We’re
sitting in the airport and the plane is already boarding for Dubai, but Natalia
thinks I can write the blogpost before anything happens. She is wrong, because
we just flew from Cape Town to Dubai, then hiked through a mile of airport and
security and security again, and now we’re on our final flight. We’ll be seeing
you all in 14 short hours.
We’ve
been saying our goodbyes for the last two days and the students have found
every opportunity to hug and cry. We had a final picnic in the Company Gardens
last night, the mama’s braai the night before that, and then all of HFB showed
up at the airport to wish us goodbye, and cry cry cry. Mimi would say, I’ll get
a bucket for your tears and then we can compare them.
Today we
went to the Kirstenbosch Gardens for an exquisite wander at the base of Table
Mountain, every path and hill cut and shaped and planted for botanical
representation and beauty, and there, in our final moments amidst the careful
growth, students gathered concluding thoughts.
Perhaps
the widest insight from the other side of the world and township experience is
an appreciation for historical understanding and learning. Very deeply, our
Roosevelt students stated in various ways the importance of history and the
political power of honest witness. Steep yourself in the literature and
vestiges of Apartheid and then go to a place where its effects are starkly
written into a segregation of geography, language and culture, and then ferry
back and forth between all-black, all-improvised township and all-white/colored,
all-cultivated suburb, and talk across different generations and hear
Afrikaners say, over and over in different ways, the past is the past while
teenage Xhosa-speakers aren’t sure what you mean by Apartheid; and it becomes
very evident that a lack of historical perspective contributes to the legacies
of Apartheid, physically and spiritually remaining deeply, invisibly
entrenched. But in culture and in circumstance, its easy to see and react to
only symptoms, for which the sufferer is likely to receive most blame.
Roosevelt
students in their final reflections observed over and over the disconnect
between the history of Apartheid and current tensions and patterns. “It’s so
boring!” Dani paraphrased from some conversation with Bellville students. “Why
do we have to keep talking about things that happened in the past? It’s time to
live in the present.” Zanzi captured a similar attitude: “The only reason
segregation is still an issue is because blacks don’t have money. Racism just
isn’t an issue anymore.” Alea added that Apartheid is so recent that it’s
barely history, so it’s shocking that anyone in South Africa think it such a
removed, far in the past issue. But it’s so important not to forget, Zanzi
said. It’s easier for me not think about what happened to my ancestors; but I’m
going to work on being more comfortable talking about it.
Our
students had many thoughts and observations along the same lines. Dani heard so
much “they” talk, especially in Bellville; and it is her goal to get away from
us and them talk in her own conversation. Ray talked about how important it is
to educate youth because that’s where transformation is grown. He said that
speaking with Bellville parents and getting a sense of that generational
perspective allowed him to gain a lot of respect for the HFB program and a far
deeper understanding of what we’re doing here. Mel discussed the redlining and
segregation of Seattle, and how important it is to understand what happened and
how it relates to what exists now. Stella reminded students that Bellville
students stop taking history classes in eighth grade, which shocked several of
our own students as she said it.
Elias
heard a lot of blame in Bellville, and not a lot of blame, alternatively, in
Langa, to which Sarah responded strongly, saying that she wants to go home and
help, and make a change, but somehow do it without pointing fingers: she wants
to acknowledge history without being accusatory, and while trying to work
together. Zanzi said that doing so with careful vocabulary will help, and she
called back what Dani said about avoiding us and them framing. Acknowledge that
we all went through this history together, Zanzi said.
There is
a deep desire on the part of students to understand and acknowledge the
infrastructure of race that shapes our history, an aspiration to be
changemakers operating from a place of ubuntu, or humanity, unity, compassion:
I am because we are; we do because we share history, and we do, in love and in
hope, together.
Our
students have been thoughtful and hearts-out, tender, solicitous and open. I
didn’t know most of their names two weeks ago. But it’s deep affection I feel
now, and I’m moved by them, knowing they have been moved, their goodness
conjoining the knowledge of injustice and poverty and shared joy into a wisdom
and spirit of activism and giving.
Maybe
they’ll give me a hug in the halls.
Put your arms around a buddy / Sway so it feels right.
The morning, we'll be together / Til then, I say, Goodnight.
HFB, goodnight (x2) / Goodnight, HFB (x2) / I'll see you in my dreams.