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Published: March 11th 2012
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The racial tension in South Africa is palpable. I guess it is understandable given that Apartheid ended only 18 years ago, however I wasn’t prepared for the blatant racism I experienced. Expecting them to get over their racism and come together as a united community in the short time after such a horrific past seems not only unlikely but also unfair – they are, after all, only human. And yet, I found myself feeling frustrated and angry at the way people spoke to each other and the way they responded to me based on the color of my skin. Other whites seemed to assume I was also racist and spoke to me thus, most blacks and coloreds seemed to assume I was racist because I was white and for the most part shied away from conversations beyond pleasantries. In South Africa there are 3 races: Black, White, and Colored (“Colored” people are a combination of white and any of the other peoples from West Africa, Madagascar, India, and the like). In Cape Town, half of the people are colored, a third is black, and the remaining minority is white.
Arriving in Cape Town, 2 friends and I decided
to take a taxi to Long Street, which is well known for its shopping. Our taxi driver, who is colored, spent the majority of the taxi ride making racial slurs about any and all blacks we encountered in our short trip across town. Long Street caters to white shoppers, really, but is advertised in the guidebooks as
the place to go for shopping while in South Africa.
Once walking down the street, no one made eye contact with me, regardless of race. The shopkeepers are almost exclusively white. A locked gate that the shop’s keeper must buzz you through blocks the entrance to each store. I was immediately buzzed through with no problem. Others, with darker skin, had to wait a few moments before being buzzed in. It was a subtle enough pause, but one I noticed none-the-less. In one store the woman went out of her way to tell me where I would find different items, pointing out the good deals and popular items throughout the store. An older black woman came into the store shortly after me. I noticed the sales lady didn’t extend the same courtesy to her as she had for
me – she merely buzzed her in and walked away. The woman was well dressed and by the looks of her appearance and jewelry, far more likely to buy things than I was. She asked a few questions of the sales lady and got only one-word answers with a tone of hostility and annoyance.
I traveled up to the province of KwaZulu Natal, the “Kingdom of the Zulus,” for a quick safari. From Cape Town it is a 2-hour plane ride to Durban, a city in the northeast. From there it was a 3.5-hour car ride to the Hluhluwe-Umfolozi Game Reserve, over 237,000 acres of savannah and one of the oldest game reserves in South Africa. Our game drive was a success, seeing animals in the wild that I had only seen in zoos. The choppy video above is a montage of some of the animals I was able to catch on video. As predicted by my guide, most of the pictures I got were of the animals’ rear ends as they were walking away from us.
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Cathy Gerstbacher
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Cool Safari pictures. I thought something was wrong with my sound then I hear Bad Ass then silence
Penguines at the beach Really?? Who would have thought.