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.

'The Spear'

I’m sure some of you have heard of ‘The Spear’ painting, the painting that has become the talk of the town (or I should say, talk of the country) in recent weeks here in South Africa. Brett Murray has just exhibited a new collection of his work, one in particular that has sparked a huge amount of controversy across the country.

In ‘The Spear’ President Jacob Zuma has been depicted partially naked with his, erm, gentleman’s bits, on full show. Of course Murray didn’t actually paint Zuma from life but regardless, it is all people are talking about. Murray has been deemed a ‘racist’ for his work and is believed to have painted Zuma in a negative, derogative and destructive light. In some people’s eyes, Murray is discriminating against black people, perhaps against the Zulus by exposing the president this way. People are claiming that the reason behind the work is the artist’s way of highlighting Zuma as the egotistic, sexually dominant man that he believes him to be.

If you want my opinion, I think it’s all a load of bollocks. I mean come on, do people not have anything better to talk about and worry about? Personally, I think what Murray did was undeniably controversial and perhaps slightly precarious, but in my mind he should not be receiving the treatment that he is. Fine, take the wretched picture down but why bother wasting time, money and effort in court, all over what, at the end of the day is really simply a little artistic license gone wrong?

Who knows what Murray was thinking when he painted the picture; yes maybe he does dislike Zuma (as we know a lot of people do), but hey, the president is not exactly giving people a reason to think otherwise at times. It’s not exactly hot news that the president has been known to visit prostitutes, despite having 8 wives and 20 something children. It’s this the man who said that it was OK that he slept with a HIV positive prostitute because he could simply ‘take a shower’ afterwards to prevent him catching the disease? It’s no secret that the ANC are doing quite a botch job of running a country that could be magnificent. 

Let’s face it, it’s not because Zuma is black and the painter is white. It is not racism. It is a controversial painting from a man who perhaps was undertaking protest art in some form. Why are people allowed verbally express their opinions on Zuma and criticise him in articles but when someone depicts these faults through art, it is suddenly a crime. What is more, if it was the other way around, believe me, there would not be such media coverage of the story; a black man or woman can say whatever the hell they want about white people in this country because the whites have ‘oppressed’ them for so long. I don’t mean to sound negative, but I feel that if  the same level of attention was given to the real problems this country faces (crime, education, poverty springs to mind), then South Africa would be coming along far better than it is.

Despite these negatives, 2 clear positives have come out of this whole debacle. Murray has received a huge amount of publicity which will ultimately boost his career (quite clever if you ask me) and Zuma’s willy looks big. It blatantly isn't that size in real life is it?