A Teacher's Travels & Search for Math/Science Theorems that aren't Named after White Men |
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A Teacher's Travels & Search for Math/Science Theorems that aren't Named after White Men |
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South Africa: “Black consciousness is an attitude of the mind and a way of life.” --Steve Biko South Africa. One of my most favorite places I’ve been. I could write a novel about all that I’ve learned, experienced and encountered these couple of weeks here, but nobody comes to a blog seeking that so I’ll be as concise as can be. Although, I warn you that this is long. These past two weeks I (oddly) met, befriended and became again (oddly) close to brilliant people. Here are some of my teachings they've given me. Johannesburg: “Cmon guys, it’s now or never” JoBurg. Not a physically beautiful city. As you know, upon getting to JoBurg, I befriended some friends of a dear friend. They reside in Soweto. Together, we shared a house music dance floor in Soweto, cooked pap and ate Kota, a tasty hood snack reminiscent of what I can find in hoods across the Black world....my time with them culminated in two distinctly South African things...1) an argument that exposed the ugliness and subtlety of white supremacy—-a conflict that resulted in two black people name-calling the other “fat” and the other “dark skinned.” 2) Them traveling 45 minutes by bus just to see me off at the bus station. Bongani, a friend of one of my favorite humans in Chi, gave me an insightful tour from above the city, and it was a a gift to meet Bongz early on. This man knows the history of the land, the laws, ethnicity, politics, every building, block, neighborhood, and parallel to Us history. I learned that when white South Africans in the us, claim they left SA because they disagreed with apartheid, they are likely lying and left as a way of preserving their wealth. I learned that the Swati make a nutritious sorghum packed variation of pap, and the more commonly eaten maize version, was a food of apartheid--designed to be filling but lacking in any sort of nutritional value. Bongz theorized, and I agreed that the classification, "coloured people", while in a higher position in their own country than black Americans have in ours, might have some commonalities to us—they’re a relatively knew ethnic group, “created” as slaves. They don’t have claims to land that are all that old. They emulate black "hood", our mainstream visible, culture but don’t have much interaction or regard for black Africans, generally speaking. More on them later when I get to Cape Town, a place where "coloured" are in large numbers. The only thing I disagreed with, was his recommendation I eat tripe--a Zulu speciality. White Americans warned me about JoBurg before I left—-of its crime, of its ugly architecture. I think what they meant to say was, “it’s black.” Beautifully & distinctly black. It was my favorite city in SA, and for better or for worse, see myself returning there many times. A Bus Ride To Durban: “I should teach you Afrikans” I didn’t sleep much in JoBurg. I was too busy learning Zulu phrases, filling in the gaps that remain after going to the Apartheid museum and understanding what exactly the group “coloured” means. So, I was excited to sleep on the 8 hour bus ride. That didn’t happen for two reasons...1) an Indian toddler pulling my hair and screaming behind me (she was headed to Durban, the home to the second largest group of Indians outside of India—-they brought here essentially as indentured servants). 2) a young white Afrikaner, sitting next to me, and talking at me the majority of the ride. My interaction, albeit a one sided interaction, with this Afrikaner, was my only one up until this point with a white South African. Despite the perception, whites only make up about 8.9% of the total South African population. From my interactions, with let’s call him, Johannes, I learned that they have very little knowledge of the land they have forcefully occupied. was born and raised in JoBurg by a Jewish Afrikaner mother and German via Namibia (so descendant of the Germans who committed genocide against the Harare people), and yet I had seen more of JoBurg than he had. Knew more about the Zulu, Sotho, and Tswana than I believe he’ll ever bother learning. He felt as a white person that he was oppressed. Falsely made claims that land was unfairly taken from white Afrikaners, and that a person deserves to live where they’re born. He said “he’s not racial.” I still don’t know what that means, but he complimented me for speaking English well for a black person, and hence that being why he preferred black American women....because of our English (our first language). He clearly desired black women, as he then said, he hoped to actually marry a black American woman for this reason, and he knew about our culture from watching Madea movies and others similar to them on Netflix. He taught me the vulgar cuss word for ‘vagina’ in Afrikans, cause I guess he thought a tourist needed to know that?? Of course I was then uncomfortable that he asked for my phone number before he disembarked from the bus in some white sounding place, Pietermaritzburg. I hope that to be my first and last interaction with an Afrikaner. They’re such a relatively small, isolated, seemingly ignorant group, that I feel comfortable saying, all Afrikaners are racist. Apartheid began because poor Afrikaners felt oppressed by white British people who colonized SA, and wanted to ensure a racist, colonial, affirmative action for their white brethren. I actually saw two boarding my initial flight to SA, and thought they were American alt-right. They were super aryan looking and had hunting, camouflage print on. No. They were Afrikaners—-they not only share this aesthetic, but share a love of xenophobia, falsely feeling victimized, guns and as Bongz reminded me, making animal jerky. This would be simply a funny caricature if they and the other white people in SA (not hugely different from them) didn’t so wrongly and unethically hold so much wealth, power, igornance and space. Durban: They spoke to me in Zulu, and were surprised when I didn’t understand This was a brief trip. I learned from Rwandan Uber drivers, with whom I could speak in Swahili, that black South Africans, namely, Zulu were also xenophobic toward other African immigrants. They, like Zimbabweans and Ethiopians, experience violent attacks and general shade from Zulu people, mainly for economic reasons. Immigrants are willing to work for less than what the natives are willing to work for....we know this narrative. There are many people from Zimbabwe here, as one could imagine. Durban is a seaside community that is more British than Afrikaner, and they were still horrible to black Africans, invalidating the myth that there is any benevolent white presence in SA, when most of their initial presence was rooted in violence. Durban also taught me more about street harassment. In JoBurg I rarely was alone after my first 20 minutes, and usually was traveling with men, whereas I gave myself a tour of the CBD (downtown area) of Durban. While I never felt unsafe, I was followed, proposed to, cat called, roughly every 2 minutes in that 1.5 hour walk around the city. It was exhausting. And no, I wasn’t wearing revealing clothing or a lot of makeup, for you assholes. Many black women are survivors of rape and assault in SA, and to my understanding, being an unmarried woman who travels independently, can be a marker of being a “loose woman.” This isn’t unique to SA culture. I often think about how hard it is to travel alone as a woman, particularly as a woman of color, as I believe that the fear of the consequence of touching white women is so great, that they are largely more left alone. This didn’t taint my Durban experience. I ate Indian food, a Bunnychow, even though I learned that it came into existent because Indians wanted the business of black people but didn’t want them in their restaurants, so they put their curries in the bread so that blacks could take it to go. From all black accounts I heard, Indian people in SA are very anti-black, violent toward and exploitative of black people. A relic of apartheid-- Apartheid was intentionally designed by its architects. Apartheid wouldn’t have worked if all oppressed groups got equally poor treatment. It worked because the treatment was hierarchal, slightly different, thus groups never united against the white minority/oppressor because they resented and/or felt superior to the other. This mentality and divisiveness still exists between blacks, coloured and Indians. In Durban, I also was invited to a Christian children’s village, by a school founder's, whom I admire, brother in law. It was beautiful and fulfilling to spend time with a funny, kind and intelligent family. I obviously became quick friends with the kids, and the head of the school and I made plans to keep in touch about my project. Cape Town: “We Xhosa women aren’t going to just put up with anything” While white Americans (and some black too) deterred me from going to JoBurg, they couldn’t stop recommending things for me to do and see in Cape Town. I still have several more days in Cape Town, and yes it is objectively beautiful. There is an eerily, looming mountain range that hugs the city, there’s blue ocean, with beach penguins. The city feels, in some senses, European, although I’ve been avoiding its European residents. I'm staying with a family friend who was identified as a coloured or as some prefer to be called "camissa" during apartheid, as her Sotho father was lighter skinned, and yet she self identifies as black for political reasons. We would identify her as black in the US. I had dinners, coffee dates, with her and her camissa friends who were generous in sharing their experiences with me. The thing that is baffling to me is that apartheid successfully segregated them, and still does, yet they created no real distinct culture. They speak their own version of Afrikans, and they have traditions rooted in the Anglican Church, but they didn’t preserve the cultures with which they are mixed (black African, Malay, Chinese, Muslim, Indian, Dutch, Portuguese, etc.) so they don’t know what their ethnic background is. Hoping to pass for white was some of their goals, as a mechanism for survival, and those heritages were not typically preserved. We share this history in the US. Now many of their communities are riddled with gang violence and alcoholism, but in many cases they’re able to “advance” more than blacks if they’re able to perform South African whiteness. In Cape Town, I've also spent time with these incredible Xhosa women who have founded a Pan-African girl’s school in the rural, impoverished Khayelitsha region. I had reached out to a founder, Athambile, on Facebook about a month or so ago. I admired her form a distance and it turns out, she had known of Wakanda curriculum and had been admiring me. Had a lovely time talking shop, and sharing experiences of being a black woman teacher with her and her colleagues before being asked to teach there alongside them. I’ll be visiting the school later this week and sure it is so magical, I’ll have a whole post about the experience. I visited Robben island, which would’ve been overwhelming had I not been with a group of black American professors from Minnesota. A former political prisoner tours you around the prison, and I’m still thinking about how I felt about the experience itself. I went out with a new friend and his friends, and watched an argument about whether or not there is equitable access in Cape Town for blacks between two skilled debaters. I made another dear new friend, Mandisa, again a friend of a friend (Facebook is amazing sometimes). Mandisa is an Afro-pessimist, badass South African woman who introduced me to the beautiful musical practices of Zulu cult like religions, like the Shembe, and shared the Zeitz, a beautiful museum with me. Being black in Cape Town is different than I imagine it is in JoBurg. Cape Town feels whiter, feels richer and harder to navigate for the “woke.” Whereas JoBurg is very black, very “woke” and has safe space for progressives and queer people. Cape Town feels posh and like a playground for the wealthy, but of course we know that the people maintaining those playgrounds are always people of color and frequently black. The disparity is striking, across SA, but for me, particularly here. Whereas JoBurg has more Zulu, Sotho, Swati, & Tswana. Durban, mainly Zulu, Cape Town is a Xhosa city. Americans might know Xhosa for its clicks, and as Mandela’s ethnic group. I’m still here in this beautiful city, having drinks with other new friends, sharing meals with groups of powerful thinkers and of course also just enjoying the sun. Today I went on a tour with a conservationist, and just one other person, to see and learn about penguins on the eastern side of the peninsula. I also experienced the chaotic, lively, train system, in which vendors are quickly selling fruits and kids in school uniforms have just finished their first day of school for the new year. Traveling and my ability to quickly make friends and relate to people from different backgrounds/culture when I am traveling is perhaps my life’s greatest blessing. I often think I have more friends outside the US than there. However, nowhere has quickly clicking with people been easier for me than here in South Africa. I'm still contemplating why that is and what this is about this gorgeous, stunningly confusing place is. I’m excited for these next few days of learning, eureka moments, breaking bread and sharing hugs and love before my real journey begins in Botswana. Love you all. -Tess (or as Troy has named me, "Nomzamo")
2 Comments
Dan Powers
1/11/2019 11:02:28 am
I'm enjoy reading your blog and following your adventures. Thanks for taking the time to write as you go. You give me a lot to think about.
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Tess Raser
1/14/2019 11:34:24 am
Thanks, Dan!!
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AuthorFulbright Distinguished Award in Teaching Archives
April 2019
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