Preliminary musings

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Hello, friends! I am SO excited to be back in South Africa!

It's now been five days and one entire night of sleep since I got to South Africa. I met up with the rest of the U of C students on Friday, after a couple of lovely days at a hotel on my own. We've been in class and taking a couple of tours, and I've been bombarded by thoughts. And new experiences. I'll try to outline a few of these, despite the fact that they're barely yet formed in my own head.

After meeting up with the rest of the students (we're 23 in total), we went straight to the lovely home of one of the faculty, Prof. David Bunn. Professor Bunn studies the history of conservation and the role of land and landscape in history. He hosted us for a wonderful dinner party at his home, where we met his hilarious wife (a novelist) and two other young South African academics. We then came to our home in Johannesburg, a dorm at the University of the Witwatersrand, where Professor Bunn has taught in the Department of Fine Arts. I've yet to figure out how this relates to his work on land issues.

We've had lectures on Saturday and Sunday, in which Professor Bunn introduced us to the language of land and landscape. This topic is particularly fascinating in reference to South Africa, but it's also something I've never studied. This, in addition to the anthropological approach to our literary readings and the secondary articles have made the academic experience a little strange for me. For example, we discussed issues of gender in the landscape of H. Rider Haggard's novel "King Solomon's Mines," a question that is certainly pertinent, but I don't think I would have instictively placed it in the foreground of the textual discussion. While I'm not sure that I entirely agree with the methodology employed so far, it's been a neat opportunity to look at literature from a different perspective. Professor Bunn is a fantastic teacher, and really facilitates an excellent discussion. The diversity of students is also exciting - we're in a wide array of concentrations, from English and Gender Studies to Anthropology and Econ. I'm really getting excited for our trip into Kruger National Park in March, which Professor Bunn will be leading.

In addition to our morning lectures, we've taken two field trips to townships in the past two days. Yesterday we went to the Alexandra township, which was a wonderful experience. We were led by a colleague of Dr. Bunn's, a long time Alexandra resident. We walked through the streets, a group of 23 white kids in an entirely black neighborhood. We were nothing if not conspicuous. This was not helped by the fact that our bus driver decided to follow us through the back streets, getting stuck between bread delivery trucks and cars parked on the side of the street. But we were warmly welcomed on every side. Children ran up to greet us, people yelled out welcomes across the street. Community leaders invited us into their homes and places of business to show us what they were doing in Alex. One gentleman, who ran a center to care for the elderly, showed us pictures of all the dignitaries who had visited, including Nelson Mandela and Queen Elizabeth II. But by far the highlight was the painting commemorating the visit of Bill Clinton - he was painted in full Zulu regalia alongside Nelson Mandela, Thabo Mbeki and the center's founder.

While I haven't talked to any other students about their impressions, I feel that I was better able to enjoy what our guide was showing us because I wasn't surprised at the abject poverty, having been to similar areas before. At the same time, it saddens me to think that I've become desensitized to it.
Today we briefly visited Soweto and the Mandela Family Home. It was interesting to contrast Soweto to Alexandra, in terms of infrastructure and stability. Soweto was also our introduction to "The Struggle," or the fight against Apartheid that really began with the student's rally in 1976. From the Mandela house we went on the Apartheid museum. I don't think it was here on my last visit, so it was an entirely new experience. It was wonderful, yet sobering and overwhelming. They showed pictures and video of the whole fight, from the 40's through the 1994 election. The experience was enhanced by the fact that David Bunn wandered around the exhibit, telling us stories of his days of political involvement. It was great to have a firsthand perspective.

Well, I have a whole (huge) stack of reading to do before tomorrow morning, so I think I shall sign off here. I should note that there is another student group from the US using the dorms, and I think we've scarred them. A bunch of us were sitting in a common room reading, and they came by the door one by one to peek in and see the strange sight. 😉

Please do write back, as I love hearing what's happening on your side of the world!

Much love to all,
-Lauren

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