African Socialism

The past few days I’ve been pretty busy. I went to the Apartheid Museum on Wednesday morning. It was really informative and used a lot of different types of media, but there was so much information that I felt a little bit overwhelmed. It was designed by the person who designed the Holocaust Museum in D.C. and I noticed a lot of similarities between the two. At the beginning of the Apartheid Museum you are given a card that determined your identity (white or non white) and your path in the museum, much like the booklets handed out at the Holocaust Museum. I took my time and tried to thoroughly absorb the information in each room, which meant I only got about halfway through the museum before it was time to leave. Now though, as I’m thinking about the designer, I wonder what it’s like having a job documenting and archiving atrocities for the public. Not a job most people grow up wanting to have.

A lot of the rest of the time has been taken up in lectures. We heard from a political economist who works for a South African environmental group. While the lecture duplicated a lot of the stuff I hear every day as an ID major at Clark (neoliberalism, the World Bank, sustainability, resource management), the speaker was really well-spoken and funny (in a cynical, depressing way). A representative of the South African Council of Churches spoke to us today. I enjoyed learning about all of the advocacy and social work that the organization does. They were instrumental in the struggle against apartheid and continue to be active in society and government.

My favorite lecture so far was at the Anti-Privatization Forum (ADF)’s offices in downtown Jo’burg. The ADF is an umbrella organization that provides supports for local NGOs and does community organizing. They, like many of the people I have talked to this week, are socialists. The South African constitution is among the most liberal in the world and it promises, amongst other things, that the government will provide housing, welfare, electricity, social security, etc. That means two things: that the scope of the government’s responsibilities and socialist programs encourage socialist thought and that service provision is a primary concern among all South Africans. The ADF does incredible work in all kinds of areas, from electricity and water, to women’s rights and education. They are a really inspiring organization and I wish we could have had more time there.

In addition to all of the informative stuff, we went to a market today. It is a pretty famous (and therefore overpriced) market, but it was fun to do some bargaining (turns out I’m not as bad as I thought). I had some awesome Indian food there too. I feel like all we do here is eat. I’m never hungry, but they’re constantly providing us with meals. Tomorrow we leave for our homestays in Soweto, and from there to a new hostel in Pretoria, so I’m not sure when I’ll have internet again. My homestay family has teenagers, so I’m excited to meet them and talk to them. Hopefully I’ll have fun, step out of my comfort zone, and experience some cultural immersion.