Jimmy for President

Friday was quite a day! I began with a tour of Soweto, the largest Township of Johannesburg and in the afternoon I went to the Apartheid Museum. I learned so much and had so many impressions and opinions of what I saw on Friday that I could write on and on about it...

First, I must confess, I had never really studied the history of South Africa -- the natives, the Dutch and British colonialism, Apartheid, the struggles that defined this nation, and the people who call it home. On my first night at the Boormans, they loaned me a great book called "My Traitor's Heart" written by Rian Milan, a relative of DF Malan, one of the architects of Apartheid. It's been filling in a lot of knowledge gaps for me, and then the reading came to life for me on Friday in Soweto and at the museum.

It's shocking that Apartheid existed until the early nineties. And while I recognize change takes time, it's also shocking how divided the city still is.

My tour guide in Soweto was incredible. Taking the tour was just me and Marcus, a German guy who now lives in Dublin. Jimmy, our guide and the owner of Jimmy's Face to Face Tours, drove us around in a small car. He didn't take us to the main tourist stops where busses were parked and crowds of tourists milled about (at Nelson Mandela's old house, Winnie Mandela's current house, Desmond Tutu's home, etc.). We drove by those spots, and did see them, but where we stopped and got out to chat with folks were much more authentic.

First, Jimmy took us to "Prestige Heights," the ritziest streets in the Township. Here homes are big & beautiful, well maintained, and have the requisite walls, barbed wire, gates, etc. that are everywhere in the "white" Northern suburbs of Joberg. The owners of these homes included govt officials, the owner of a professional soccer team, etc. Next, we went to a middleclass area, where the homes were neatly kept, some gardening was taking place, and these homeowners appeared to be entrepreneurs of sorts -- one man told us he had opened a gardening business, another had opened a Shebeen (small bar/restaurant attached to the home). Then, we went to a much poorer area where there would be a main house, and then up to ten tin shacks built around it on the property. Each one-room shack was home to an entire family, and they often took great pride in welcoming us in and showing us their home. Wires were rigged and strung everywhere to splint some electricity from the main house into each shack. There would only be one bathroom for all inhabitants on the property, however.

Jimmy, a black man who grew up in Soweto but now lives in the suburbs, introduced himself to everyone we met as the country's future president. He would strike up conversations with everyone we saw in the poorer areas. If they were a child, he'd ask why they weren't in school, and then stress that they must put education first. He'd use himself as an example, dedicating his success to his early work in the classrooms of Soweto. He'd pass out books (had several copies of Barak Obama's book, and would tell the students that a black man from Kenya might have a shot at the U.S. presidency, and he'd encourage them to read his words and learn from his example). Then, he'd give an AIDS speech to the kids and plead with them to hold off on starting a family.

If we were chatting with an adult, he'd ask why they weren't working. He'd point out that they were able bodied, and then start suggesting careers, "You're healthy -- you could clean houses, you could drive a cab, you could be a gardener, etc." And then he'd give the AIDS speech and tell them they must set the proper example for the children in the township. Jimmy was a force to be reckoned with, and it was a pleasure to spend time with him. (Funny side note on the AIDS speech -- Condom is a verb here -- Jimmy kept telling people that if they must be having sex, they must be "condomizing." And there were signs throughout the Township listing the A, B, C's of AIDS: Abstinence, Be faithful, Condomize.) We did not stop or get out at the poorest neighborhoods Jimmy took us by -- they were truly heartbreaking -- just rows & rows of tin shacks, lots of trash, stomach-turning smells -- very destitute spots, and as Jimmy noted, the most common filmed spots for the tv cameras, etc. who sometimes came to do stories on Soweto. I'm very glad I saw the full range of life and comfort.

The Apartheid museum is very well done, and was a nice compliment to my morning in Soweto. I must say, however, that I hope the city (and country) continue to make progress against the divide that is still very obvious at so many turns: white/weathly vs. black/poor.

Mere