South Africa

Jo'Burg Skyline
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Johannesburg, South Africa is one of the most dangerous cities in the world. To understand why, you have to know a little about South Africa's history. I don't know much but what I have learned is pretty fascinating and I will attempt to tell you a little about it.  If you know a lot about South African history then I am probably just embarassing myself here but if not, read on.

Briefly, white people started settling here long ago, when the Boers (Dutch) came to farm. Then gold was discovered in Jo'burg and the British wanted a part of it. The British and the Boers fought, the Brits trying to get the Boers off the land. Meanwhile, the black population has always been pushed around by the whites but the Zulus were also pretty fierce and did their own damage to the black population. No one can really say who was where first, but it seems as though there has been centuries of conflict here, one way or another. South Africa is one of the richest countries in Africa, and people come from all of southern Africa looking for work since it is the only place that has anything to offer. Everyone is looking for a better life and the reality seems to be that there just isn't enough for all.

Apartheid museum self portrait
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In the 1940's the Afrikaans government implemented Apartheid, where people were legally classified into racial groups and treated differently according to this classification. Any attempts by the black or "colored" (a term still used today) population to make changes were squashed by the government; many people were put in prison and many people were killed. Things got worse in the 70's, and the turning point was the Sowetho uprising in 1976, where black students protested Afrikaans being the language used to teach in schools. During that uprising the government came in with their tanks and weapons to a mostly unarmed population and fired away. It was a brutal battle but it started a wave of uprisings all over the country. The 70's and 80's were years of struggle- South Africa basically shut itself off from the world- many countries had sanctions on SA- SA citizens couldn't travel outside of Africa, etc. Interestingly enough, the UK and US were of the last to declare sanctions on SA but eventiually they did too. Finally, mostly from the political pressure from the rest of the world, in the early 1990's the goverment gave in and Nelson Mandela, of the ANC, was elected.

I found it very interesting that since then the ANC has been in power the idea is that there should be "truth and reconciliation"- the blacks should forgive the whites for the years of oppression, as long as they fessed up to the atrocities. Many people I have spoken to truly feel that everyone now lives together peacefully, and South Africa is seen as a model for this throughout the world.

My question then is, why is there such rampant crime- what is really going on? I have not gotten a good answer for this, so I am still looking. Apparantly the crime rate is just getting worse and worse and I would like to understand why. The conservatives seem to think that the ANC has put incapable people in power who don't know how to solve the country's problems. Others say that there are too many immigrants who get here and find that the only way to make a living is through crime- jobs just don't exist.  In any case, it is a real problem and it seems as though they have a long way to go before things are sorted out around here. South Africans are proud of their country, though, and they tend to focus on the progress it has made rather than the issues it has.

Downtown Johannesburg became so dangerous that businesses moved out into the suburbs, leaving the city deserted. Do you see the photo with the sky rises? Well, all of those buildings are totally vacant, with the windows smashed out or boarded up. Some of the buildings are used as billboards,completely covered up with advertisements so that the damage isn't visible. Apparantely no matter what you don't go to downtown Jo'burg- you will be robbed within minutes. And no one cares. Here, crime happens all of the time and there's not much people can do about it. And it is violent crime- people get killed. It is crazy. Even the suburbs aren't totally safe- all of the houses are enclosed in tall fences with razor or electrical wire surrrounding them. I don't know how people live here- in most places you can't ride a bike, you can't walk, you have to drive with the windows up. This is not the case everywhere- where I stayed was in a neighborhood where you could take a 20 minute walk to the store and it was fine. Maybe there are a lot of neighborhoods like that one but I think that most places are pretty dangerous.

In 2010 the soccer world cup is taking place in South Africa. It will be very interesting to see if they are able to get everything together for that. The locals are very wary about it all but who knows, hopefully things will come together. This country has a lot to offer- perhaps these are just some growing pains and it will all work itsself out. I will be watching.