Unlike on last occasion, we actually recorded her speech, or rather question and answer session, and we are going to use that in our future projects for Voxpop Africa.

Dr Mamphela Ramphele signing her new book

The photograph is actually from the previous event at Cape Town’s Waterfront. This time we didn’t have time to take photos.

As a side note: we’re going to see one of the top comedians of all time Chris Rock this Thursday and while the event is purely social (there’s certain amount of red tape to record such events i.e. you cannot do it) it’s very exiting nonetheless.

After posting my previous post I immediately found myself in the middle of a major demonstration against xenophobia. While my wife Amkelwa was interviewing the participants I was busy taking photographs. I have been taking photos of demonstrations before and it’s notable that the photos tend to always end up looking more dramatic and intense than what the actual event did. I suppose that has got to do with the fact that photographer finds him/herself drawn to the dramatic scenes, rules out uninteresting, which most often means calm and peaceful scenes and people, whether they are shouting and chanting peacefully or angrily tend to look similar and our mind conditioning, especially in the case of Moslems is that surely they are upset. That is also why coming back from such an event and checking the pool of photos myself, I end up feeling torn about the seriousness of what I witnessed. And in the name of clarity, I mean seriousness as in was there a personal threat to me, not was the issue at hand serious.

Having said this, check the photographs from this link. As said we also recorded audio and are currently working on that.

Amkelwa doing interviews in anti-xenophobia demonstartion in Cape Town.

Having lived four years in UK I must admit that I did experience xenophobia at times, but I never heard the word itself. In Europe we don’t like to use these words but we rather all, silently if possible, agree that there are some citizens who don’t like people coming from other countries. Therefore, when talking about xenophobia in South Africa it has been made to sound more serious problem on non-physical level. I’ll come into the physical damage in a moment and I am not the one to belittle the suffering of people, deaths and thousands who were forced to move to the temporary refugee camps, who lost their property and businesses and who had to, or still have to leave the country. There’s no way one could undermine that horror, but I think that in order to understand we have to look a little deeper. Also, as the country still has a group of people who’d love nothing more than to see the young democracy failing so they could say “told you so”, makes focusing on the immediate problem like trying fix a broken leg with a band aid.

I had a very interesting chat with a friend of mine this week and he said that this has got very little to do with xenophobia and I for one was convinced. I had been thinking about it before, but he just put it so well that I wanted to finally write it down. The reason is of course poverty; an extreme case of it as well. After the 1994 elections many people have raised their standard of living tremendously. There’s a whole new middle class and a lot of capital that is now, unlike before, not under the thread of leaving the country as soon as someone says something like land reform, redistribution of wealth or nationalising any of the stolen resources (I don’t mean BEE – the affirmative action as it’s tackling the issue from the different angle). There is, however, a large part of the society who hasn’t been helped yet. They still continue to live in poverty and they are not happy about it. While I have no mandate to speak on anyone’s, especially not on their behalf, I’d say that they feel failed by the government.

As sad as this is, I am not sure what kind of miracle workers would have sorted the whole post-apartheid mess which obviously wasn’t created by them, but the main thing is that for many, things haven’t improved despite of the great hopes. I’m not saying government has been perfect, far from it, but fourteen years isn’t a long time in any country’s history.

The new South Africa has since its beginning had the burden of high expectations. From oppression everyone thought that it’d be possible to transform into the most tolerant country in the world in few years and all this of course peacefully. That the people who the racist regime denied to have a proper education would just as if by magic become educated and equality would fall in place. I can’t help but think that this was mainly expected by the so called western world because racism is anyway a sore topic which we’d rather not discuss and the international community and the pan-European world was relieved that we didn’t have to be embarrassed by apartheid any further. South African peaceful transition was also, it seems, seen as a forgiveness for all of the western corporations and governments who supported apartheid and benefited from it. No one ever took responsibility and whole mess was left for the ANC to deal with. Nothing would be more naïve than to think that problems on this scale disappear like that, and it’s pointless to say that “but Mandela said so“, because it was his job to talk about the Rainbow Nation and I doubt that anyone would have done his job better. The task of the government here isn’t very easy; I am certainly not jealous.

So the problem is poverty and the frustration over the government because of it. And extreme problems create extreme reactions and this is what happened here. Of course it’s not just poverty but many things that played their part, but arguably, all the other problems will ease a lot when poverty is eradicated as much as it can be.

I can only talk about countries where I have lived like Finland, Denmark, UK and Ireland, and no doubt in all of these some of the ones worse off blame the foreigners for their shorter end of the stick. I am not even sure why it happens like that, but it does. They use derogatory names, smaller scale violent attacks and so on. And in South Africa it’s no different except that the situation is more extreme and the reaction is more extreme as well. The trouble makers are in all of these places a minority of people and indeed in South Africa the vast majority of the country has raised up to protest against the situation. The public discourse has been impressive and listening to radio’s phone-in shows I can only wish that other countries could reach the same level of taking responsibility and talking about the problem openly. I wish that white South Africans would have had a similar process after the apartheid and more importantly they should have had one during it.

The reason why I and the other people coming from the more expensive countries aren’t targeted is because we generally don’t live where the poverty is worst. This is also part of why I feel that the xenophobia as a term isn’t really explaining the situation and also supports the idea of what is the root of the problem. I don’t live in the most exclusive area, but I do live centrally and I doubt anyone in my building would have any problems with me or anyone including any of the security guards and residents who come from all over Africa like in so many places here.

So in my opinion South Africa is not more xenophobic country than any other. There’s a problem with it, but it isn’t a bigger one than say in my home country Finland. South Africa is probably the most self-critical country with the most cynical media, but not the most xenophobic. It also is the only country where I have lived that has actually, even if just because they had to, taken the issue of xenophobia seriously. It’s a young democracy and while I am not its citizen (although I am a resident) I am proud to be here. I don’t wish to support the notion of us against them especially since the media cannot get enough of it. I am sad by what has happened here and once more I want to emphasise that I am not undermining anyone’s suffering, but I don’t think that it can be credited on hate but frustration which turned into hateful actions. While the government doesn’t talk about it, I’m sure they understand it and the people (or should I say the person) who enjoy the support of the people start showing some leadership and not just hiding behind the lines ready to take over when problem has become much bigger.

Sometimes good things just happen. They come out of the blue. Yesterday I was so privileged, honoured and happy to meet one of the great people of South Africa and indeed the whole world. Dr Mamphela Ramphele was giving a speech in a book shop in Cape Town to launch her new book Laying Ghosts to Rest: Dilemmas of the Transformation in South Africa. If you don’t know who she is maybe you remember the name from the film Cry Freedom, a story of Steve Biko and Donald Woods; she was very close to Biko. Of course she was and is much much more than just an associate to one of the brightest revolutionary thinkers and activists that I have had pleasure to learn about but she herself is a revolutionary and academic in her own right. I was as pleased to meet her as I was few months back meeting Archbishop Emeritus Desmond Tutu, but of course this is not a competition. After hearing her speech I can’t wait to read the book (which we got signed and even took the fan photos as I think I don’t care about trying to be cool with this kind of people anymore; life’s just too short for that). To me the most impressive thing in her speech was the call to action which especially academics sometimes forget and her passion for her country and continent. The passion and love that, amongst so many other things consist of not being afraid to criticise her own leaders. I have lot of respect for her no doubt.

Before meeting a living legend me and Amkelwa went to the cinema. We’ve been watching quite a lot of DVD’s at home, but not going to cinema for which there’s not really very good excuses as the tickets at the cinema nearby cost 25 Rands which is roughly two Euro or 1,5 British Pounds. We saw Zeitgeist. An interesting enough film covering issues around Christianity, 911 attacks and NWO (New World Order). OK, so it wasn’t very focused. A kind of film that attempts to uncover all the evils of the world. The poster said that it’s bound to change one’s world view which I would disagree with since for me personally it had very little new ideas as I have been watching many similar films before and while I enjoy them, I am not sure why. They have a very pompous way to express these ideas in such a patronising way that I don’t know why I bother. The only thing this way of portraying “the truth” reminds me of is the very news media these films so aggressively oppose. In all honesty I’d much rather hear the different stories and make up my mind. All of it is, I guess, a kind of feel good exercise of having inside knowledge and being righteous – almost like a part of the chosen few who “understand” which is delusional if anything. In bigger picture I doubt that films like these have great impact on people by and large. I am really struggling to imagine that such films would preach to anyone but the already converted. The film was also visually displeasing and it gave me a headache. All that being said, I learned few new things and I am still waiting to hear the powers that be to prove films like this wrong. I doubt they care too much and since these films fail to call anyone to action in any way I doubt that they need to care either. They are kind of films that say “we’re all screwed, live with that”. And so we live with that which is the reason I’m left to feel unmoved for now. The change that happens is almost as non-existent than if I joined the “Save the rain forest”-group in Facebook. Beat that feeling.

Back to the positive side of the fence. Guess who got tickets to see Chris Rock No Apologies tour next month in Cape Town? Yes, it’s me! How exiting. Although I almost exclusively listen and enjoy British and Irish Comedy I still think that Chris Rock is a top comedian. As in top stand up comedian in the world. The reason I don’t care too much about the South African comedy is that the punchline is almost always in vernacular. It’s very funny but in a bit wrong way; merely as an idea I suppose. I listen and understand the build up, which is in English, and then miss the punchline more often than not. Well, my loss for not speaking the local language. I am glad I’ve got at least someone to translate to me.

As a last thought. I got my hands on the new Looptroop record Good Things and although in the first few listening times the electro sounds took an effort to get used to I do like it a lot. A really cool record all in all with a Bon Jovi cover Living on a Prayer included. That song leaves me so confused but I unashamedly like it and it got me thinking that all the catchy songs by artists I am ashamed to have in my collection should be remade by cool bands that I like. Wouldn’t that be a beautiful world.

Amkelwa with Dr Ramphele