REVISITING SOUTH AFRICA (V): PLEASURE!*

During this stay I finally could experiment, at the Lanzerac Spa, something I’ve always wanted, but never got to do, because whenever and wherever I tried to have a go at it before, sessions were all either temporarily unavailable or fully booked: stone therapy.

It was a full body massage with stones bathed in natural oils alternatively cold and hot.

It was a bit disappointing because I didn’t get to rest with stones sitting down all my spine as commonly seen in the advertising pictures, but it was a pleasure nevertheless.

***

I started this visit with some of the things that annoy me at the OR Tambo International Airport, only to leave it in the most pleasurable way: at the check-in counter, soon after I handed-in my documents, the assistant, a very young black man, started talking to me in Portuguese. It took me a few moments to recover from the surprise, upon which I said to him something like being always impressed at “how far Angolans can get” – yes, from his accent I could immediately tell that he was not Mozambican, which would be a more plausible hypothesis given the sheer numbers of our brothers from the Indic in South Africa…
He then explained: “nao sei se ja’ ouviu falar do 'Batalhao 32'… os meus ‘parentes’ faziam parte desse batalhao e eu nasci aqui” (note that ‘parente’ in Portuguese means ‘relative’, but he really meant ‘parents’, or ‘pais’ in Portuguese). I then asked how come he could speak Portuguese, to which he told me that they normally speak Portuguese at home.
I was really pleased to meet him, not exactly, although also, because he spoke Portuguese, but mainly because I felt like I had found a long lost relative from whom I had been separated by the war… I was also pleased at the fact that he was well employed in a country where foreigners or their descendents find it very difficult to get integrated.

So, the end of my “revisitation of South Africa” was all marked by one thing: pleasure!

*Pleasure!: that’s how South Africans generally answer to something like ‘thanks’.

During this stay I finally could experiment, at the Lanzerac Spa, something I’ve always wanted, but never got to do, because whenever and wherever I tried to have a go at it before, sessions were all either temporarily unavailable or fully booked: stone therapy.

It was a full body massage with stones bathed in natural oils alternatively cold and hot.

It was a bit disappointing because I didn’t get to rest with stones sitting down all my spine as commonly seen in the advertising pictures, but it was a pleasure nevertheless.

***

I started this visit with some of the things that annoy me at the OR Tambo International Airport, only to leave it in the most pleasurable way: at the check-in counter, soon after I handed-in my documents, the assistant, a very young black man, started talking to me in Portuguese. It took me a few moments to recover from the surprise, upon which I said to him something like being always impressed at “how far Angolans can get” – yes, from his accent I could immediately tell that he was not Mozambican, which would be a more plausible hypothesis given the sheer numbers of our brothers from the Indic in South Africa…
He then explained: “nao sei se ja’ ouviu falar do 'Batalhao 32'… os meus ‘parentes’ faziam parte desse batalhao e eu nasci aqui” (note that ‘parente’ in Portuguese means ‘relative’, but he really meant ‘parents’, or ‘pais’ in Portuguese). I then asked how come he could speak Portuguese, to which he told me that they normally speak Portuguese at home.
I was really pleased to meet him, not exactly, although also, because he spoke Portuguese, but mainly because I felt like I had found a long lost relative from whom I had been separated by the war… I was also pleased at the fact that he was well employed in a country where foreigners or their descendents find it very difficult to get integrated.

So, the end of my “revisitation of South Africa” was all marked by one thing: pleasure!

*Pleasure!: that’s how South Africans generally answer to something like ‘thanks’.

REVISITING SOUTH AFRICA (IV): "HOW'S THINGS"?

While at the Lanzerac,* I came across a report entitled “Black Advancement: Hype Outstrips Reality”, authored by Lawrence Schlemmer and published by the Helen Suzman Foundation.
It is a well-balanced analysis, based on detailed statistics, of the process of social change in South Africa since the first democratic elections in the country in 1994. Some of its main findings may help explain the upsurge of strikes and demonstrations in the country, particularly by public sector workers, earlier this year. Here's a summary:

***

In the period from 1993 to 2002, Africans increased their share of the top 10 per cent of household income dramatically, from under 10 per cent just before 1994 to 23 per cent in the second half of 2002. Coloured people also increased their share slightly, whereas the white share fell sharply from nearly 80 per cent to some 63 per cent. Indians retained their share. Very significantly, however, the rate of change slowed dramatically after 2002. Coloured people continued to advance but the shares of all other groups remained static, and may even have fallen very slightly among Africans. This stalling of progress has occurred at the very time that talk of black economic empowerment and employment equity has been intensifying. Why is this?

The affirmative action bonanza has passed. Between 2002 and 2004 the effects of inflation are fairly slight, and roughly equal for all race categories. A very tiny super elite of empowerment beneficiaries may well be expanding massively but this is confined to a few dozen individuals and does not affect the basic patterns. The most meaningful trends and shifts are:

 A slight but significant decline in African poverty is occurring, due largely to the expansion of social grants.

 There is a modest but significant expansion of the numbers of Africans in the “not so poor” category of R1 400 to R4 000 per month.

 Abject or severe poverty among coloured people is roughly half of what it is among Africans.

 Abject or severe poverty affects less than 10 per cent of Indians and less than 5 per cent of whites.

 The “lower middle class” among Africans (R4 000 — R12 000 per month) has not expanded over the two years.

 A barely discernable expansion of the more wealthy categories among Africans has occurred.

 The expansion of the categories of relative wealth of R12 000 and more per month has been more rapid among coloured people, Indians and even among whites than it has been among Africans.

These results tell us that most of the stereotypes and loose impressions about a burgeoning new middle class floating around in popular debate are generally gross exaggerations. The reality is rather bad news for those who are committed to rapid or quick fix transformation. The really good news is that deep poverty is not increasing as many people fear. The extension of social grants has indeed stopped the socio-economic rot at the lower levels of livelihoods. However, the ongoing celebration of “empowerment” and with it, quick and easy wealth, may have serious implications. Revolutions of rising expectations have the potential to tear societies apart. The recent concern expressed in government about elite empowerment comes not a moment too soon. But government itself has to think about the contradictions within its own policies.

What does all this tell us about racial inequality? The evidence shows that whites and to a lesser extent Indians still enjoy considerable socio-economic advantage. They are both dominantly middle class communities. At the same time, however, there are very large economic overlaps between the races today, indicating very widely shared circumstances. The middle and upper middle classes are still largely white but no longer overwhelmingly so. Approximately 1,4 million people in what we may call the “middle-middle” class, some 62 to 63 per cent are white. This means that almost four out of ten South Africans in the “solid” middle class are no longer white. Whites have a greater relative advantage in what one might call the “upper middle” class in which they account for nearly three-quarters of the class composition.

*(… and how I missed then the times, years back, when I would go on my own “fact-finding missions” all over Jo’burg… when I took these pictures in Soweto…)

While at the Lanzerac,* I came across a report entitled “Black Advancement: Hype Outstrips Reality”, authored by Lawrence Schlemmer and published by the Helen Suzman Foundation.
It is a well-balanced analysis, based on detailed statistics, of the process of social change in South Africa since the first democratic elections in the country in 1994. Some of its main findings may help explain the upsurge of strikes and demonstrations in the country, particularly by public sector workers, earlier this year. Here's a summary:

***

In the period from 1993 to 2002, Africans increased their share of the top 10 per cent of household income dramatically, from under 10 per cent just before 1994 to 23 per cent in the second half of 2002. Coloured people also increased their share slightly, whereas the white share fell sharply from nearly 80 per cent to some 63 per cent. Indians retained their share. Very significantly, however, the rate of change slowed dramatically after 2002. Coloured people continued to advance but the shares of all other groups remained static, and may even have fallen very slightly among Africans. This stalling of progress has occurred at the very time that talk of black economic empowerment and employment equity has been intensifying. Why is this?

The affirmative action bonanza has passed. Between 2002 and 2004 the effects of inflation are fairly slight, and roughly equal for all race categories. A very tiny super elite of empowerment beneficiaries may well be expanding massively but this is confined to a few dozen individuals and does not affect the basic patterns. The most meaningful trends and shifts are:

 A slight but significant decline in African poverty is occurring, due largely to the expansion of social grants.

 There is a modest but significant expansion of the numbers of Africans in the “not so poor” category of R1 400 to R4 000 per month.

 Abject or severe poverty among coloured people is roughly half of what it is among Africans.

 Abject or severe poverty affects less than 10 per cent of Indians and less than 5 per cent of whites.

 The “lower middle class” among Africans (R4 000 — R12 000 per month) has not expanded over the two years.

 A barely discernable expansion of the more wealthy categories among Africans has occurred.

 The expansion of the categories of relative wealth of R12 000 and more per month has been more rapid among coloured people, Indians and even among whites than it has been among Africans.

These results tell us that most of the stereotypes and loose impressions about a burgeoning new middle class floating around in popular debate are generally gross exaggerations. The reality is rather bad news for those who are committed to rapid or quick fix transformation. The really good news is that deep poverty is not increasing as many people fear. The extension of social grants has indeed stopped the socio-economic rot at the lower levels of livelihoods. However, the ongoing celebration of “empowerment” and with it, quick and easy wealth, may have serious implications. Revolutions of rising expectations have the potential to tear societies apart. The recent concern expressed in government about elite empowerment comes not a moment too soon. But government itself has to think about the contradictions within its own policies.

What does all this tell us about racial inequality? The evidence shows that whites and to a lesser extent Indians still enjoy considerable socio-economic advantage. They are both dominantly middle class communities. At the same time, however, there are very large economic overlaps between the races today, indicating very widely shared circumstances. The middle and upper middle classes are still largely white but no longer overwhelmingly so. Approximately 1,4 million people in what we may call the “middle-middle” class, some 62 to 63 per cent are white. This means that almost four out of ten South Africans in the “solid” middle class are no longer white. Whites have a greater relative advantage in what one might call the “upper middle” class in which they account for nearly three-quarters of the class composition.

*(… and how I missed then the times, years back, when I would go on my own “fact-finding missions” all over Jo’burg… when I took these pictures in Soweto…)

REVISITING SOUTH AFRICA (III): “SHACK CHIC”

I already had the ‘coffee table’ book for a few years, but this time decided to buy (with this post in mind) the postcard set made out of it, in Cape Town.

Here’s how it is presented by its editors*: “This book is a documentary on the lives of ‘previously disadvantaged’ but presently overcoming individuals. It is about the dignity to be found in the dusty streets of South Africa’s shack-lands. While these people obviously don’t take pleasure in the poverty they live in, they stand proud in the face of it. These are people who are doing the best they can with the little they have and, in the process, coming up with something aesthetically unique and fresh to offer the world. This is creativity and ingenuity. This is Shack Chic.”

Yet, for some reason, I can't get 'round this question: is “Shack Chic” really about

CELEBRATING CREATIVITY OR GLAMOURISING POVERTY?

***

“victory: to build a shack and call it home”

“houses are built on foundations and walls and roof. homes are built with things much deeper and less concrete”

“temples are never built in one day. but mine, this shack, was built in half a day”



“there is something sensual about the rattle of rain on a corrugated roof”

“after the rain, earth, as whiff, comes knocking on my fragile door. earth as fragrance embracing the musk and unmasking the undressed breath of another night of tender love making under the naughty stars peeping through the transparency of a revealing plastic roof”



“on that chair there, we conceived Sipho the gift. that was before the bed and a job from Airflex Recliners (Pty) Ltd”


“jesus was not born here but sometimes he comes in through the little holes in the walls and sits on that chair”


“there are many ways to make music. sometimes it is a deep blue against the wall, a bright yellow against fear, another red to tribute imagination, hopefully an orange to earth bad vibes and my black voice saying my life is beautiful”



“these walls, thin as membranes, keep nothing outside. they are here to keep our beauty inside, away from that solitude out there”


“the tentacles of despair are challenged by the soft touches of eternal determination. many times between void and void it is only us testifying to creative essence as hope.”


Photography by Craig Fraser
Poetry by Sandile Dikeni

*Quivertree Publications, Cape Town, South Africa (2002)

ADENDA: Pela sua relevancia nao so' para o tema deste post, mas tambem para algumas discussoes aqui tidas, decidi colocar aqui em anexo este artigo publicado esta semana no jornal Capetoniano 'Cape Times'.

I already had the ‘coffee table’ book for a few years, but this time decided to buy (with this post in mind) the postcard set made out of it, in Cape Town.

Here’s how it is presented by its editors*: “This book is a documentary on the lives of ‘previously disadvantaged’ but presently overcoming individuals. It is about the dignity to be found in the dusty streets of South Africa’s shack-lands. While these people obviously don’t take pleasure in the poverty they live in, they stand proud in the face of it. These are people who are doing the best they can with the little they have and, in the process, coming up with something aesthetically unique and fresh to offer the world. This is creativity and ingenuity. This is Shack Chic.”

Yet, for some reason, I can't get 'round this question: is “Shack Chic” really about

CELEBRATING CREATIVITY OR GLAMOURISING POVERTY?

***

“victory: to build a shack and call it home”

“houses are built on foundations and walls and roof. homes are built with things much deeper and less concrete”

“temples are never built in one day. but mine, this shack, was built in half a day”



“there is something sensual about the rattle of rain on a corrugated roof”

“after the rain, earth, as whiff, comes knocking on my fragile door. earth as fragrance embracing the musk and unmasking the undressed breath of another night of tender love making under the naughty stars peeping through the transparency of a revealing plastic roof”



“on that chair there, we conceived Sipho the gift. that was before the bed and a job from Airflex Recliners (Pty) Ltd”


“jesus was not born here but sometimes he comes in through the little holes in the walls and sits on that chair”


“there are many ways to make music. sometimes it is a deep blue against the wall, a bright yellow against fear, another red to tribute imagination, hopefully an orange to earth bad vibes and my black voice saying my life is beautiful”



“these walls, thin as membranes, keep nothing outside. they are here to keep our beauty inside, away from that solitude out there”


“the tentacles of despair are challenged by the soft touches of eternal determination. many times between void and void it is only us testifying to creative essence as hope.”


Photography by Craig Fraser
Poetry by Sandile Dikeni

*Quivertree Publications, Cape Town, South Africa (2002)

ADENDA: Pela sua relevancia nao so' para o tema deste post, mas tambem para algumas discussoes aqui tidas, decidi colocar aqui em anexo este artigo publicado esta semana no jornal Capetoniano 'Cape Times'.

REVISITING SOUTH AFRICA - II

EXPERIENCING THE LANZERAC - STELLENBOSCH

I must confess that this was the most unique hotel experience I’ve ever had. Imagine being lodged in a huge classically decorated room with its own fireplace, a bathroom almost as big as the room and its own outdoor garden patio where you can enjoy the spells of good weather under a secular oak tree, while sipping from a glass of home-produced good old wine and facing nothing else in the horizon but the imposing view of the mountains and the sky… All this inside a private working wine farm located in the famous Jonkershoek Valley, surrounded by the picturesque Helderberg Mountains… This is the Lanzerac Hotel and Manor, in Stellenbosch - South Africa, where you are received with the phrase: “We’ve been preparing for your arrival for 300 years”!

Four years ago, in my first visit to Stellenbosch, I stayed for two weeks at the then newly built local Protea (for a series of workshops on International Trade sponsored by TRALAC, UNCTAD and the WTO), where the views from my room’s balcony were all vineyards, mountains and wondrous skies constantly changing with the mood of the local micro-climate. And I thought that was as good as you could possibly get as far as experiencing Stellenbosch went…

Then, about a year ago, I stayed for three days at the Stellenbosch Hydro Natural Health Resort, thus presented: “Nestled in the tranquillity of Ida's Valley just outside Stellenbosch, the surrounding woodlands, magical gardens and crisp mountain air make it one of the most beautiful and serene retreats on earth.” Again, that was a most memorable and reinvigorating experience.

Now, the Lanzerac is an altogether different (hi)story. As it goes: “In 1692, governor Simon van der Stel granted a considerable tract of land in the majestic Jonkershoek Valley of Stellenbosch to Isaac Schrijver who named the farm Schoongezicht (beautiful outlook) and planted the first vineyards. Over the years, the Estate passed through a succession of owners who each contributed by building on to the farm. Records show that Coenraad Fick built the cellar in 1815 and the U shaped homestead in 1830. This distinguished Manor House with its neo-classical main gable still stands today and exhibits a high level of sophistication for Cape Dutch architecture of the period.

In 1914, Schoongezicht was bought by Elizabeth Catherine English who changed the name to Lanzerac and bottled the first Lanzerac wine from grapes grown on her land. The two Rawdon brothers bought the farm in 1958 and converted the homestead and outbuildings to a luxury hotel furnished with English and Cape antiques. These buildings were declared national monuments.”

I was invited there by a group of institutional bodies and governmental think tanks sponsoring APORDE – “African Programme on Rethinking Development Economics”, a spinoff of CAPORDE - the "Cambridge Advanced Programme on Rethinking Development Economics", of the University of Cambridge, UK. It congregated a number of academics, researchers, government officials, development policy practitioners and civil society activists from different African countries and other parts of the world bent on turning Development Economics on its head.

They were expected to wrap-up their business today and I hope they’ve succeeded at their endeavours – I just felt compelled, for particular reasons, to leave them just at the beginning (yet, having arrived earlier, on my return from the Okavango Delta, I could still enjoy a good five days of the Lanzerac experience) and, I’m afraid, not totally convinced that they’ll succeed at their stated intentions… Still, all the best are my wishes, specially for the many enthusiastic Africans who took part (... there was even one talking of "a revolution about to happen" there, while wearing a t-shirt stating "Africa is not for sale", to which I responded "this revolution won't be televised"... it's being blogged though).

Afrika could well do with a serious change in mainstream development thinking and practice!

EXPERIENCING THE LANZERAC - STELLENBOSCH

I must confess that this was the most unique hotel experience I’ve ever had. Imagine being lodged in a huge classically decorated room with its own fireplace, a bathroom almost as big as the room and its own outdoor garden patio where you can enjoy the spells of good weather under a secular oak tree, while sipping from a glass of home-produced good old wine and facing nothing else in the horizon but the imposing view of the mountains and the sky… All this inside a private working wine farm located in the famous Jonkershoek Valley, surrounded by the picturesque Helderberg Mountains… This is the Lanzerac Hotel and Manor, in Stellenbosch - South Africa, where you are received with the phrase: “We’ve been preparing for your arrival for 300 years”!

Four years ago, in my first visit to Stellenbosch, I stayed for two weeks at the then newly built local Protea (for a series of workshops on International Trade sponsored by TRALAC, UNCTAD and the WTO), where the views from my room’s balcony were all vineyards, mountains and wondrous skies constantly changing with the mood of the local micro-climate. And I thought that was as good as you could possibly get as far as experiencing Stellenbosch went…

Then, about a year ago, I stayed for three days at the Stellenbosch Hydro Natural Health Resort, thus presented: “Nestled in the tranquillity of Ida's Valley just outside Stellenbosch, the surrounding woodlands, magical gardens and crisp mountain air make it one of the most beautiful and serene retreats on earth.” Again, that was a most memorable and reinvigorating experience.

Now, the Lanzerac is an altogether different (hi)story. As it goes: “In 1692, governor Simon van der Stel granted a considerable tract of land in the majestic Jonkershoek Valley of Stellenbosch to Isaac Schrijver who named the farm Schoongezicht (beautiful outlook) and planted the first vineyards. Over the years, the Estate passed through a succession of owners who each contributed by building on to the farm. Records show that Coenraad Fick built the cellar in 1815 and the U shaped homestead in 1830. This distinguished Manor House with its neo-classical main gable still stands today and exhibits a high level of sophistication for Cape Dutch architecture of the period.

In 1914, Schoongezicht was bought by Elizabeth Catherine English who changed the name to Lanzerac and bottled the first Lanzerac wine from grapes grown on her land. The two Rawdon brothers bought the farm in 1958 and converted the homestead and outbuildings to a luxury hotel furnished with English and Cape antiques. These buildings were declared national monuments.”

I was invited there by a group of institutional bodies and governmental think tanks sponsoring APORDE – “African Programme on Rethinking Development Economics”, a spinoff of CAPORDE - the "Cambridge Advanced Programme on Rethinking Development Economics", of the University of Cambridge, UK. It congregated a number of academics, researchers, government officials, development policy practitioners and civil society activists from different African countries and other parts of the world bent on turning Development Economics on its head.

They were expected to wrap-up their business today and I hope they’ve succeeded at their endeavours – I just felt compelled, for particular reasons, to leave them just at the beginning (yet, having arrived earlier, on my return from the Okavango Delta, I could still enjoy a good five days of the Lanzerac experience) and, I’m afraid, not totally convinced that they’ll succeed at their stated intentions… Still, all the best are my wishes, specially for the many enthusiastic Africans who took part (... there was even one talking of "a revolution about to happen" there, while wearing a t-shirt stating "Africa is not for sale", to which I responded "this revolution won't be televised"... it's being blogged though).

Afrika could well do with a serious change in mainstream development thinking and practice!

REVISITING SOUTH AFRICA - I

ANNOYANCES

When you get to Jo’burg international airport, whether departing or arriving, you can hardly avoid being literally assaulted by a continuing series of taxi ‘pushers’ (informal but not all necessarily illegal) sprouting from all directions and asking you the same question: “do you need a taxi?”... If you happen to be a black woman they will qualify the question with “sister?” or “sissy?”... Which reminds me of an occasion in Swaziland when a white American colleague of mine was addressed as "sissy" by a Swazi sister, to which she responded, irritated: “my name is not sissy”! Well, I tried to explain to her that it didn’t mean any harm and, at most, she should have felt honoured by being treated as such in a Southern African country where such treatment of black women is quite common… But having gone countless times to and fro Jo’burg airport, now renamed OR Tambo International Airport, I just get annoyed at the way they will ask you the question one after another, while standing by or very close to each other and having heard my answer to the previous one: no, thanks. So, this time, after the first two (and for the first time one of them was a woman…) I grabbed a piece of paper and just wrote in huge letters: NO! and put it in front of my trolley… it worked!

***

Another thing that annoyed and, most of all, saddened me was finding Mandela dummies, toys, dolls, whatever you may want to call them (we call them "bonecos de pano" in Portuguese), for sale at the Jo’burg airport. I wrote a brief comment on this the other day at Black Looks on a very interesting post about the “Meaning of Mandela”. This was just the most recent sign of a very noticeable trend (even if with the most apparently 'noble intentions') tending to degrade the image of the great man! Before, the “lower” I had come across was the “Mandela shirts collection”, made up of replicas of the most beautiful and colourful shirts with which he brought his own, and South Africa’s, brand of flavour to the dress code of international state's men. I even bought one (the only white shirt in the collection) about three years ago, at that same airport, for my son, which he used on his graduation day… but now these 'dummies' are just the lowest - too degrading, I’m very sorry to say!

ANNOYANCES

When you get to Jo’burg international airport, whether departing or arriving, you can hardly avoid being literally assaulted by a continuing series of taxi ‘pushers’ (informal but not all necessarily illegal) sprouting from all directions and asking you the same question: “do you need a taxi?”... If you happen to be a black woman they will qualify the question with “sister?” or “sissy?”... Which reminds me of an occasion in Swaziland when a white American colleague of mine was addressed as "sissy" by a Swazi sister, to which she responded, irritated: “my name is not sissy”! Well, I tried to explain to her that it didn’t mean any harm and, at most, she should have felt honoured by being treated as such in a Southern African country where such treatment of black women is quite common… But having gone countless times to and fro Jo’burg airport, now renamed OR Tambo International Airport, I just get annoyed at the way they will ask you the question one after another, while standing by or very close to each other and having heard my answer to the previous one: no, thanks. So, this time, after the first two (and for the first time one of them was a woman…) I grabbed a piece of paper and just wrote in huge letters: NO! and put it in front of my trolley… it worked!

***

Another thing that annoyed and, most of all, saddened me was finding Mandela dummies, toys, dolls, whatever you may want to call them (we call them "bonecos de pano" in Portuguese), for sale at the Jo’burg airport. I wrote a brief comment on this the other day at Black Looks on a very interesting post about the “Meaning of Mandela”. This was just the most recent sign of a very noticeable trend (even if with the most apparently 'noble intentions') tending to degrade the image of the great man! Before, the “lower” I had come across was the “Mandela shirts collection”, made up of replicas of the most beautiful and colourful shirts with which he brought his own, and South Africa’s, brand of flavour to the dress code of international state's men. I even bought one (the only white shirt in the collection) about three years ago, at that same airport, for my son, which he used on his graduation day… but now these 'dummies' are just the lowest - too degrading, I’m very sorry to say!