Monthly Archives: August 2007

Black and White and Southern African All Over

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All Your Base Are Belong to Us

All Your Base Are Belong to Us

This is the part of the blog where I get us in trouble. We’ve only been here five weeks or so, but it’s hard to leave here without making a comment about the racial tension in this part of the world, and it comes from both directions. From the white Zimbabwean who corrected us by saying that he was “Rhodesian”, to the Black South African who informed us that when watching a soccer match he always pulled for the team with more Blacks (bonus points if they were from Africa) it’s impossible to escape how much things are defined by skin here.

Don’t Call Me Whitey…

First, I have never met a group of people as humorless and vaguely unfriendly at all times as white Southern Africans. Maybe it’s a result of being a ruling minority for over a hundred years, maybe it’s just the German blood coming out, but it’s hard to get a response from many of them even when you (try) to look them in the eye and wish them a good day – and I’m white like them! Somehow this hasn’t effected our (generally) good opinion of them.

And we’re constantly surprised at how many whites we see here. Everywhere we go, there they are: Namibia – full of Germans, Zambia and Zimbabwe – full of English and Dutch, South Africa – All of the above and a huge number of Portuguese for good measure. Many are members of old families that have been here for generations, and they consider themselves Africans, despite whatever problems they face this is their home.

But for how long will they be there? It’s apparent that there’s white flight, but one person we spoke to was taking it to the next level. One of our drivers in Kruger was a white Namibian living and working in South Africa. When we spoke to him about the future he shocked us by pointing at the back of his hand and saying “This isn’t a racist statement, but I’m just the wrong color for this continent.” Now, that is a racist statement, but what he said next was even more shocking to me. He was living and working in South Africa just long enough to qualify for a South African passport, then he was picking up the family and moving to Australia. It’s much easier to immigrate to Australia from S. Africa than Namibia as S.A. is a member of the British Commonwealth like Australia.

The Cult of Robert Mugabe

Almost as shocking is how Robert Mugabe, Zimbabwe’s leader, is held on high among African governments. Despite the fact that the country is a shambles and it’s estimated that 1/4 of the population has fled into neighboring countries illegally there are a surprising number of monuments to him around Africa.

In Johannesburg, where there are over a million Zimbabwean refugees, the main square in downtown is named after him. It’s not uncommon to look for an address on “Robert Mugabe Street” either. It seems that while most people will admit that he’s a bastard and not helping his country or his people he is “Their” bastard, and that is preferable to the alternative.

I’m not trying to talk anyone out of coming here, far from it. Many of these issues are the same that we encounter in the US, but here unlike the US people are much more open about their prejudices and much more determined to stick to their guns. It’s awful and interesting and familiar all at the same time.

Chillin’ in Cape Town

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Cape Town Rules

Cape Town Rules

Cape Town is easily the best city we’ve visited in Africa, by far, LeeAnne is even claiming it’s her favorite city on the whole trip (but I’m not ready to go that far yet).

Why all the enthusiasm? Well, this place looks great (especially since we’re coming from Johannesburg), for one – you can walk the streets (how novel!), you can even walk many streets after sunset (amazing!) and most implausibly, there are things to do here! Within a block of our hostel on Long Street there is a Vegetarian restaurant, a Mexican restaurant, a bar that shows EPL soccer, an internet cafe a movie theater and laundromat. Have we arrived or what?

Those are just the creature comforts, the setting is also top shelf – Table Mountain sits behind the city and the Ocean is in front. The temperature is temperate and it even rains here – take that Jo’Berg.

The city is centered around the harbor area, which has been made a bit too sanitized by construction of a series of malls (think Fishermans Warf in San Francisco), it’s still beautiful. You can take the San Francisco analogy a bit farther by taking a ferry from the harbor out to Robben Island – South Africa’s version of Alcatraz. Nelson Mandela was imprisoned here for much of his 27 years behind bars, now (like Alcatraz) it’s been converted into a tourist attraction.

One of the many highlights here is a hike up Table Mountain. It stands some 2000 meters above the city streets below, so you can guess the view from the top is special. You’ll need to get good weather to really enjoy it though. And if you’re a bit tired from the hike up, luckily you can take a Cable Car down. It’s probably the best Cable Car you’ll ever ride, to take full advantage of the scenery the car spins 360 degrees around as you descend to the bottom.

Two Oceans

One of the big natural attractions outside of Cape Town is the Cape of Good Hope, where the Indian and Atlantic oceans meet. It’s protected as a national park and there are lots of great hiking tracks around the Cape area. LeeAnne and I rented a car for the day and drove down for a little sightseeing and hiking. I wish we’d had more time, if we ever come back it’d be great to spend a few days there hiking and camping.

Whales, Why’d It Have to Be Whales?

It’s Whale season in Cape Town and on our day trip we kept our eyes open for the elusive buggers, but we didn’t spot any. We did have more luck seeing African Penguins at the hatchery in Simionstown. It’s also Penguin hatching season and we saw literally hundreds of the cute little buggers.

All in all, I have to say we really loved Cape Town, and would recommend it to anyone considering spending time in SA. It’s the best place here by a long shot.

Crazy Taxi – South Africa Edition

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Try to Avoid it...

Try to Avoid it...

Why did we do it? We had little choice. Was there no other option? No, there wasn’t. These are only a few of the questions we found ourselves asking one another as we took our first African “Public Taxi”.

But we’re getting ahead of ourselves. Let’s start at the beginning: LeeAnne and I realized that our passports where slowly filling up. In fact, we probably wouldn’t have enough room for all the immigration stamps we’d get before returning to the states. The solution seemed easy enough – we’d go to the US Consulate in Cape Town and have them add extra pages, it’s a free service and it take 20 minutes.

Now, the issue is the location of the consulate. Despite all the empty office space downtown the US Consulate is located way, way, way out in the suburbs, past the train lines. We’d have to take a train, then a cab to get out there. Okay, no problem – we hop on a train and head out to “Retreat Station”.

Now, downtown there are cabs and buses flying left and right. Not so out in Retreat. Here there are only “Public Taxi’s”. So what is a Public Taxi? Public Taxi’s fill the void between Cabs and Buses, they’re independently operated like cabs, but carry a lot of people like buses. And in many African cities where public transportation is sparse they are the only option.

Here’s how it works: The Taxi’s are really vans converted to carry as many people as possible. Imagine 15 to 18 people in a minivan. They run set routes like buses, so don’t expect to get in, tell them where you want to go and have them drop you off there like a cab. You’ll have to whistle or yelp to get the drivers attention when you see where you want to get off.

From the train station you go to the taxi stand and ask someone which taxi will take you to a certain part of town. From there you load up and wait for the van to fill up, the driver won’t leave until he’s full. When you’re off on the road, keep an eye out for your destination (hard to do when it’s your first time in town), as the driver is not looking out for you.

We made it out to the embassy in something like a timely manner, had our pages added in nothing flat and then had to figure out how to get back into town. We were very open to non Public Taxi options so we consulted the good ladies at the Consulates main gate. “Where’s your car?” was their first question. They then gaped at us in disbelief as we explained we took a public taxi out – it seems there aren’t a lot of white tourists taking Public Taxi’s to the Consulate these days.

After taking a moment to grasp what we said they gave us directions to the nearest public taxi pick-up, told us not to pay more that 4.50 Rand and wished us the best of luck.

Overall, I’m glad we did it. It’s good to see how normal folks get around when you travel, but I’m glad we don’t have to go out to the Consulate again. Thanks Crazy Taxi.