Driving through
Johannesburg, I expected to see rampant poverty and evidence of crime. I’ve heard several negative comments about
Jo’burg – Cape Town is bad at night, but Jo’burg is always bad. Maybe we didn’t venture into the “bad” parts
of the city, but I never felt unsafe. We
walked through townships and ate at restaurants owned by township
residents. We worked at a thriving Boys
and Girls club and visited museums and memorials remembering South Africa’s
past. Interacting with locals definitely
challenged my preconceptions of Jo’burg; the city may have a higher crime rate
than Cape Town, but the people are still the same welcoming, loving, and caring
South African citizens. Still, there is
racism, sexism, and classism evident in Jo’burg just like in Cape Town. At a steak house, the smallest steak was
called “ladies.” Of course, because
we’re feminists, we had to ask the server about this nomenclature. He said they call it “ladies” so that men
know not to order it. Masculinity is so
fragile that men are told what size steak is appropriate for them.
Visiting Constitution Hill
opened my eyes to the true tortuous past of South Africa. We visited an old prison for white, colored,
and black men. I learned that joining a
gang was the only way to stay away from harm caused by other prisoners. If you helped out a gang leader, he would
give you a reward. Many of these men
probably did not want to become part of a gang, but it was the only way to
survive. Solitary confinement was
another aspect of the prison that stood out to me. One ex-prisoner described the experience of
solitary confinement as being buried alive.
Stuck in a small cell with two buckets, men would not see another human
for hundreds of days. Some were driven
to insanity. Like everything during
Apartheid, these men were treated differently based on their race. Whites, coloreds and Asians, and Africans
would be given different meals every day, with whites getting the most
vegetables, bread, soup, and other more nutritious types of foods. Based entirely off skin color, some men were
treated much better in prison than other men.
The Hector Pietersen Museum
was one of the most interesting yet saddening museums we visited on this
trip. Pietersen was a thirteen-year-old
boy who was killed by the police during a peaceful protest against the use of
Afrikaans as the medium of instruction in black schools. Like Constitution Hill, the Hector Pietersen
Museum gave real-life testimonies of the atrocious South African environment
under the Apartheid government. Hector’s
sister recalls, “Everything was puzzling, it was so confusing. But I was angry. How can an adult shoot an innocent
child?” The police had become so
brainwashed into seeing black as bad that they shot children without remorse.
On a more positive note, our
three game drives at Kruger National Park were incredible. We saw giraffes, an elephant, zebras, hyenas,
monkeys, warthogs, a vulture, wildebeests, a huge herd of buffalo, and two male
lions! I felt like I was in the Lion
King. I like Kruger because the animals
have a vast area of land to roam around; the park is larger than the size of
Connecticut. These animals are
considered wild, so it was rewarding to go out on a game drive and spot these
animals; we never knew what we would be able to see.
One of my favorite moments was on our sunrise
drive when we saw around ten giraffes hanging out with zebras. It’s cool to see these plant-eating animals
coexisting. Another exciting moment was
on the sunset drive. Two male lions
walked alongside our vehicle for about ten minutes as they marked their
territory. Their walk is so regal. I wish we could have seen rhinos, but there
are only two left in the entire park because of poaching. Rhinos have no natural predators, but because
of humans, they are going extinct.
Overall, our spring break in Jo’burg and Kruger was both fun and educational,
and I really enjoyed myself.
