South Africa is a dangerous country.

South Africa is a ‘dangerous’ country. It is a ‘violent’ place. It’s people are ‘racist’. Or this is at least what the media leads us to believe.

In no way am I professing to know a lot and by no stretch of the imagination do I even comprehend the complexity surrounding such issues, but what I do have on my side is time and a very open mind in which to take in all sources of information that I am receiving. 

Before I came to South Africa, I had to endure the inevitable looks of concern on the faces of friends and family once they learned where I would be living for the next year. I encountered questions along the lines of, “Are you sure it is safe enough?” and assertions such as “South Africa is very dangerous, please take care”. Of course I had my own apprehensions but had faith in Rog when he said we would be safe.

Well having been on the road now for 186 days, with 12000 kms under our belts, I can comfortably say I haven’t seen a single scrap of violence. Of course it is going on, and to be quite frank, it is going on everywhere in the world so I wouldn’t really expect any less for South Africa. You hear of crime daily, but where across the globe do you not hear of crime? To be honest, I am maddened by the media instilling this fear in us. This unceasing flood of negativity is something I have complained about before but again, it prevails; why are we being taught to be scared of life?

I am not unnerved of the dangers going on around me, but the question I have asked myself, and numerous other people along the way, is what is the cause of this turbulence in South Africa? This type of question is undoubtedly very ambiguous and can never truly be answered, but I have acquired at least some knowledge into the roots of the violence.

I am white so am bound to sound biased, but from what I have understood, the racism and violence that is deemed as ‘classic’ racism; i.e. black on white prejudice or vice versa, is not the main source in this country. What people don’t acknowledge is that there is far more inter-racial discrimination than anything else, and in particular black tribal conflict. There are countless tribes present in South Africa today, all in some way a branch of the indigenous bushman/san tribes of the past. These bands of people may share similar lifestyles in terms of food and housing, but each has unique ideals and specific attitudes. This, of course, unavoidably leads to dispute. 

It is a fact of life that when groups of people are different in any way, there is unfailingly going to be discrimination. It is as cut and dry as that. This has been the case since the beginning of man and it will sadly continue until the end of time. We can’t retain this utopian vision of world peace, hoping that one day the world will see eye to eye; perhaps all we can be optimistic for is that at least people, like the tribes of South Africa, will learn to coexist without conflict.