An Observation on South African Racial Integration

            Doing my research and talking to people about South Africa before my arrival here, I thought I would be prepared for the racial divide. It was mostly economic, I thought, the results of decades of suppression and the somewhat recent lifting of Apartheid. But what I didn’t expect would be the accompanying exaggerated geographic divide that I now notice every day.

            Umhlanga: A fancy beach town bordering the Indian Ocean with delightful bars and a grocery store reminiscent of Whole Foods. About a ten-minute drive up a hill, and there is even a place to learn to surf… on a fake wave, at the mall. In the area around our apartment, everyone is white. There are black security guards, cleaning ladies, and workers everywhere. But the guests, the beachgoers, the diners are all white, with an occasional Indian or Asian guest. When you overhear a conversation its in English. The accent is different, but the lifestyle is very reminiscent of home.

            Then we drive ten minutes on the highway. Suddenly I’m an oddity. Children shout, “Hi white!” and looking around, I find that my fellow Berkeley researchers and I are the only white people in sight. Kids run after us waving, men holler, and women selling wares on the street’s side straight-up laugh at the idea of us walking into their community. All day I struggle to learn bits and pieces of Zulu, and every day I learn something new about a culture, a place, and a society.

            South Africa prides itself on its diversity, and rightfully so. It is a beautiful country, with fantastic landscapes, a wealth of minerals, and influences from multiple native tribes, and various immigrants from around the world. And despite a troubling past, this country now formally recognizes 11 national languages, and people of all colors have achieved many successes.

            And with the great glory of Mandela and the fantastically colorful videos flowing onto my Paraguayan television during the world cup, despite my research, I find that I arrived here naïve. I was not expecting an inter-racial handholding ceremony, but in a country with a fairly substantial white population, I never thought I would be an oddity walking into a city suburb. In a country where black citizens compose the majority, I never thought I would get stares when walking with my Ghanaian colleague in the area around our apartment.  

            This post isn’t a statement, but more of a story. It’s a story of surprise and personal naivety. It’s a glimpse into the constantly evolving story of both progress and limitation struggling to find their balance in one of the most beautiful countries filled with some of the most friendly, clever, and determined peoples I have ever met.