As I took one step, and then
another step, walking to my very first class at UCT (University of Cape Town),
many new aspects of the culture became apparent. Since the campus is located on
the base of the mountains, the entire area is one giant hill. My flat is in
Rondebosch, adjacent to lower campus, and then you ascend through middle
campus, finally arriving to upper campus. While the walkways were crowded with
students of great diversity, but primarily black, I crossed paths with a fellow
student wearing a shirt that read, “Black Girls Only.” That set the tone for
the rest of the day. As we approached Jameson Plaza, the center of Upper
Campus, another protest was taking place. If you’ve seen in the news for the
past several months, there have been myriad protests on campus, including “RhodesMustFall”
and “FeesMustFall.” The university even closed down for a couple weeks last
semester in response to it all. The protests occurring now revolve around the
school’s lack of sufficient housing for the first year students. Since more students
accepted their acceptance offer than expected, the University was forced to
offer on-campus housing to only some, based on socioeconomic status aka race. On
the very first day, not only of the semester but the first day of the year
since they just had summer break, protestors had a small house erected in
Jameson Plaza. Within the next day, it acquired the name “Shackville” and
represented a house from a local township (a suburb/ghetto of Cape Town). The
house blocked the main passageway in the center of campus, intending to
interrupt every student’s day, as well as represent the homelessness of some
current students. The center of campus was taken over by spray-painted posters,
yelling, and a trashcan on fire. I took this all in while I hurried away,
looking like a lost freshman searching for my first class.
The campus
is beautiful, with huge historical buildings covered with moss, surrounded by
the mountains. Just like everywhere in Cape Town, anywhere you look you see the
mountains. My classes all went well, although my Hebrew professor yelled at me because
of my American accent; turns out Hebrew sounds a lot different in a South
African accent. Every class provides a free “Course Reader” which is essentially
a textbook, alleviating many extraneous costs for students. One of the most
minimal but still evident differences is walking in stairways: they walk on the
left side! This makes sense, of course, since I’m already used to everyone
driving on the left side of the street but this little difference was
humorously noticeable. I am happy to finally be in a routine though: cooking meals
for myself, going to the gym everyday after class, spending time in the
library, it’s all falling together now.
I attended
a lecture that was an overview of South African racial history that included a
few interesting points. First of all, the speaker opened up the presentation by
telling a story about being on a city bus alone. She explained if you ride it
when it’s packed, you get pickpocketed but if you ride it when it’s empty, your
outcome is even worse. After that, she emphasized that people look back and
think that Nelson Mandela was freed and then immediately took office, making
change, but there was an interim of four long, problematic years. As we then
surpassed 1994 into the “post-Apartheid era,” which some people disagree with
that name because the problems are not over, the powerpoint presentation quickly
led to “February 2016.” Seeing that written across the screen was the most
shocking part; she was discussing a historical event that happened literally
last week. Seeing that made it real that there is still so much more progress
to go and I am actually so likely to witness revolutionizing events while here.
If you get a chance, I strongly encourage you to research South African history
or even the history of any developing country that you might be interested in.
You not only learn so much about the world around us, but so much about our
future.
The next
night, we received urgent texts and emails to remain as far from campus as
possible. As more and more details came rushing into our naïve American
hallways, we discovered that the protestors lit a “Jammie” (campus shuttle bus)
on fire and that the police officers were setting off stun grenades to break up
the protests. From my flat (apartment) balcony, we could see the gargantuan
huddle of smoke rising from Upper Campus. We heard rumors that classes may be
cancelled the next day but they were not. Walking to class, where Shackville
had been set up, remained a huge burnt area in the ground. A statue monument
nearby was spray painted “Fuck Black Exclusion. Fuck White People!!” By the
time I was walking home from class, only three hours later, the fire remnants
had been cleaned up and the spray paint was washed off.
My study
abroad program, CIEE, handled everything very smoothly, keeping us updated
throughout it all and making us feel safe. They have warned us though that
scenarios like this will most likely continue and to always be aware. My
favorite part about it all is that when UCT sends out campus-wide emails
addressing the protests, they clarify that as an educational university, they
support peaceful protests. They want students to voice their opinions and stand
up for what they believe in, just not in an obtrusive manner. We’ll see what
else is to come.
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