Humans of Africa

I enjoyed a beautiful encounter with a stranger the other day and my friend inspired me to blog about it, who knows maybe this will become an on-going blogpost title...

On Friday, we finally registered for our University of Cape Town courses. Their classes are every single day and require much more work so they are worth more credits. Thus, most students only take three or four classes. I am officially taking Hebrew, Political Philosophy, and a class called Religion, Conflict, and Violence. The latter two classes both focus on South Africa which will not only be so interesting, but will help facilitate my journey through the country. To explore the present, I must understand the past.

The several hour-long and archaic process of registering for classes included standing in ridiculously long lines to go from station to station, rather than just clicking a few buttons online like we do in America. Finally, after I finished registering, I went to get my student ID and that line ended up being over two hours, as well. Bored, the man behind me in line began singing a beautiful song in another language. It was awkward at first, as everyone else in line was either silently playing on their phones or chatting with their friends. I turned around and smiled at him, and he asked me my name. I soon had one of the most thought-provoking and inspiring conversations, debatably, of my life.

He is 33-years-old. From Nigeria. Moved to Cape Town only four days ago. This is his first time ever leaving Nigeria in his entire lifie. Both his parents died when he was 26 years old. He has a wife and a baby. He went to law school in Nigeria and then taught as a teacher but now came to South Africa to get his PhD in law at University of Cape Town. The PhD will take him three years. He cannot afford to visit home. His wife and baby cannot afford to visit him. So, he will not see any of his family or friends for three years. He does not know a single person in all of South Africa. He explained to me that this three year PhD program is an investment in his future and he has no other choice, his entire extended family is relying on him financially.

We continued on to discuss every controversial topic you can think of: religion, gay marriage, women’s rights, appropriate clothing, men’s treatment of women, and even fast vs slow pace societies. As I of course cannot touch on every intriguing comment he made, I would like to highlight just a few.

He explained to me that most people in Nigeria are Catholic, including himself. He told me that because of this, any type of homosexual act is strictly outlawed and have punishment of fourteen years in jail. He told me that as a lawyer in Cape Town right now, he is accepting of gays and believes that people should love who they love. But, he continued on, as a devoted Catholic in Nigeria, he would not hesitate to turn someone who “had gay behavior” into the authorities. This drastic contrast continued throughout our different topics of discussion. He felt a constant pull between his Catholic beliefs and views as an educated African man. This seemed to be what he struggles most with in life. He truly believes in both sides of every topic, even though they complete disagree and eliminate one another.

He had many questions for me, as well, primarily about Judaism. He had some knowledge, but it was all along the lines of Ultra Orthodox practices and was fascinated to learn that not all Jews are as strict and conservative, as long as all the practices and cultures that go along with that.

The conversation proved to be both enlightening and time-soaking, as before we knew it, it had been two and a half hours and it was finally my time to take my ID picture. We both went up to separate cameras behind a curtain and waved goodbye, possibly forever.

*Also, I finally posted pictures on facebook! Click here to view them