into the way that spirituality is infused into the culture and lives of the Zulu people.
John was hosted by Mangoba and his experience differed in that he was in the company of males all weekend. Mangoba lived with his mother, three sisters, and many younger children. Mangoba, like many other young men his age, had moved out of his mother's house and built a smaller place of abode on the grounds. Most of the weekend, however, was spent away from his place of residence.
We first went to meet a few of Mangoba's closest friends, who became our companions for the entire weekend. In this small group was fostered a sense of brotherhood that John immediately felt a part of. Every activity was done together. Often, the men sat around watching soccer, and talking about politics, all while drinking from the same bottle that sat in the middle. The conversation touched a wide-ranging array of topics, such as the ANC, Zimbabwe, the xenophobic attacks, and Nelson Mandela's birthday, which the world celebrated last Friday. The guys also had a lot to ask John about the US, black/African relations in the US, and class conditions. They were quite surprised to hear that HIV/AIDS posed a major problem in the United States as well.
At mealtimes, the guys would venture back to Mangoba's house, where his mother had prepared dinner. Dinner often included putu, a delicious crumbly porridge made from cornmeal, and a curried beef stew. Late Friday night, the electricity went out as a result of what is called "load shedding", a government initiative made to counteract the high demand of power. Even though the power did not come back on until early Sunday morning, the guys went on about their day as usual. Mangoba's mother, on the other hand, had to buy gas in order to cook dinner without electricity. Throughout the day the guys would embark on long walks to this or that person's house in the vast and dense expanses of Umlazi. During the nights, the guys would travel to the tavern, or shebeen, where there would be much dancing, playing pool, and socializing. Females do not customarily go to these taverns. The next day, the guys would always meet up just to make sure that everyone had gotten home safely. Not many had cell phones so at times this would involve lengthy walks to the house of a friend. "I am my brother's keeper", seemed to be the motto of the weekend.
Overall our weekend in Umlazi gave us another way to see life in KZN. Going to someone?s home is the best way to see the rich details of an individual's culture and how it truly informs their identity. Further, we did not have to rely on our naive Western lens but could digest the surroundings and experiences with the help of our friends and their families. These ties to people our age went beyond what the classroom could have provided and with it came lasting relationships, which will also grow far past the end of this journey. As our classroom update explained, our time in Umlazi has given us something new and truly authentic that breaks through our assumptions and at the same time, gives us the space to re-evaluate ourselves.
The Project
A word from our Program Director, Garey Davis
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u9cv1i8Cvdw
*Due to the nature of our stay and the privacy that we're trying to uphold, there are a lack of pictures for this post.
No comments:
Post a Comment