Zuki and Her Sister

One of my favorite people we’ve met thus far on our journey is a young woman from Swaziland named Zuki. She is a student at the University and was sub warden of our dorm. One evening Marcus and I came in and sat down in the community room with Zuki and her sister, Nguada (a student at the university in Pretoria). We talked for three or four hours about South Africa, America, Swaziland, the state of the developing world, MTV, war, and more. I wish I could share the conversation with you, because it was really engaging and at times surprising. Alas, that would take hours, but I will share a few observations. We asked Zuki and her sister what were some of the common stereotypical perceptions of Americans are South Africa. Interestingly enough, they didn’t pause before speaking in unison to say:

1.)God Save the United States, and No Place Else!

Which Marcus and I had to laugh at because it is unfortunately not so incredibly far from the truth. Just watch Fox News.

2.)Americans think Africa is one big country.

3.) African Americans don’t speak proper English

4.) There is no such thing as AIDS in the USA

5.) The US is the happiest most perfect place to be, everyone is rich

6.) Americans don’t care about the rest of the world

7.)African American men are bling, guns, hardcore, rough, scary, violent, aggressive – but in a cool heroic sort of way.

This is my personal favorite perception because it highlights the unfortunate responsibility African American artists have to the rest of the world. Black American music, and the culture that surrounds it is the universally coveted throughout the world. Bootleg rap cds can be bought on the streets of Bagdad and Soweto. Every store in the mall in Port Elizabeth was playing American music from Jay Z to Beyonce to Little Wayne to techno funk (think C + C Music Factory). Akon is playing everywhere we go… nobody wants to see us together – you would that song is stalking us. Even with the older South Africans we are listening to Gerald Levert, Mariah Carey, and Anita Baker. It’s not surprising that the images people internalize and emulate are those that come from music videos. The satellite television transports American early nineties soap operas, church shows, and music videos. Just yesterday Marcus and I were in a restaurant and all of the TV’s were playing an R Kelly / Young Jeezy video, with the sound turned off. Over the speakers we were listening to nineties r& b, but we were watching black men rocking bling, gesture aggressively with violent tendencies and ferocious expressions- let the images seep through. This is the Great Western Influence – The Impossible.

There was one point in the conversation when Zuki asked if I would want to live in another country. I told her I love to travel and could see myself living aboard for a few years, but despite all of the issues our country is plagued with - it is a place where given the right set of circumstances anything is possible.

That is an invaluable gift - to live in the realm of possibility.