eThekwini, Kwa Zulu Natal (Durban, South Africa), My first impressions of South Africa - PART 1

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eThekwini, Kwa Zulu Natal (Durban, South Africa), part 1

Hello, Everyone.

As promised, I am sending my first impressions of South Africa, a country which seemingly has everything it needs to be a shining light to the world. Writing this has taken a bit longer than I expected due mainly to email problems, and so this missive is much longer than I would have expected, and no doubt longer than what i will subsequently offer, but maybe there will be a little bit of something for everyone who has asked for info. I must reiterate that these notes are informal, and are merely a means to share an extraordinary experience with those who might be interested.

Today my classes have been cancelled due to an impromtu strike held by the music students at the University of Kwa Zulu Natal, here in Durban, South Africa. This affords me the opportunity to finally finish transferring my email contacts to gmail, which will allow me to email you all without revealing your individual addresses (AOL doesn't behave so well here)...The strike itself is about the administration refusal to fix the air conditioning units in the music building, a huge building with sealed windows and stultifying heat here in the hot humid summer of Durban.made all the more oppressive with the knowledge that the rest of the classrooms are equipped with air conditioning. The litany of excuses that have been running for six months have come to a head when the students decided to "strike." At the strike, as they say here, the music students made their proclivities known. They were mixing strains of "Straight, No Chaser" on their instruments along with toyitoyi songs, and singing in harmony. I rremember the toyitoyi dance from news footage of the anti apartheid struggle. The word is a Xhosa word that means to dance in place. It is a sort of two step shuffle that goes backa nd forth, but does make a progression. This was the third toyitoyi that i have witnessed. The first occured at 3 in the morning with a group of men running quickly about 20 deep singing and blasting those long, loud plastic horns that are used by fans at soccer matches. From what I gathered, it was an impromptu celebration after news of a soccer victory. The second was a political rally on campus for the ANC, which people ran from various corners of the campus to particpate in, singing heartily in isiZulu as they danced. Definitely in Africa; here even white political candidates dance at rallies.

This is an exciting time to be here in South Africa, fifteen years into the new democracy, and during an election year. As can be expected, this is truly a polyglot, multi-cultural society,and there are many different ways to experience and be in this scene. There are eleven official languages. On the surface so much is radically different from the South Africa that we grew up protesting against, and there is a sort of pluralism that did not exist before, and certainly more political debate than we are accustomed to in the states. But the new South Africa retains many of the structural elements of the old regime. and while the uglier aspects of race-based policies are not so consistently and readily apparent, many of its various legacies are alive and well, and most especially for the poor, which is the vast majority of the people. One encounters ubiquitous complaining about black politicians and "black diamonds," the new black middle class, especially from non-blacks. Since I have been here an Afrikaans boy of 14 was arrested for murdering three black people, including two children, because of race hatred. In the northern provinces a white doctor was arrested for enforcing apartheid-like seperation at his clinic, at a political rally for the ANC here in Kwa Zulu Natal, three ANC supporters were shot and killed. This group just represents the obvious reminders...

One of the key cultural factors by which people are identified here centers around language. (Of course it was the school children who rebelled against being forced to use Afrikaans as the medium of education that first brought South Africa into my consciousness in 1976. ...remember Gil Scott's "Johannesburg"?) And even when everyone is speaking English, there are discernible accents that mark one as white English speaking or white Afrikaans speaking, or as Africans who are private schooled educated and those who are educated in township or rural schools (yet more echoes of the apartheid social order), or as Indian, or as Colored, and so on. Not surprisingly, there is political valence in the sort of accent with which one speaks English.

This province is the one with the highest concentration of blacks and Indians, and consequently the lowest concentration of whites. Almost everyone in Durban speaks English. And while whites and Indians speak English with everyone, blacks (here called "Africans"--telling, no?) speak isiZulu to one another, with occasional phrases in English. Looking as I do, I am invariably greeted in isiZulu, and feel very ashamed when I have to reveal my ignorance of the language. I feel especially sheepish because with the famous politeness of African cultures i am usually referred to as "baba." Baba literally means father, and so is something like a polite reference to an elder. The gentleness and even tenderness that sometimes accompanies this greeting is moving for me (thankfully partially cured of the peculiarly United Statesian aversion to growing old, thanks to my sojourn to bahia), makes me want to learn the language faster. It is not the easiest language for an anglophone, however, with its many sylablles and different sounds, consonant blends with air going out the sides of the mouth, others with air sucking in the front, and various clicks. It is a Bantu or Sintu language, closely related to Ndebele, Xhosa, etc. with the characteristic mellifluous, rhythmic flow of so many African languages. The great attention to recognition of one another's humanity inscribed in the greeting rituals of traditional African cultures is reflected in the very structure of the language. In isiZulu, for example, the standard greeting, "Sawubona" literally means "I see you." People are routinely addressed in the most personal terms, and strangers are referred to as father, mother, brother, sister, son, daughter, depending upon age appropriateness. And even when intransitive verbs are used there is a wordplacement that gives recognition to the place or person if you will upon which the verb acts.

While most blacks speak English, most whites and most Indians that I have met (actually, virtually all) have not bothered to learn isiZulu, the first language of this region, whose name has been changed from Natal to Kwa Zulu Natal. Kwa Zulu Natal is undergoing an extensive name changing in fact, and the streets with names like King George and Francois Road, etc. are being changed to Rick Turner (a slain student activist) and Umpilo road, etc. In fact, the real name of this city is not Durban, but eThekwini. My car registration, for example, is for eThekwini, but my airplane ticket to this city reads Durban. Maybe in time...

Language is not the only blatant reminder of the traditional pecking order here; it is inscibed in the very geography of the city. The physical geography of this city is stunningly beautiful, particularly once you get away from the city and up into Zulu land. but even in the metropolis I have yet to get accustom to the raw beauty of the land. rolling hills and an abundance of banana, mango, avocado trees and every kind of plant. the sub tropical climate and abundant rain fall makes for a very lush environment, and the many hills makes for cityscape views that can be breath taking. Most blacks, however, still live in townships. the two largest here are Kwa Mashu and Umlazi. There are the usual (not to be taken lightly) warnings about trapsing around unescorted by someone from there, and while I have made contacts finally, I have not yet been to the townships, though one of my township-dwelling saxophonist friends tells me that i must go to actually have visited South Africa. (After facing the machine guns in the favelas of Rio, I have decided to take the suggested precautions seriously, but plan to be involved in community music projects in Kwa Mashu and Umlazi soon, and will dispatch part 2 of my notes subsequently.) In Durban proper and the suburbs which were constructed for whites only there are fantastic dwellings. most of which come fully loaded with acres of trees and "gardens", swimmming pools, complete lack of rectilinear streets, etc. Everyone rides cars (for the most part whites do not ride the buses, called taxis whose routes are very limited and mostly geared to get you from the township to the city and back), and there are not even many sidewalks for walking. One sees black folk walking in the streets wtih cars everyday, and indeed there is a high incidence of pedestrians being hit by drivers. Another unfortunate consequence of all of this is that the surburban dwellers feel like they are in prison, as they travel in their cars to their secure homes surrounded by concrete fences, locks, alarm systems, and big dogs. they stay in doors and everything, but everything is behind lock and key, even in the primary schools. There is some integration in these areas, and I have been to nice homes ownded by Indians, but every black dweller's home that I have visited in these areas have been in areas that are now all black. also, the houses are divided up into smaller units, sort of like turning Harlem brownstones into single room occupancies, making a house designed as a single dwelling accomodate around 8 families or so. same difference. These homes also have the luxurious flora to distinguish them. there are also settler camps with the most provisional of shacks where migrants from the rural areas adn young people starting out on there own live. they are dangerous, and squalid, an eye sore on the otherwise beautiful city scape. When one witnesses and experiences the riches and luxury that middle class people have easily in their reach, it is difficult to not feel that the government has really let the people down, as no one should live like that in a place of plenty. These living arrangements complete with the semi-rural and seasonal, and often single sex migrant labor forces hark back to the days of apartheid and even before with the Natives Land Act of 1913. A sustained investigation and meditation upon these facts explains much about the violence that is so evident here. (one routinely hears of robberies, armed robberies, rapes, gang rapes, and murders. and there is a bit of vigilante violence also against robbers caught by ordinary citizens. one man boasted of how he and 8 others stripped a would be robber naked and bludgeoned him. also, much of teh celebrated literature and films from this country is often full of violence, rape, and HIV). In the early parts of the 20th century the migration from farming areas of Zulu land was preferable for whites beause it kept wages low in the city and kept women producing children for their labor force in teh rural areas. it was preferable for many blacks as it kept their traditional culture more intact with reserved lands for their way of life. Even the development of the townships derive from this history with its semi rural environs, shades of ghetto life, and cultural transformation from cattle herding culture with village life in conical mud thatched huts to wage slavery in rectangular corrugated houses. I suppose something called the bottom line would be that while apartheid is officially no longer the law of teh land, and there is a burgeoning black middle class, the poorest people are as bad off as they ever were, and the social pyramid is the most disproportionate in the world--the difference between the haves and have nots is greater than in even Brazil and India.The poverty of the bottom levels of teh socioeconomic order are relatively less well off than during apartheid. and to make matters worse there is teh HIV/AIDS pandemic. It just so happens that Kwa Zulu Natal is the epicenter of this pandemic, with the highest rates in the world. The overall figure for south africa taken from routine tests given to pregnant women who come in for pre-natal care is 40% infected!!! The rates are higher in Zulu land and higher in rural areas. (Blacks are still about 40% rural, though the average black farmer has only 2 hectares of land versus 1300 hectares for the average white farmer). i think i will stop this line for now...

South Africans are fond of barbecues, which they call brais. I have attended a white brai and a black brai. The food, drinks, and social customs of each were as different as might be expected. In the one, there were more European dishes, cutlery, dry wines, vegetable dishes, and desserts, communal discussions about various aspects of social, cultural, and political life, comfortable chairs and sofas. In the other there was dagga (marijuana smoking is part of traditional Zulu culture), beer, pork, pork, pork, chicken, tomato salsa, and a ugali like starchy food that was used in place of cutlery to eat and sop with, a few stools for men to sit upon, women sat on the floor (apparently more Zulu custom?). there was art work that was painstakingly explained to me as to its significance in the struggles of South Africa to become a multi racial democracy, and the continuing struggle for most blacks to truly taste the fruits of so called freedom. it made me recall the difference between the musical cultures of blacks and whites here. (As my new friend, Ndhiko Xaba, told me, "there are black musicians, Indian musicians, Colored musicians, and white musicians, and here that means something!") Listening to some compositions with happy sounding choruses of rhythm changes (for non musicians, that's like the theme music to the Flinstones) with lyrics claiming homelessness, the need for jobs, etc. Or my 10 year old daughter reciting ditties repeated amongst her class mates, "Zuma, Zuma, we need electricity. Without electricity the city's kind of shitty...)

Mentioning Zuma does bring up the electoral political situation here, which is confusingly complex. news commentary is awash with acronyms enough for an alphabet soup, and in some ways quite different from what we are. This is a country where people are discussing matters quite a bit, and where there is widespread belief in deep corruption in the government. I do hear more bitter complaining amongst non-Africans, however. Africans are quicker to point out teh economic stronghold that whites still maintain under the new regime. Thre are astonishing things, however, from my point of view. The presumptive next president, for example, is under investigation for corruption and racketeering. His trial will not be completed till after the elections, but since here you vote for a party and not a person he feels completely justified in staying int eh running. He beat the rape charges (in a country with far and away the highest incidence of rape in the entire world, and where 24 out of 2 accused rapist are set free). The woman who accused him of raping her is HIV positive and Zuma, who admits to knowing her HIV status but claims the sex was consensual, says he had sex with her unprotected becaue he took a shower afterwards. ???? a political cartoonist started drawing him iwth a shower head coming out of his neck. I would be LMAO if it were not so very tragic. Nevertheless, during news broadcasts and talk shows there is a constant stream of text messages voicing all kinds of opinions that run concurrently with the programming, and much of it critical of the state.

the four channels of television run by the SABC has news in various languages, music videos, and soap operas, talk shows, and a few movies and situation comedies imported
from the US. The best actors who appear on the big screen mostly work in the soap operas as well and so the acting is generally good if teh scripts are more pedestrian., On the whole they are actually quite entertaining. They deal not only with the usual soap opera fare of scandal, treachery, and infidelity, but also treat themes about traditional versus modern lifestyles, sexuality, corporate intrigue, and gender roles, and more. And the commercials are hilarious! commercials, in addition to having more originality and humour also use topical political events in a casual manner. For example, a seasoning commercial plays the dozens with one potato saying to the other, "your mother is so fat that she needs a whole taxi," the other potato replies, "Your mother is so fat, she ate a whole taxi!" coice over: potatos are not nice with out our seasoning! then one lamb chop asks the other, "what do you think of power sharing in Zimbabwe?" the other chop says, "Man, i hate power sharing!" the voice over says chops are nasty without so and so brand of seasoning. or a KFC commercial harkens the Zulu traditions as it has a bald headed boy constantly being called to his elders after they eat dinner. The elders wipe their greasy hands on his head as a napking blessing him, telling him that he will one day have many cattle. finally he gets some KFC which if finger licking good...you get teh idea.

I am actually tired of writing at this point adn no doubt many of you have lost interest in this before this point, so i will cut off here, though I wanted to talk a little about African Americanisms in South Africa. But this will have to wait!

thanks for listening, and if this is something that is at all useful or interesting let me know, and i will try to do it again, perhaps after I start my work in the townships.

peace,
salim

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