I have gradually sent part this update around via email and Facebook and finally decided it is good to post here for a longer term record. It pains me as I know it does almost everyone else I know, to continuously learn details of the horror show that continues to grow via this administration in the US. While I follow the headlines daily, I am not truly inundated like I will be when I return. People here in Cape Town and elsewhere in South Africa are amazed that now the US is no different than other countries familiar to Africa with dictators, despots and authoritarian megalomaniacs. And people ask me how a country that elected Obama could end up like this. I heard Michael Moore say recently on Stephen Colbert, that the democrats won the popular vote in 6 out of 7 last presidential elections, but for the gerrymandered electoral college, the popular vote didn't matter. We must get rid of the electoral college; it is so undemocratic.
It is really gong to be hard for me to leave this place I love, but it is inevitable. The big question is what will come next. Sort of like being back in the initial retirement mode, only more so since this adventure is so much more than about work. I am in a constant mode of learning and exploring it seems. I love the beauty, the cultures and people, the contrast and conflicts.
I am doing well and still enjoy my life here. My work is fun and rewarding at UCT's School of Public and Family Medicine. Outside of work I have some days very full for me on many levels. In mid-June, that Friday was Eid, the end of the month of Ramadan, when Muslims fast from sun up to sundown. I started my day early at the mosque of good friends of mine to share the observance of this very holy day. It began with amazing meditative Muslim chanting and the moving message of the Iman. The Mosque or Masjid, is a very progressive one and the Iman spoke of social justice, compassion and resistance to oppression in all its form (I learned later he was one of the high school students arrested in 1976 described below about the film). I joined my friends for their big lunch with family now that fasting is over. I love to listen to the call for prayer several times a day from the close-by local mosque and love that sound wafting through the neighbourhood to my place. Then later my day ended with a concert by Oliver Mtukudzi from Zimbabwe, where the audience (seemed mostly from Zimbabwe) were truly energised and excited. So, all that happened in just one day. Saturday was Youth Day, and I was able to join people to watch the documentary described below, many of those involved as high school students were present for the screenings throughout the day. The third, evening screening, was going to take place at the Palestinian museum to draw attention to the suffering of Palestinian people under Israeli apartheid. I have heard many here comment that what they suffer there is far worse than apartheid in SA; even Mandela commented about that at some point.
I was lucky to visit Kruger National Park a few weeks ago and saw many great animals and birds. I attached a couple here. I am hoping to travel to Zimbabwe and maybe Namibia in the first two weeks of Sept. Also, recently, for Refugee Food Week I attended a cooking class with young cooks/chefs from Congo and Angola. They didn’t really do a home-style thing and cooked fancier food than I would ever make or likely eat, but then, they now cook in more fancy style restaurants here. The ingredients and tastes were certainly from their home countries and very yummy! A photo shows me with those two guest chefs, and the resident chef at this establishment, plus another participant.
Now for the history lesson:
June 16 is commemorated as "Youth Day" in South Africa, a national holiday. It stems from the murder of hundreds of school children in 1976 in Soweto who protested the requirement that all black schools must be taught in AfriKanns. What started out as a peaceful protest by unarmed primary and high school children, turned violent by the police actions with tear gas and the use of assault weapons. The "Afrikaans Medium Act" was implemented in 1975. As a result of what happened in Soweto, many school children around the country began to organise marches and demonstrations, often with severe consequences. The documentary about Salt River High School students was made by the brother of the Iman mentioned earlier, who was one of the students arrested. In September 1976 the students organised a protest about the Afrikaans language decree that eventually became a referendum on the apartheid system. It is an interesting part of their story that Afrikaans was and is a dominant language for them, the so-called "coloured" population, but they saw the connection of this decree for black school children as linked to the overall oppression which they also suffered as well as non-whites. They are the first to explain that Afrikaans is not itself a racist language, but how it was used was integral to the racist apartheid oppression.
The high school is in the next door community of Salt River a few blocks from where I live in Observatory and near the University of Cape Town's Faculty of Health Sciences, where I work. These students led the first-ever march into downtown Cape Town by any group against apartheid. The march that started with their own school peers, soon swelled to 10,000 en route to parliament. Ten high school students were arrested, beaten and tortured, along with two parents and a teacher. They were eventually released after a trial, with no verdict related to the trumped-up charges against them. Prior to the tragic events of 1976, the anti-apartheid activities were largely underground or taking place outside of South Africa. It the bravery of these children and youth that galvanised the next major waves of resistance and opposition and eventually led to the end of apartheid in the early 1990s.
Youth Day should be an international observance. Youth are being murdered in the US by guns and now youth have taken up the banner of resistance like those in previous generations. Youth were integrally involved in the resistance during the Civil Rights and Vietnam protests; and now more recently in Black Lives Matter protests; protests agains guns and gun violence; youth led-protests against the apartheid conditions for Palestinians by the Israeli government, to name a few. And the US continues to mistreat hundreds of children separated from their parents and warehoused in cage-like prison conditions. It is a tragedy on so many levels. The Trump administration stands against all of our most important values and is out of control. One of my favourite anti-apartheid songs is Senzeni Na (What have we done?), sung by the Cape Town Youth Choir at this link. It is almost a prayer and has become like "We Shall Overcome" here.
Senzeni Na:
June 16 is commemorated as "Youth Day" in South Africa, a national holiday. It stems from the murder of hundreds of school children in 1976 in Soweto who protested the requirement that all black schools must be taught in AfriKanns. What started out as a peaceful protest by unarmed primary and high school children, turned violent by the police actions with tear gas and the use of assault weapons. The "Afrikaans Medium Act" was implemented in 1975. As a result of what happened in Soweto, many school children around the country began to organise marches and demonstrations, often with severe consequences. The documentary about Salt River High School students was made by the brother of the Iman mentioned earlier, who was one of the students arrested. In September 1976 the students organised a protest about the Afrikaans language decree that eventually became a referendum on the apartheid system. It is an interesting part of their story that Afrikaans was and is a dominant language for them, the so-called "coloured" population, but they saw the connection of this decree for black school children as linked to the overall oppression which they also suffered as well as non-whites. They are the first to explain that Afrikaans is not itself a racist language, but how it was used was integral to the racist apartheid oppression.
The high school is in the next door community of Salt River a few blocks from where I live in Observatory and near the University of Cape Town's Faculty of Health Sciences, where I work. These students led the first-ever march into downtown Cape Town by any group against apartheid. The march that started with their own school peers, soon swelled to 10,000 en route to parliament. Ten high school students were arrested, beaten and tortured, along with two parents and a teacher. They were eventually released after a trial, with no verdict related to the trumped-up charges against them. Prior to the tragic events of 1976, the anti-apartheid activities were largely underground or taking place outside of South Africa. It the bravery of these children and youth that galvanised the next major waves of resistance and opposition and eventually led to the end of apartheid in the early 1990s.
Youth Day should be an international observance. Youth are being murdered in the US by guns and now youth have taken up the banner of resistance like those in previous generations. Youth were integrally involved in the resistance during the Civil Rights and Vietnam protests; and now more recently in Black Lives Matter protests; protests agains guns and gun violence; youth led-protests against the apartheid conditions for Palestinians by the Israeli government, to name a few. And the US continues to mistreat hundreds of children separated from their parents and warehoused in cage-like prison conditions. It is a tragedy on so many levels. The Trump administration stands against all of our most important values and is out of control. One of my favourite anti-apartheid songs is Senzeni Na (What have we done?), sung by the Cape Town Youth Choir at this link. It is almost a prayer and has become like "We Shall Overcome" here.
Senzeni Na:
You saw lions! We are jealous!
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