Memories of Johannesburg
Content created on a blog at McMaster University (now closed) in November 2011 after visiting Johannesburg, South Africa for the first time.
As the curtain opens on the window of Canada — of home — another one closes over Mother Africa. As our plane glides along the dark line dividing the time zones, a bold red line slices through the Sahara desert on the screen.
It’s morning here now, 6:30am on Thursday and I woke up to the sound of birds singing while I sipped rose hip tea. A mosquito flew into my bathroom for a visit last night; I tried to smash it with the palms of my hands, but missed him, and got bit on my forearm while washing my face. Thanks to Benadryl, Mr. African Mosquito did not win! On the plane a guy next to me said, “If you wear lots of bug spray, you’ll be fine!”
Breakfast is at seven today. I’m going to have a quick nap, since I woke up so early, and then shower, go for breakfast, and meet our host Corlien. The flat that I have is so relaxing and peaceful.
I am here for a conference, the “Drama For Life (DFL) Annual Conference and Festival, and to present preliminary findings of my Master’s thesis study at a workshop that I’ve co-organized with my supervisor, Dr. Christina Sinding, called “Social Work Beyond Borders/Social Work Artfully”. Both the conference and workshop take place at the University of the Witwatersrand, where Nelson Mandela studied Law.
After the conference, a few of us became tourists, and visited the Apartheid Museum, and the Constitutional Court and Constitution Hill, where many political prisoners were held during and after Apartheid, including Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi (Gandhi), and Nelson Mandela.
Many nights were spent enjoying dinners in Melville. One evening, we returned from the conference to find a baby laughing dove that fell from a tree. It was sitting on the steps to our flat. Before we went out again to our dinner reservation, I put a leaf over its head so it could stay dry. When we returned the bird was still there, but it was late at night. Everyone went in for the night but I took a photo of the bird, then carried it over to the veranda in a bowl. Eventually the bird flew away into the garden!
Jaco (Ha-ko), our driver, son of Corlien, and interior design student who practices his craft at Ginnegaap Guesthouse, drove us to “The Lion Park”, and on the way we were stuck in “traffic” for roughly 45 minutes, which, according to the radio announcer on 94.7.co.za, it was “the world’s largest bike race”.
After visiting Johannesburg, I have a new appreciation and deeper understanding of humanity, under the umbrella of daily living needs, work, and pleasure. This sounds like a cliché, but it really is separate, and separated literally and geographically by the Atlantic ocean. However, in reflection of this experience now, it lives deep inside the channels of my bones; the stories I’ve heard, and the things I have seen are recorded permanently in my body.
It is easy to say that it is a cliché to describe this experience in this way. However, it is a new inner reality. A cliché reflection is an outside reality. Overall, I can say that there will be some things that I will never be able to describe in writing or words, and there will be some things that I will be able to share so clearly that will seem so distorted to a listener here in North America. There are other experiences that will come out distorted to me, but will be either clear to a listener, or obvious. All in all, these experiences have certainly changed me in a very good way.
Now, I understand the meaning of some of these changes, but think that others will be more apparent in future “a-ha” moments, like seeing a shooting star — fleeting — but happening all at once. Later, it will make me realize that the shooting star experience came out of Johannesburg. My embodied response to this a-ha moment might be warming, like the experience of drinking Rooibos tea in the afternoon, smelling the Jacaranda trees, or burning, like recalling the smell of BP motor oil burning in the streets as cars pass by, or shocking, like hearing Sam’s story and how he overcame it.
Right now I feel grounded and open to listening more to family, friends and colleagues. I feel less irritable and instead wanting to learn about present experiences more deeply. I don’t feel a sense of urgency to complete things, to respond immediately or to rush. Being South African, and after visiting the Apartheid Museum, I understand my heritage in a more personal way, versus feeling like an “outsider”.
After walking through Soweto, Constitution Hill, and downtown by Wits U, I now know the reason why I strive to always work hard in school and work, and to understand experiences and relationships: personally and interpersonally. This of course has come second to deeply engrained familial values woven by my mother and grandmother. Yet, visiting South Africa and seeing people who look like me for the first time in the “homeland,” and in groups somehow reaffirms my existence. It’s like looking in a mirror for the first time as a child and understanding that the reflection is me. It is quite amazing, and since I have been back to Canada, when people ask me, “how was your trip?” all I have been able to say was that it was quite amazing, and I struggle to say “was”, which is correct as it was. It really IS still amazing. I am hopeful that through blogging and the photos that I took they will understand this more clearly.
Three poems and experiences following a visit to Constitution Hill, Johannesburg, South Africa
The following three images are from three very powerful experiences I had while visiting Constitution Hill, Johannesburg, South Africa on November 24–25, 2011. Instead of giving each image a specific title, I experimented with cinquain poetry, where the first and last words of each poem are written so that they can be read together in one phrase, like a title for each piece.
Hear
me out!
Now, hear me
out! Hear. Me. Out.
— heard.
Same
Feet finding
ground — sliding, shifting —
New place, same
Feet.
Outsider
Looking inside.
Insider looking out.
Now inside looking out.
Understanding.
Johannesburg—I hope it will be lasting,
But when I feel it leaving,
It will be time to return again.
