It’s Not All Black and White

Another month, another continent. If it’s February, I must be in Africa.

Well, maybe I don’t HAVE to be in Africa if it’s February, but I’m here nonetheless. As I write this I’m celebrating the 6^th anniversary of starting my global vagabonding adventure, and I find myself on a continent I’ve explored far too little over these 6 years.

I’m in Cape Town, South Africa, and what a beautiful place it is. I knew this was the case, but I don’t think I was prepared for just how picturesque the city and its surroundings here on the cape peninsula at the very bottom of Africa actually are.

Cape Town itself has instantly vaulted to the top spot in my “Most Beautiful Cities” list. It’s surrounded by sparkling blue water and white beaches at the meeting point of two oceans. (Atlantic and Indian, in case your geography is a bit rusty.)

And looming ever present, looking down on the city, is the fabulously rugged Table Mountain. It’s a mountain that looks like a table (what a surprise.) It hovers just above us, beckoning one and all to hike to the top, which I have dutifully done. A picture is probably the best way to understand Table Mountain’s omnipresence here in Cape Town.

Making matters even better is the fact that I’m here during the glorious summer, which thus far has featured almost 100% blue skies and sunny days. Given my proclivity for warm weather and sunshine, it’s certainly no accident that I decided to come here at this time of year.

After finishing up in Saudi Arabia at the end of January, I spent a week in Athens (Greece) visiting some friends, and since I was “in the neighborhood,” it seemed like it was time to finally get my feet wet here at the bottom of the Dark Continent. In reality, nowhere is actually “in the neighborhood” for Cape Town, but the Middle East and southern Europe are about as close as it gets.

My only previous foray onto this continent was when I went on a 3 week Moroccan odyssey back in 2014. While they may be on the same continent, Morocco and South Africa are a very, very long way apart and have little in common, so this was definitely a trip into unfamiliar territory for me.

Lest I forget, the absolute collapse of the South African Rand against the US Dollar over the past couple of years may have played a role in getting me to pull the trigger as well. Prices on just about everything are outrageously reasonable, with many qualifying as downright dirt cheap. In some ways prices are lower here than in southeast Asia.

I have now been in country for over 2 weeks, and I’ve visited a wide variety of spots. It started with getting to know the city of Cape Town itself, which was greatly aided by a yoga friend whom I met recently while she was visiting Ubud with her husband. She laid out a slate of yoga classes for me at various studios, and I met her crowd of yoga and fitness fanatic friends.

It was the kind of introduction that made me think, “This is not too different from Los Angeles. I think I could get into this place.” There are lots of cyclists and triathletes, and with the hills and cliffs all over the area, it’s a great place to ride – which is a priority I discussed in a recent post.

I did some of the tourist stuff, including going outside the city to the famous Cape of Good Hope.

A rare moment alone at the Cape of Good Hope.

The Cape was legendary for the danger it presented for ships passing around Africa in the early days of navigation and global trade, circa the 17^th century. Many a ship failed to pass successfully around the rocks, instead being battered and sunk by rapidly developing storms.

The area was so feared that as ships neared this crucial turning point in their journeys, the morale of the crews would often drop with the realization of the imminent risk they faced. So in a move that would instill pride in modern-day propagandists hard at work for the governments of the world, the area was given the name Cape of Good Hope. There’s nothing like slapping a rosy name on a place to make a bunch of sailors feel better about their prospects for survival.

I’m not convinced the Cape is still legendary for the difficulty of navigation, however. It seems to have switched to being most noteworthy for the swarms of Chinese tourists who launch a daily invasion on the sign you see me with above, attempting to take every possible permutation of family picture while standing behind it. Needless to say, this makes it challenging to get a picture where you look like you’re alone at the end of the world. I was lucky because the swarms happened to return to their bus just before I left, and hence I got the rare swarm-free shot you see.

The Animals

When you think of Africa, you probably think first about wild animals. Yes, you might also think of poverty, vicious warlords, political chaos, and brutal European colonization. But most likely the name will first bring to mind images of National Geographic photographers in the bush photographing dangerous animals (and naked pygmies), Marlon Perkins wandering about with Mutual of Omaha’s Wild Kingdom television program, and the Busch Gardens animal theme park, which used to be known as “The Dark Continent.”

Animals are the main reason why many people visit Africa. And while it’s sad that with the continued encroachment of man, many animals are disappearing as their habitat is destroyed, there are still lots of animals. I have thus far been around the country on the scenic area called the Garden Route, and I have done a couple of animal safaris, one on a game reserve and one at the famous Addo National Park. And on those safaris I saw…..animals!

Yes, I saw animals. Elephants, lions, cheetahs, leopards, buffaloes, baboons, ostriches, antelopes, warthogs…..and more. I didn’t take many pictures, mainly because I’m not a serious picture taker. And all of these animals can be easily seen in far superior pictures and videos that are abundantly available on the internet.

I did, however, get the pictures below at an animal sanctuary I went to. It’s a lot like a zoo, but they take great pains to state that it’s not a zoo. It’s a sanctuary for helping breed various species and save them from extinction. I think I believe it, but it’s always hard to know for sure. As the saying goes, one man’s terrorist is another man’s freedom fighter.

The funny looking animals with the long striped tails you see climbing all over me are lemurs. They actually come from Madagascar, not South Africa, but that’s ok when you’re at a sanctuary. They were a lot of fun. Their hands are really soft like high quality leather, so it’s a nice feeling when they climb on your skin. And they’re friendly and playful, in addition to looking really unusual, thanks to their eyes and tails.

These lemurs are a lot of fun to have climbing all over you.

I went to another place where you hang out with elephants. I don’t know what you call it. It might be the “Elephant Exploitation Ranch,” but it did seem like they treat the elephants very well, and the claim is that they are rescuing elephants from being shipped illegally out of Africa to places like zoos and circuses. If that’s the case, then I’m in support.

Yet another stop on my travels was an ostrich farm. As I found out, ostriches are actually from the Sahara desert, but over the past few hundred years have migrated down to this region, so now this is their primary home. They are used for their feathers, their skin (leather), and their meat.

The ones at this farm were also trained to do certain things. For some reason the lady giving the tour singled me out for the special activity of having an ostrich “kiss” me by taking a piece of food out from between my lips. She must have thought that I would not be intimidated by having this massive bird attack my face – but very accurately in grabbing the food, I might add. And it was Valentine’s day, so maybe the whole endeavor of being kissed by an ostrich was appropriate in some African way.

Lest We Forget the Past

But it’s not all sunshine and rainbows down here, despite all the sunshine, and the fact that South Africa is known as the Rainbow Nation. The country certainly is a rainbow of people, and as the title of this post insinuates, they’re not all black and white. Well, a lot of them are either black or white, but plenty of others are colored. Yes, colored.

Now, at least in the United States, colored is a politically incorrect word. It’s what black people used to be called. Now apparently the only place that word can be used in the US is in the title of the organization promoting black people’s rights, the NAACP – the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People.

It’s funny that it’s no longer acceptable to refer to people as colored, yet this organization exists for the advancement of colored people. While I don’t necessarily think it would be nice to refer to people in the United States as “colored,” I do think this little quirk demonstrates the fact that perhaps political correctness doesn’t always focus on the truly appropriate issues. And sometimes it’s just downright silly.

Be that as it may, here in South Africa, colored is an everyday term. People are either black, white, or colored. Colored people are mixed race, making them look not black, not white, but rather…..colored. I’d say that it’s an accurate term, no one takes offense, and it has long been one of the legally recognized races in South Africa.

We all know that this country has had something of a checkered past when it comes to race issues (pun intended.) The existence of Apartheid is a major blot on South African history, much like slavery and Jim Crow laws are on US history. In the Apartheid days, racial classification was critically important, because it determined just about everything about one’s life. What are you allowed to do? Where are you allowed to work? With whom are you allowed to associate? Where are you allowed to live?

Blacks were at the bottom of the totem pole and most heavily persecuted and discriminated against, whereas coloreds were slightly better off due to their lighter skin. And being white was a lot like having a winning lottery ticket, because that meant you were at the top of the heap.

Here’s an example of how it used to be. I wandered onto the wrong bench.

I was confused. Good thing it’s not a few decades ago, when benches like this would have appeared all over the city here in Cape Town.

Apartheid has been dead since 1994. I believe it, but there are plenty of signs of its lingering effects. For one, I see racist attitudes every day. There are plenty of white people who talk to black people like they are beneath them. I cringe when I hear it, but it’s fairly normal, and I guess it’s going to take more time to be eradicated. When you see people doing manual labor, it’s almost always completely black – maybe occasionally colored, but not often. The idea sometimes crosses my mind that I’m seeing a gang of slaves on a work detail.

I don’t say these things to paint an ugly picture and criticize South Africa. That’s been done enough and is certainly justified. I’m just reporting on the fact that, while things are supposed to be equal, in reality they aren’t. And like in the United States, even if things improve little by little as time passes, there’s still a long way to go before anything resembling true racial harmony and equality will exist here.

Given that there has been racism in just about every civilization since time immemorial, I don’t really believe we’ll ever reach true harmony. But a closer approximation of it would be a welcome step forward here in South Africa.

Despite the problems on display, on the whole South Africa has been great to me. And I don’t think it’s just because I’m white. As I vagabond around the world, I occasionally find myself somewhere where I say, “I could stay here for a long time.” Cape Town is definitely one of those places. I know it’s not nearly as nice during the winter as it is right now, but at least for the southern hemisphere summer months, it is a place I could easily see myself “settling” for a season.

Only time will tell. In the meantime, I’m still here and don’t have a solid plan for what’s next. But I’m working on one at this very moment.