Before coming to England, I thought of South Africa as a somewhat evil location in well, Africa. My only real associations with the place were Nelson Mandela, Dave Matthews, and that damn movie Tsotsi that was advertised constantly at every movie I went to for about six months. Oh, and they went there on America's Next Top Model one year and toured some slums and did a fashion show. Perhaps most importantly, I did not think of South Africa as being a part of the intimate circle of white English-speaking nations. Perhaps because essentially, it is not.
Now, there are people from South Africa in these parts. I can't place them by their accents, in my mind they are someone reminiscent of New Zealand accents, but I haven't really talked to any so I don't really know. What I find especially intriguing is that all of the people in these parts claiming to be South African are indeed white, which I find odd having been told that the vast majority of the country is not white, and the white people who do live there have a lot of things to answer to after that whole apartheid thing. The South Africans are sort of just another of the circle with the Aussies and the Kiwis, only quite frankly they lack a cute nickname for their nationality (or at least I don't know of one). Even us types can be slangingly referred to as Yanks, and while I like to call our northerly friends Canucks, I'm not sure if they do around here. My apologies, I've gone a bit off track.
While it's easy to argue that one could approach Americans in that same sort of 'your country has some splainin' to do' manner, I still find myself with extreme reservations towards South Africa. I think I'm still quite taken aback by the whole extreme racial divide. It seems while the English still have lingering ideas of the country as a former colonial output, it strikes me as having taken the whole concept one step too far. And again, being an American I feel like it can argued to be a case of the stove calling the kettle black, I think it's simply the fact that these things went on (legally) in South Africa within my lifetime.
Being in these parts I can't help but get the impression that my views are in the minority. For all I know, I am in the minority in terms of American thinking. Either way, for the time being I'm still keeping the whole South African concept at arm's length.
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4 comments:
ooo an interesting blog topic...firstly i guess their nickname would be springboks as thats the rugby teams nickname although then you would call the aussies wallabies! anyways its an interesting thing like i think SA is an amazing country that is trying hard to remove itself from the apartheid viewpoint.
the first thing you see when you leave cape towns airport is a massive shanty town which is when it first hits you that your in Africa...when driving on the motorways there are shanty towns on either side with people casually running across a 70mph road - we drove past (very quickly) somebody driving along with a big gun in his hand basically they still have a long way to go in terms of infrastructure and delivering basic social needs.
another interesting point is that the rugby team (that helped unit the country with nelson mandela lifted the world cup trophy in SA in the 90's as president) has to have a certain quota of black players in the team even if there are better white players...although today the big superhero of SA rugby is black and they have just installed their first black head coach...
however you cant just say that racism is a south african thing (the british havnt got a very proud history in that regards) but even today in Europe Spain in particular is very racist - when black footballers play against spanish teams in Spain they regularily get booed and Lewis Hamiliton (F1 driver) very recently experienced the same thing from "fans" in a Barcelona testing session. likewise ten years ago in the premiership rasism was widespread but today it is about gone.
anyways South Africa is a beautiful country that is hopefully on correct the tracks...hopefully the soccer world cup will advertise this on a world stage....
As an American, I suppose I figuratively have a lot of blood on my hands, and I do feel shame. However, I am pleased when I visit a country and am not judged by what the government of my country and a lot of crazy people that I don't associate with do and believe in, but rather judge me as an individual. And I probably don't make a favorable impression in fashionable parts of the world by wearing sensible shoes and frumpy, practical coats, but I'd rather be disliked for that than by anyone thinking I in any way support the war in Iraq!!
i think one of the funniest sites ive seen is people getting off a flight from Milan before Margo and I got on the flight to Munich - their fashion choice was bizare - but apparently its cutting edge!
For some reason, South Africans are quite prominent in the international wastewater industry. I've encountered a number of them professionally, most of them with PhDs, and all very bright. Plus they have that cute accent deal going for them.
I have the impression that none of them are proud of their country's past; maybe that's why they've come to the US.
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