When people think of Mama Africa they think of the Atlantic Slave Trade, the West African Kingdoms of the Sahel, Egyptian pyramids, and Kente Cloth, but this perplexes me. Africa sponsors 54 countries, spans nearly 12 million square miles and boasts almost 1.3 Billion peoples across its shores. Concurrently, our United States represent figures of only a fraction of these presented, yet we differentiate Cali Music from Chicago’s, or Northern food, from Southern cooking, and Philly slang from Memphis twang, so why do people come to South Africa looking for a Dashiki?
Far too often, when people envision Africa, they envision a monolith. An anthology of “tribal” custom, hut villages, drums, wild animals and various West African motifs. The largest continent in the world, has become a single unicultural country in the eyes of the Global North and its media. African-Americans, though they are not the sole perpetuators, most often know little about their heritage beyond the historical fact that most of the African Slaves stolen into the Americas did so through trade routes along the West African Coast. Additionally, I believe most of the African peoples we come into contact with regularly tend to be of an East or West African ethnic group, specifically I would say those local to the Nigerian and Ethiopian nationalities. Therefore, the single culture that most ascribe to country of Africa is that of Mansa Musa, and Haile Selassie, Okonkwo, and Kunta Kinte
Such generalizations essentially function as a reduction, also selectively ascribing value to just a few ethnic groups representing just a few fragments of the continent. Why is this an issue? It goes back to my aforementioned example, if we can assign meaningful difference to Ireland and its neighbor 300 miles apart, Britain, then how does it become difficult to differentiate the 5,000 miles between Lagos and Cape Town?
I myself try my best not to perpetuate such, and try to challenge others to do so as well. Though, I would be remiss if I asserted that I have successfully done so without failure at times. When I myself envinsioned a pilgramage to the motherland, Cape Town, South Africa was not exactly the first thing on my mind. Personally, I would not even say it was top 10, or top 50, on my list, but, as I mentioned in one of my previous post, it was the way the cards fell. However, I can at least say that I disembarked on the tarmac at Cape Town International ready to learn about South Africa her people, her history and her culture.
It was of dire importance to me that in my interactions with this place that I did not uphold the establishment of the anthology or any preconceived notions so that I could absorb as much as possible about a region I was completely unfamiliar with. Likewise, I still found myself in utter confusion standing amidst a Market at the hub of Cape Town’s Central Business District surrounded by Dashikis, Kintenge Cloths, African Landscapes and African Trinkets as they call them. Vendors approached me affirming the authenticity of the African patterns, beads, and textiles etc. Its not my place to judge the people, nor do I feel the need to do so, as its not their livelihood that I find a problem with, its the sensibilities of the tourists they must cater to.
Cape Town and South Africa have such a complex and consequential history and culture that gets lost in this pandering; a disservice to the millions of people living and working in this region, descendant of that history, carriers of that culture. In learning about the distinct nature of the country, and specifically Cape Town. It must go with note that the Colonial history and the system of Apartheid seem to have an overbearring significance as to how the modern day country of South Africa manifests. Apartheid ended only 25 years ago, but it still persists in more ways than one, the products of it still reign freely, though not without disruption.
Cape Town, and its interesting history largely stem from the reality of its historical role as a port city. This particular location lie at the halfway point of the Ocean voyages from Eastern Europe to Asia via the circumnavigation of Africa. These voyages also provided the routes of the Oceanic Slave Trade. During Colonialism, the settler colony imported slave labor as was European custom, but as the Americas were served by the Trans-Atlantic Slave Trade, Cape Town was served by the Oceanic Slave Trade. The enslaved peoples of the cape, were largely brought in from Indonesia, Malaysia, India, Mozambique and Madagascar.
The rape of these people and their own intermixing in a population with a 4:1 male to female ratio, would birth the Coloured ethnic group that populates South African society today. With their presence comes the collaborations of South Asian Cultures and South African Indigenous Cultures, sprinkled with the re-colonized systems of their oppressors, like Afrikaaps. Its because of this I have been more excited about trying Cape Malay Curry and Koeksisters than Jollof Rice and Fufu. Neverthless, still, this group is beyond complex simply in the arbitrary inorganic nature of its creation, let alone its evolution, and I do not consider myself qualified enough to thoroughly dissect or elaborate any further. Therefore, I encourage everyone reading this to do some research on South Africa’s Coloured population.
So again, we come to the point, where we must figure out just what my point is. Cape Town is a diverse place. South Africa has an incredible History worth exploring and the people here come from a collection of cultures that are all worth learning about and immersing in with respect to them. However, all of that becomes lost when we become unwilling to engage with Africa beyond our preconcieved notion of the African Anthology.
In short, I believe everyone who may find the opportunity, should seek voyage to Cape Town, and should see the beauty of South Africa, not Africa, not Headwraps and headcarrying, or poor starving children and giraffes, see the beauty, and the ugly, but see it as Cape Town, and see it as South Africa. See Khoikhoi and San, see Xhosa and Zulu, see Tswana and Sotho, this place has 12 national languages after all! From the jump that means there’s 10 different, yet prominent, cultures and heritages to learn about, and thats just the beginning.
For an overview of the History of Cape Town, and its diversity, as well as the South African nation please check out sahistory.org.za to learn more.
Cassondra Desiree Hanna 