Tuesday, October 12, 2004
I am in Johannesburg. I have just returned from a week long trip out in Kosi Bay for PoC’s summer school. It was a really great time. I will write about that at length a little later.
Being in johannesburg has got me thinking about so many things. I’m so much more observent and critical this time around. I see South Africa and I analyze it from a much deeper place. I think everytime I get here the tools I use for my analysis will be sharper and sharper.
South Africa is a strange place. Everyone knows and acknowledges the contradictions that are present here… the wealth juxtaposed against the poverty. The modern, the ‘western’ side by side with the old and the african.
Yesterday morning I wanted to take a walk to Pick and Pay, a local supermarket chain here to look for some shampoo, soaps and other toiletries. There’s a shopping mall just around the corner from the Backpackers’ Ritz where I am staying. I walked there with Dayo. She was dressed up in her beautiful Nigerian clothes. I wore shorts, my brown sweater and sneakers.
When we walked into this mall, it didn’t look like Africa at all. It could have been a mall in Florida or California—easily. But I knew that already. Even in Zimbabwe we have places like that… like at Westgate, the original Bulawayo Center, Eastgate etc etc. it was bizarre to be reminded of the differences in who is able to access these developments. All the staff in these stores and restaurants were black, except those in clearly managerial positions. Almost all the patrons were white. They styles and designs of the places were also clearly based on foreign concepts. Now, there’s nothing wrong with those things… these are just mere observations. Perhaps when we look deeper into their meaning we can draw other conclusions.
We got to pick and pay and immediately I noticed one of the security guards was on our tail. I initially said nothing to Dayo but knew we were being watched. We must have been the only two black ‘shoppers’ at pick and pay at that time. He followed us and kept a watch on us. Moments later, another woman came into tha aisle where we were looking for stuff and she was doing what looked like a routine stock-take. Note, “routine”! at this point, I decided to let Dayo know that we were being watched. She just turned to me and told me to stop being paranoid. I explained that I wasn’t scared of it, but was rather upset at the assumption that we were potential criminals—just because on the outside [our dress, our style etc] was not compliant wit the regular clientelle.
I told Dayo to watch the ‘stock-taking’ woman. We moved up and down and aisle and, just as I predicted, she followed us up and down the aisle—clearly not a way to take stock of anything. Dayo started freaking out! I told her to watch what happens when we went to a different aisle. Again, as predicted, we were followed onto that one too. Ridiculous!
How much money was wasted looking our for the chance that we could have stolen a 5 rand toothbrush [less than fifty US cents]?? They had at least 3 people watching us who could have been productive in other areas within the store, earning money.
But on the other hand…what does it mean the stereotypes are so strong that they affect the way you are treated? Like Dayo said… “is apartheid really over?” I understand the lasting events of such an oppresive system. The fear that still exists about black people and the idea that they do not belong n certain parts of society. This belief may not be explicit [after all, South Africa is the rainbow nation], but it is certainly inherent in all that take place in this country.
Earlier that day, Dayo and I were having breakfast at the Ritz. A friend of ours from the UK came to join us and asked the kitchen staff if there was a place outside where we could have breakfast. [seemingly]Without event thinking, the lady behind the counter took the keys to the out door area and gave them to Dayo to open the door for the lady of the UK (who happens to be white). Dayo and I were both shocked! Not only was Dayo a guest at the lodge as much as the white lady, she had also not expressed any interest in the question of eating outside. So why did this lady not give the keys to the person who wanted to have breakfast outside? It’s interesting to trying and understand people’s behavior, especially the actions that are not always thought out and explicit. We all have learned behaviors that are very wrong, very stereotypical and very racist. Most of the time we just don’t know it.
South Africa has such a long way to go to really undo the investments made over hundreds of years to separate the people of this country.
