When Separate is Not Equal

Monday, August 2

The affects of apartheid remain in the Townships and "Informal Settlements" on the outskirts of cities and towns throughout the country.

Today we took a tour of Mdantsane Township outside of East London. Mdantsane is the 3rd largest township in South Africa.  Mdantsane is located about 5 km outside of the city.  Closer in is the Informal Settlement of Duncan Village.  It is a horrible warren of tin and scrap wood and cardboard shacks crowded in every available knook and cranny between more conventional neighborhoods.

In the Village we first stopped at a Creche(a nursery school)  The school "campus" consisted of four steel storage bins that had been brightly paintede inside and out that served as classrooms.  These housed four classes of about 100 children total.  They crowded around us when we stepped inside their classrooms.  They love to have their photos taken, especially when we can show the photos to them immediately from our digital cameras.  They sang their "ABC's" and we all sang, "Jesus love me". It was very hard to leave.  In fact many of us were wiping tears from our eyes.

The tears continued to flow as we then went to an orphanage in the Village.  A woman living there looked around her and saw the great needs of the children in her neighborhood.  So many were victims of abusive, drug addicted and/or HIV/AIDS infected parents.  She decided to do something about it.  She started an orphanage.  It was a pretty downtrodden place.  The one building was under construction, but had hit a "funding snag".  So the construction had stopped.  They have four walls and a roof, but little else in the main dormitory.  There is an adjacent building that serves as a classroom. The children sleep on small plastic mats on dusty floors.  It was very sad.  One of our group walked away shaking her head saying, "We take so much for granted."  I thought how even this ramshackle place was better than those places whence those children came.

The Township was the foundation of Apartheid South Africa.  Blacks, coloreds and Indians were each provided separate sections of these townships.  The townships were placed far out of town.  Most of these had one road leading to them.  It was a fine way of controlling any potential disturbances among the inhabitants.  Of course, the whites lived in the cities. 

Apartheid, like Jim Crow laws in the United States were insidious means of disenfranchising and keeping entire segments of the population in poverty.  Even with Apartheid ended, the Townships and the poverty remain.  In part this is due to the pretty steady improvements in the lives of those living in the townships.  There are now shopping malls in the Townships.  New houses are also being built.

Life in the Informal Settlements seems to remain in rather constant misery.  But at least there is some improvement in the Townships.

One of the fascinating parts of our "Township Tour" was our visit to a cluster of Natural Healers.  We spent about an hour with them, learning about what it takes to train to become a healer, what is involved in the healing process, as well as a time to ask questions.  Some interest learnings about the Natural Healers is that theirs is a mixture of the indigenous worship of the ancestors along with Christianity.  We were told that each member of the healing clan was a Christian.  They also said that most of them served on the boards of the local health clinic.

Quite a day followed by a good dinner at an Italian bistro, then off to our rooms.

Blessings,

Rick Cowles