So today marks the completion of my first week of classes at UCT. If my stress level were a terrorist threat level it would probably be yellow (a little stressed, but c’mon now, I’m in Cape Town). To be honest, it wasn’t until this afternoon, the final day to add courses, that I was finally able to work out my class schedule, but at long last things are sorted as the locals would say. Getting anything done at this University requires navigating an outrageous number of bureaucratic processes that to a typical American college student seem straight out of the stone age, and they only give you a week to sort out your schedule, which makes everything quite a bit more difficult. On Thursday afternoon, as I was munching on a delicious mango poolside, I was informed that the African Music course that I intended to take was rescheduled and it would now conflict with another course I wanted to take. Fortunately, African Dance meets on Thursday afternoons, so I figured I may as well check it out, as I wasn’t really sure what I was going to do. Turns out it was a pretty good time, and while I’m sure at times I’ll look straight ludicrous trying to mimic a dance teacher whose moves put Beyonce to shame, I figured my time abroad is for trying new things and stretching myself a bit, so why not let my arms and legs in on the action too. Anyhow, my last dance class worked out pretty well, and I’m beginning to think that just maybe I was endowed with a bit more rhythm than the average white Jewish boy, but I suppose only time will tell.
Provided that I filled out all the forms properly and got the proper signatures, I’ll be taking four courses this semester. Two history survey courses: one called “The Making of the African Continent to 1800” and the other called “Southern Africa to 1900.” I am also taking a sociology course called “Crime and Deviance in South Africa” and of course, African Dance.
Yesterday marked the opening of parliament and a number of festivities that go along with it. I hoped to make it downtown to see them, but was too busy fighting with UCT bureaucracy to make it. But, my friends who went said that President Zuma’s speech was held indoors where only a select few had access, and that the parade was pretty subdued. While my assessment of the culture and people down here is fluid, and only having been here a month, I definitely can’t say I have my finger on the pulse of the South African people, I do have some thoughts from what little experience I do have. The locals often describe South Africa as a country in transition. In reality, I’m not sure that captures the situation on the ground. While the end of apartheid brought hope to millions of South Africans that their lives would improve quickly, reality has proven otherwise. Mandela and South Africa’s subsequent leaders have promised jobs, homes, food, and security to their people, and yet for the vast majority of the population those promises are far from being fulfilled. Millions live in abject poverty, HIV continues to stunt the potential of innumerable children and undermine family development, and an education system in place until the 1990s in which blacks were intentionally given poor quality education so as to limit their potential and ability to rise up, has meant that with far too few exceptions most black South Africans older than 30 have had little or no quality education. Even today, the education system in this country is horrible, and the youth are resorting to crime and violence. Speaking of which, the levels of violent and sexual crime here are some of the worst in the world, with South Africa leading the way in murders per year. Not to mention the fact that (and this one really blew me away) a quarter of South Africa’s police force is illiterate. How can you record a crime when you can’t read or write? I don’t mean to sound too pessimistic about South Africa and it’s future, I’ve already seen so many amazing things about this country and its people that I’m sure will come out in my writing as the semester progresses, but there are some appalling realities here. The reason I mention them in light of the celebration yesterday of the twenthieth anniversary of Mandela’s release from prison, is that for many people, it would seem, the excitement and jubilation of the end of apartheid has been overshadowed by the myriad of problems this country faces. In some ways this country has come a far way, but in many more it still has marathons to go. So yes, the New York Times headline my father sent me last night was accurate, “Thousands of South Africans were marking the 20th anniversary of Nelson Mandela's walk to freedom after 27 years as the world’s most famous political prisoner," but millions were trying to figure out where they’d find their next meal.
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