is this real life?: adventures 102.

School is in full swing here in Cape Town. I've had 4 weeks of classes, 3 journal entries for my ethics class, 3 movie screenings for my African culture class, and somewhere around 300 pages read for my history class. It's going well, and I fall more in love with this continent and country every day, but school does put adventuring on a bit of a hiatus. Ever the dedicated tourists, however, we've managed to squeeze in a few mini-ventures:

District Six

To talk about District Six, I need to talk about apartheid. It's one of those things that we've all heard of, and we all know it was bad. But, considering our generation was learning to walk and say our ABCs when it ended in 1994, a lot of people don't know exactly what it was, but we feel like the kid who's been under a rock so we don't confess to being unsure exactly what apartheid means. So, if you are one of those people, here's your free pass:
Apartheid was a complex system of racial segregation in South Africa. It's different from the segregation experienced in the US because, while that was cultural segregation, this was legal. The government actually had in its laws that everyone fit into a racial category (White, Black, Colored, and Mixed), and all Non-Whites were inherently inferior.
Racial discrimination began ages ago with the first British and Dutch settlers that set up ports along the coastlines for easier access to India. Discrimination and cultural exploitation became just a part of life (i.e. the story of Sara Baartman), and eventually South Africa adopted racial hatred into its laws. This slowly but surely took rights away from Non-Whites, dictating who they could marry, where they could live and work, how much money they could make, etc. The Pass Laws may be the most infamous, as they required all Non-Whites to carry a small booklet that listed their name, address, place of work, salary, and more. Without this pass, Non-Whites could not even leave the areas the government set aside for them to live in.
Apartheid picked up steam in 1948 when the National Party gained governmental control and pushed forward with a white supremacy attitude. At the height of apartheid (1970s), the White South African population had the very highest standard of living in the entire world, while millions of Non-Whites across the country starved or died of diseases caused by lack of nutrition and sanitation. In this time, more and more areas were proclaimed "White Group Areas" because the land was considered to be either too good for Non-Whites or simply too close to White Areas. One such place was District Six.

District Six is a short 5 kilometers from the docks of Cape Town and an affluent area called the Waterfront. This place was considered a melting pot of people from India and all parts of Africa, where families and businesses thrived. But in 1966, the apartheid government claimed this land for Whites and subsequently forced the removal of everyone else from District Six. Now, although the residents were happy and whatnot, they still were relatively poor, and when the government moved them out, the little economic standing they did have fell through. People were packed into poorly built apartments and complexes out in the Cape Flats (an area a little north of Cape Town of unproductive land that was quickly becoming overcrowded with townships and victims of forced removals). The city had a huge outcry against this, and the government was never really able to get the support to build anything new on the land, so it just sat there. And it still sits there. Acres of green grass with the occasional house foundation or remnants of a street, right in the heart of this gorgeous city.

Siri and I went to District Six and to an old church right outside it that has been transformed into the District Six Museum. It would take me days to tell you of all I saw, the photographs and letters, the artwork and toys left behind. But I can tell you this: I stood there in this museum, with a full map of the district as it used to be under my feet, and tried to take it all in, but I couldn't. I don't think the heart can hold all that a place like that is. It's just too much. And I tried to understand what it means that these things happened---humans, children of God actively and purposely destroyed the lives of their brothers and sisters---but I couldn't really understand. I couldn't really wrap my mind around the pain in those green acres, the legacy of hatred. And I couldn't have been more ashamed of the color of my skin. What does it mean to be part of the group that hated everyone else, that told the world they were better than everyone else and then spent 100 years trying to act on that belief? I don't know, and I probably never will. But I do know this: I'm choosing grace. I'm choosing healing and reconciliation and all those things that apartheid didn't choose. I'm seeing more and more how my attitudes and beliefs and actions (or lack thereof) can change the course of lives on this planet, can change the way people view and interpret the character of my God, and I'm choosing love. And I'm choosing to act, to speak, to not sit back and watch things like this happen anymore.

Floor Map of Former District Six

People find where their families lived and have the opportunity to write in their names where their homes were

It's also been used as a place of healing through song and poetry

Street Signs from District Six

A Sailor's Pass

Remnants of a Slave Tree where slaves were auctioned

Sewed Inscription on the Name Cloth

Name Cloth for Former District Six Families

Michelle Obama's Inscription on the Vistors' Name Cloth

Robben Island

Not everyone was into apartheid. In fact, for as long as apartheid existed, people hated it, which in turn made the government fearful of those people. They were threats, and threats have to be isolated. As people began to speak out against oppressive policies and laws, the government started persecuting these people, charging them usually with treason, and throwing them in prison. The first big political prisoner was Robert Sobukwe—the founder of the Pan Africanist Congress (PAC) which actively challenged apartheid. He was sentenced to prison on the mainland, but after his sentence was up, the government felt he was still too powerful and influential, so they put him on Robben Island, where a prison was built amongst limestone quarries. They didn't really have any solid legal reason to keep him there, so they had to renew his sentence every year with 1 more year of solitary confinement on the other side of the prison's property. Our tour guide informed us that he was never allowed any visitors, and thus his vocal cords had hardened. He never spoke again.

Sobukwe's Single-Celled Home

Sobukwe was obviously only the beginning, and the government continued to throw more and more political threats in prison on Robben Island. Prisoners were racially segregated, and then separated further based on their threat. The highest threat level prisoners were in single cells, while the laypeople if you will were kept in large rooms. Prisoners were worked until 4 pm everyday in the limestone quarries, mining the stones that would be shipped back to the mainland as well as used to make roads on the island itself. They were locked back in their cells at 4, and there they stayed until the next morning.

Bunks in a Group Cell

Road to the Limestone Quarries

Quarries

Being Tourists

Siri and I toured the island on a bus with a very chatty tour guide who taught us more in an hour that I could've possibly learned in any number of history books. He took us everywhere--to the quarries, to the houses where people still live today, to leper graveyards (the island was originally an isolated leper colony), to churches and unused WWII defenses. When he took us to the prison, he passed us off to a sweet older gentleman who had in fact been a political prisoner on the island himself. He took us around the prison, pointing out where he lived, where he worked, etc. He told us about the feeling of Robben Island, the depression that set in and the tight network of prisoners, and he told us about South Africa's main man: Nelson Mandela.
Nelson got involved with the African National Congress (ANC) after the National Party won out in 1948. He was a leader, and though originally supportive of nonviolent resistance, he eventually planned and participated in sabotage such as bombing the symbolic places of apartheid (pass offices, courts, government offices, etc.). In August 1962, Nelson was arrested (thanks to the help of the United States's CIA...way to go, guys) and was sentenced to 5 years in prison in October. In June 1964, that sentence was expanded to life in prison. His first few years were in the Johannesburg Fort Prison, but as his influence grew, he was transferred. He spent 18 years on Robben Island. His work in the limestone quarries was so blinding because of the white rock that his tear ducts dried up, and to this day cannot handle bright sunlight or flash photography. In 1988, he was transferred off the island to Victor Verster Prison, and on February 11, 1990, Mandela was released because the ban on anti-apartheid organizations was lifted as apartheid began to come to a close. In 1994, after apartheid officially fell, Nelson was elected as the 1st president to a fully democratic South Africa.

Our Tour Guide

Showing Us his Cell

Nelson Mandela's Cell

With Our Tour Guide

Transportation Back to the Mainland

Rugby

The apartheid history is so heavy, so draining, that we have to offset it with a little frivolity, and how better to do that than with rugby?
As with any sport, there isn't too much to say about the game; you'd just have to be there. But I will say this: it's not just American football without pads. I'm still not 100% clear on the rules, but it's seriously one of the most fun sports to watch. The Durban Sharks played the Western Province, and we were a bit torn because we live here in the Western Province, but our South Africans that took us to the game were Sharks fans. (The Sharks narrowly won, so we were Sharks fans in the end.) We looked at it as a trial run, as the Rugby World Cup is next month and we have to get our game on to cheer for the South African Springboks!