The first thing I learnt about the country’s constitution came as quite a nice shock; South Africa legalized same-sex marriages in 1993, ten years earlier than the United States. Clearly the South African constitution is progressive in its aims. It is ironic that despite the US being considered to be the leading nation in terms of human rights at that time, it never took this step. Indeed when Mandela talked about embracing everyone into South African society, he seemed to mean everyone including those who choose homosexuality. I think many US states should take a leaf or two out of Madiba’s book.
As a sociologist, all the mentioned issues are indeed very important to me. But before South Africa I had only studied it from the point of view of American society. Politics here seems to work like anywhere else except for that fact that you need to connect with the people at their level and, as in the case of Jacob Zuma, charisma is important. He has appeared to the people, in touch with his roots, dancing with them and singing “Bring me my machine gun”. At the same time Zuma can carry off an eloquent conversation with white intellectuals, a reason behind his election. While Thabo Mbeki did help the economy grow, improved education and healthcare, but his foreign status did not improve the general sentiment about him back home. Reports have described his mannerisms as unattached, dry and disinterested, unlike Zuma. But Zuma was not the perfect candidate either with accusations of corruption and rape against him. The ANC has overused their icon, Madiba, and now the party choices present for the public are not the best. No one can fill Mandela’s shoes the exact way and the public will have to release it sooner or later.
South Africa they say is not a safe place for women. It is considered the highest count of rape, according to BBC. Before the trip, we were all advised not to wear clothing considered revealing. This was not a problem for me as in Dubai while there is no restriction on clothing, you usually attract lewd stares, whistles and unashamed staring from labourers for anything daring. So I generally try to avoid it as much as possible even though I well used to it. I have been brought up in such a way to be always guarded and always prepared in certain areas in the UAE and India. But when I actually did go to South Africa, I did not find it as bad as some people described it. Yes certainly I remained cautious but I also hung out in a group most of the time. I guess I have gotten too used to the freedom to roam about at any time in Atlanta. In terms of gender equality and opportunities, there seem to be some powerful women in the parliament like Helen Zille and there are a proportionate number of women working at Bush Radio, if not more. It appears to me that the security situation is dire for women and all efforts must be made to remove the notion that a woman wearing a short skirt is asking for it and that rape is a manly Zulu thing to do. There’s nothing remotely traditional or courageous about it.
Race and ethnicity issues are quite different from those in the US. In fact I think it is the various ethnicities from Sesotho to Xhosa that make the race question complicated in South Africa. As discussed in Disgrace, whites living in South Africa may seem unsure of their role, now that they are no longer favored but treated equal with everyone else. The slow distribution of land and development can lead to frustrations that in turn get blamed on race privileges. The class situation has been an issue in the US and can be attributed to the lack of resources and access to education, which again comes back to the race question. The odd thing is that we are taught in our sociology courses that race is an invention and just a classification system created years ago based on unfounded data and is therefore not a fixed theory. It’s seems almost bizarre to me that the word still pops up in school textbooks, kind of providing a readymade excuse for one’s situation.
