I’m in South Africa right now. The country I’m in has a 79% black population, and yet, you would never know it from looking at the makeup of the places I’ve been visiting. It’s so… black and white.
For instance, I’m visiting a geophysics company. Its sixty workers, safe for one man, are all white. It does not reflect the local makeup at all. Meanwhile, the staff of the hotel I’m at are all black, while its patrons are all white.
It’s just so odd to see this stark contrast. If I were to give a guess, I’d say that the economic damage to blacks caused by Apartheid-era policies lives on, maintaining the huge rift between the [white] haves and the [black] have-nots.
Its just so eerie to witness this inequality first hand.
Comments
4 responses to “Apartheid Lives On”
Welcome to the american south, kid!
16 years is not enough to reverse Apartheid effect. Maybe the next generation can reverse it because old ideas and tendencies die hard.
It’s interesting to hear a perspective (and I’ve been really enjoying your facebook photos too) from a “newbie” to the Dark Continent… and very true in SA. The Afrikaner are very hardened to it and change will be slow in coming. Very odd to see that attitude as it’s so … un-Canadian, for lack of a better description! Like Mereo said above, it will be up to the next generation…
If you go to somewhere like Ghana or Botswana, you would be much more encouraged as to the equality. And to mention the other extreme, I was in small Kenyan town for a few months about ten years ago and experienced being on the “other” end of racism (i.e. people making fun of me because I’m white) for the first time which was a truly horrible and bizarre experience.
Looking forward to more perspectives and pictures!
Your perspective as an observer is heightened by travel. However, the angle of the lens may also changes the focus… When Kate(above) visited an area of Kenya, the camera’s eye shifted around… a 180* turn of the lens…
Sometimes we truly don’t understand a situation until we live it ourselves…glimpses of: ”Black Like Me”. Perhaps one day your creative inner ‘cineaste’ will find suitable film material here.