At the beginning of my journey through South Africa, I was – admittedly – somewhat shocked. Black and white, which is not in harmony as I had imagined. And never before had I seen poverty and luxury so close together. After a few days it was clear that I have to write an article. The legacy of apartheid can not be just a side note.
I felt a bit duped. And I was your own fault. Because, as so often, I had not informed me. I knew only the beautiful photos and stories of Cape Town and the Garden Route. Where romp tourists. Today I know that this is only a small part of South Africa. A nice, but not a representative.
Who wants to not notice much of the problems in South Africa, is in the Western Cape – ie between Cape Town and the Garden Route – very well cared for. There you can avoid all this quite well. The farther you move away from this region, the more changes the character of this country.
So when I arrived I knew again not much. I am interested hardly for things to which I have no connection. One of my quirks.
I had at least heard that Johannesburg was not a beautiful city. “Okay, not every big city is nice,” I thought to myself. The desolation and the perceived hopelessness have me but then startled. Since it became clear: I need to know more.
So I visited the Apartheid Museum in Johannesburg and Constitution Hill. A little later I invited the autobiography of Nelson Mandela on my Kindle and slowly gave me an overview.
South African apartheid in the 20th century
Apartheid means the government-imposed racial segregation in South Africa. Although there were such separations in other countries, but in South Africa remained stuck this term.
First forms of racial segregation in South Africa, there were at the beginning of the 20th century. Around 1950 a number of laws were passed which manifested the separation becoming stronger. In every aspect of daily life whites were separated from non-whites.
So there was a white minority about blacks, coloreds and people of Indian descent. They were exploited and were inferior to whites by law. At times, believed the oppressed even in their inferiority because generations grew up who knew nothing else. It describes Nelson Mandela in his autobiography.
White lived in the cities. All the others were outsourced in townships, where they were out of sight, were left to themselves, but as cheap labor were available.
In the long run blacks should live in so-called homelands – seemingly unrelated areas that managed themselves. This geographical separation should take into account the different development of whites and non-whites. Many Africans welcomed these homelands because they believed probably to be able to at least maintain control there. Mandela & Co., however, were strongly opposed to this development in order to shut out not from their own country.
In the 70s and 80s, the oppressed groups rebelled ever. Because of the internal and external political pressures were in 1990, the political prisoners – including Mandela – left free and officially abolished Apartheid in the following months. In 1994 there were the first elections in which even non-whites were allowed to vote. Not surprisingly won the then largest opposition party ANC to power. Mandela became the first black president.
The legacy of apartheid in 2014
20 years later, the consequences of apartheid are still to be felt immediately – much more than I expected.
Today there is no state-legitimized racial division more. However, a de facto separation for classes. On changes the result is not very much.
In Johannesburg they talked me quite openly on the very first day on the black / white conflict on. When I greet quickly and without friendly in a group of beer drinking men walked past, ran after me one of them to verklickern me that we all have to deal with each other friendly, when something else to be with South Africa. He admitted he was aware that we would be suspicious of black, perhaps were afraid.
Besides the fact that I do not seated in Germany on the street, drunken men greetings, I have later still strives to be not only open, but also to act openly. That hurts me certainly not at home.
Still, I never could resist totally opposed me in the first few weeks, to be a bit intimidated. Of the almost exclusively black people, their poverty and the past in my mind. Rarely have I felt treated me kindly, mostly indifferent. The looks I did not fit properly. Frequently I meant to recognize a reproach in the eyes.
I may have been mistaken. At least 50 per cent was probably imagination. But I did not feel really comfortable me. Later I became more relaxed when I got used to it, but also increasingly came toward Garden Route.
Life in the cities
East of the Western Cape to me is hardly a nice place encountered. Whether big cities like Johannesburg and Pretoria or the many small towns: It makes no difference. The inner cities are neglected. There is nothing of what makes a city attractive. No shopping malls, parks, cafes or restaurants. Nothing where you simply could stroll along time.
One sees in these cities that they were probably once been nice decades ago. Back when only the whites – and therefore rather rich – South Africans lived in cities. Later, they fled to the outskirts as the poor moved to the cities. The money flowed from that crime rose, companies disappeared. For decades, lacking investment, and so most of the cities are desolate in the region especially.
In the inner cities, I saw almost exclusively black. White I just saw in my lodging, in shopping malls or in the car on the highway. They live in the suburbs, often in beautiful houses or villas behind high walls with barbed wire, alarms and security guards. Black can be seen there only as security guards or gardeners. In these outlying areas there is then also small restaurant miles. You have to know where only.
So I have taken the towns east of the Western Cape. Mostly I used it only as a base to explore the area, or because they were on the way: Johannesburg, Pretoria, Hazyview, Bethlehem, Durban, East London and Port Elizabeth.
There are a few exceptions. Especially those cities that have attracted over the years because of the tourist attractions in the surrounding area. For example Clarens or St. Lucia. These are much better maintained.
The gap between black and white
The social differences between black and white are still prominent in South Africa. One does not have to be very attentive, to recognize them quickly.
White driving in South Africa Car, Black drive bus. Or taxi. Or hitchhiking. The streets are full of people who hope to be taken. Yes, there are black with their own cars, but this is the clear minority.
Simple jobs are almost always carried out by blacks: a supermarket cashier, waiter, security personnel, retailers, Reiniungskräfte, construction workers, car washers. The owner of my accommodations were almost always know the staff invariably black. Only the Western Cape, the everything has blended more. There I saw for the first time white waiter.
Some of the easy jobs are so easy that they even are superfluous, in my view – for example, parking or referrers Tüteneinpacker the supermarket (there are not only in South Africa). Wherein the arrogant prosperity thinking. The purpose of this job is rather that there are any jobs and pay someone eating.
I have never experienced in any other country of poverty and wealth in such a small room next to each other – and with what felt like a matter of course. In hardly any other country, the poverty gap is as far apart as South Africa.
Already on my first day in Johannesburg someone spoke to me in the street. He wanted no money, but some food for himself and his friend. Next door was a small shop where we bought something.
A little later, I stood in a Spar supermarket in Pretoria. The it can absorb loose with any better supermarket in Germany. The shelves are crammed with the best goods, everything is clean and modern. And then there is a shy boy who asks me if I could buy him a pack of white bread – for 60 cents.
After a day in South Africa I had learned never to go out of the house without spare change. You can always use something for a tip or a small donation.
The gap between rich and poor in South Africa thus largely corresponds also the gap between black and white – but not only. For completeness, I want to add that there are also poor whites as well as a black middle class, and even very rich black and color.
And White have trouble finding jobs, especially when they have to contend with legal quotas for the employment of blacks. And yet I could not shake the feeling that the problems are at a different level. While blacks are struggling with low Aufstiegsschancen, it is in whites rather the fear of relegation. Both are tragic.
Why the approximation taking so long?
South Africa is likely to be on the right track, but nothing beats as fast as everybody wants.
In an approximation of rich and poor, the rich have no interest to deteriorate – see relegation fears. Therefore, there is certainly some resistance from this direction and alignment works only when the poor to the level of the rich rise, but the gap is enormous. The black and colored people missing decades of education and opportunity.
But there are not only social differences. In South Africa, people live side by side, which originate from different cultural backgrounds. The immigrant Europeans on the one hand and the Africans on the other side already received in her childhood completely different values conveyed. Since it has been thrown together, what does not fit and needs to grow together until painfully slow.
Not least among the various groups a certain mistrust – how could it be otherwise, in this story? Also has yet to heal.
The good side is that the change in South Africa runs peacefully. While it is connected with a high crime rate, but great unrest or even civil war could be avoided. That went very differently in other countries of Africa. To thank everyone – black and white – especially Nelson Mandela, who had recognized early: If South Africa is to grow together, you have to bring both sides into the boat and for that first take the whites fear.
Should you nevertheless to South Africa?
Yes, anyway, or perhaps because South Africa is worth a visit. The beginning shocked me a bit, but over time I could arrange myself with the situation. At the end of the two months I have been all this no longer so extreme perceived. However, this was mainly due to the fact that I came to the Western Cape – ie where it is most beautiful. There are pleasant cities, crime is low, the people seem friendly and less suspicious.
Should there someday go so comparatively relaxed in the rest of the country, South Africa has enormous potential for tourists. Without the legacy of apartheid, it would certainly be already on the wish lists of many travelers at the top.