JoBurg

The upside to our scenic tour was we got to see the urban economically depressed sections Johannesburg and the more affluent suburbs. The first thing I noticed as the line of houses, business, and parks flew by my window, was that everything is gated and walled off, and covered with barbed wire.

There is little connectiveness in the city.

Once you enter the Melville, the homes have large brick walls that reach the base of the roof. Most of the homes also have laser alarm systems with built in panic buttons throughout the house, and large angry dogs rove fenced-in yards. There are roaming security guards in the subdivision in which we are staying. I don’t know if all of the security measures are supposed to make you feel safe, but it does underscore every stereotype of Johannesburg. It is apparently commonplace (or at least the story goes) for people to be murdered in their beds during a robbery attempt. There is a real terror in white South Africa, which many Black South Africans claim to be sensationalized and exaggerated. This fear, for whatever the root, is prevailing in the streets of Johannesburg, and most South Africans would say it is not completely unwarranted. As Marcus and I were researching lodges in the Zulu Battlefields, we came across the story of the death of a famous historian and lodge proprietor, David Rattray, which seems to be symbolic of the great white fear. Essentially, a gang of six broke into the lodge, asked for him by name and murdered him in front of his wife. They suspected it was a robbery attempt, but left empty – handed.

{Check think link at the bottom of the blog for an article}

There are factions, like the African Crisis, which is the trumpet piece for the South African version of the KKK that spews racist, bigoted opinions and tries to pass it off as hard news. Their website is filled with “facts” that rally the hypersensitive fear and hopes to gain financial support internationally to force Africa to return to the “glory of white domination.” Violent crimes are not simply a matter of white paranoia, as in all societies extreme poverty and desperation often strips people, regardless of race, of their fundamental humanity. The stories that make the headlines may be of famous white South African victims, but much of the art that came from the student and studio groups in Grahamstown speak of the dangers in the black townships that are basically ignored. There is no justification for the type of violence that is bandied in the headlines of the newspapers here. It is however incredibly disturbing that such acts of violence have become the acceptable norm. Murder, rape, and armed robbery is so much a part of the fabric of this city that it is no longer news.

http://hnn.us/roundup/entries/34674.html