A Very Sobering History Lesson

We started our professional portion of the trip today with an introduction to South Africa and a brief historical perspective of how the country came to where they are today. It was a history lesson that I had not heard before and I like to think that I had a decent understanding of how the Apartheid government came into play.

I knew that Dutch settlers had moved into South Africa but their initial conflict and political battles were with the English monarchy which ruled here for a long time. While the dutch settlers continued to try to live their life their way, paying taxes to the throne was becoming more and more of concern. Sounds pretty familiar to American history.

Eventually the Dutch settlers (known as the Afrikaans) political party became stronger and stronger and instituted the Apartheid government so they would never have to lose power again. They were only 20% of the poplation but made land ownership laws that allowed them to own 80% of the land. The majority (80%) black and Indian cultures were placed on 20% of the land and as time moved on, were stripped of more and more of their rights.

There were persistent “rebellions” due to the inhumane conditions of the Apartheid government. Eventuallly it led to the end of that government rule and the installment of the democratic process in 1994 where Nelson Mandela was elected as the nations first president.

There are a lot of eerie similarties between the history of South Africa and the history of the United States. Specifically the desire to get out from under English rule and govern themselves. Though different governments were established, class systems and race played a huge part in how the countries developed. South Africa’s current democratic government is only 15 years old and they are facing a lot of the issues we face in the U.S. I know we complain about the unemployment rate of 9% however it’s approximately 35%- 40% here.

There is more government involvement in the lives of the citizens here mainly because they are trying to create a middle class. The gap between the rich and the poor is extreme. We visited the house of Mahatma Ghandi which is in the middle of a township and the level of poverty is amazing. People are living in actual huts; 4 walls and a roof made of either bricks and mud or tin. From what I could tell there really was no rhyme or reason to how they set them up, just find a space and build it.

I’ve attached a picture of the Townships where the shacks are located. Really eye opening to see how fortunate we are to have what we have.