Hi everyone!

I’m sorry I haven’t written in a while. I wanted to take a minute and get my thoughts together before I did so. I know you all like hearing about what I’m doing, but in some ways I think it’s more interesting/thought-provoking/helpful to hear about what I’ve been thinking instead. I’ve decided that for the next three days straight (hopefully) I’m going to write a series of blog posts. This one is going to be about what I’ve been thinking about Cape Town as a whole and a class I’m taking that has kind of inspired these thoughts. The second is going to be about Ubuntu and the third is going to be about my name and what I’ve learned about it since I’ve been here. The subjects aren’t really all that related, but they’re all interesting (at least I think so). For those of you who are interested in what I’ve been doing and not so much about what I’ve been thinking, I’ll post a list of things I’ve done at the bottom of this post and the two coming in the next two days. So here it goes…

I have officially been in Cape Town for almost 3 months and I’ll be going home soon. Time flies…literally! Of course, I haven’t been living here in the world’s #1 vacation spot and not taking note of the “real world” things that are taking place around me. One of my classes has actually been one of the biggest eye-openers for me. The class is called Culture, Identity, and Globalisation in Africa and it’s through the Center for African studies (which is closing down, but that’s another story for another day). Our newest lecturer Nick Shepherd is one of the most interesting individuals I’ve ever met. The past few weeks, he’s been talking to us about all of the things that UCT doesn’t want you to know. For instance, we learned that most of the buildings on this campus are named after racist bigots and the university refuses to change the names. We learned that the university won’t take down the statue of Cecil Rhodes, one of the leading figures of apartheid, because he donated money to the school long ago. We learned that the man who was supposed to be the first black lecturer at the University of Cape Town was offered a job and later it was revoked because he was black. And finally, we learned that next to UCT, there used to be a zoo.

While some of those statements might not sound very important to what I’m going to say next, I promise you, they are. Just stick with me for a second.

The first thing Nick’s series of lectures has me thinking about is secrets. It’s obvious that one of the reasons the university wants to shut down the Center for African Studies is because they are preaching an inconvenient truth that they don’t want others to know about. They are telling students what really happened on campus and making them realize why things are the way they are at the school today.  What’s so interesting about this, though, is that he makes sure the message gets across to us anyway. He wants to make sure that we’re educated and that we know so that we can make a judgment call for ourselves.

His lectures got me thinking, though. What could our home universities be hiding from us? Each student on the CIEE program represents a university back in the states, and each university in the states has some type of racially charged historical story. What is it that we’re not being taught in class about this history? What is it that professors aren’t allowed to say? What is it that they don’t know? What voices are administrators silencing? Now, I am in no way trying to stir up controversy with my home university or any other institutions back home, but I would really like to know, what is it that is being kept from us, and why?

The second thing these lectures have caused me to think about is the idea of an imaginary world. You may recall that I mentioned there used to be a zoo next to the university. It was Rhodes’ idea to put this zoo here and flll it with European and African animals to create a sort of Europe in Africa. We recently got the opportunity to walk through it, and although it no longer exists, I felt like I was walking through Michael Jackson’s Never Never Land Ranch. The idea of a Europe in Africa is so fabricated and seems so completely ridiculous, that I couldn’t really say anything.

In the same way, though, every time I walk down the street and think about my friend, Summer, who is studying abroad in Ghana, I can’t help but think how fabricated the world I’m currently living in is. Cape Town is in no way what we think of when we think of Africa. I’m not suggesting that there should be animals running around, and dirt roads, and bare-breasted women. What I’m saying is that Cape Town is ridiculously Western, and obviously because of its racial history. There are mega malls and the fashion is super European. Although there are eleven national languages, every single class at UCT is taught in English and every sign that’s not in English, is in Afrikaans (which, by the way, is NOT an indigenous language). 

And the characteristic of Cape Town that is most common to western socieities is that there are wealthy, privilieged white people, and there are non-whites living in abject poverty. What bothers me most about this, though, is that the “haves” in society often put on these blinders and pretend they don’t see it. For example, you may remember me speaking about Old Biscuit Mill in a previous entry. While it is nice on the inside, like I said before, it is uppity. And sitting directly outside of the gate, are eonoomically challenged people, begging. But inside, just like The Rodes’ Zoo, people are enjoying their imaginary world where nothing is wrong and poverty doesn’t exist.

I can’t say that I’m not a perpetrator of the problem, as I come from a first world country and a middle-class family. But quite honestly, I can say that I don’t pretend like I don’t see it. I’m aware of it and it bothers me more than you could ever imagine.

This particular entry may not be the favorite of all the ones I’ve written, but it helped me to do what I do best: put my ideas, thoughts, and feelings down on paper (or at least electronic “paper”). For those of you who are interested in what I’ve been up to, below is a list. Enjoy!

Friday, September 30 – Liesbeek Formal: Each year at the end of the year (keep in mind, this is the spring semester for UCT) each residence hall puts on a formal. Though I don’t live in a residence hall, I’m pretty close with everyone from CIEE that lives in Liesbeek Hall.

Saturday, October 1 – Bo Kaap tour: Nursery A (my house) went on a tour of Bo Kaap, a predominantly Muslim community with brightly colored houses, shrines, and mosques. Most of the residents are desendents of slaves who were imported by the Dutch in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. It has a really interesting history, and if you’d like to learn more, here is the link: http://bokaap.co.za/.

            Game night: My RA had a bunch of his friends over and I invited over a few of mine. We played a game called 30 Seconds (which is very similar to Tabboo, but with a few minor changes) and spoons. I’m not usually big on games, but it was definitely a fun night.

Saturday, October 8 – Went to “Town”: Instead of calling the it the “city,” here in Cape Town, the downtown area is called “town.” I took the train with two of the girls from my dance class and went for lunch and to walk around Green Market Square (a market much more like I imagined markets to be). 

Location: Rosebank, South Africa