Are we there yet? Fractal Earthlings in the Post-Apartheid Cape Town
What is this text about?
I will start telling you what this text is not about: first of all, this text is not about finding answers, but making more questions. “More questions?” You will ask. Yes, more questions. This text is not a history of Cape Town or South Africa; I will leave that to the experts. This text is not a fictional depiction or a representation of Cape Town. I will also leave that to the experts. This text is a clumsy attempt to talk about encounters of different earthlings, myself included, in a quest for meaning making out of our fractality, our inherent incompleteness and immanence. It is about shaking all certainties and inviting you to the comfort of chaos. In this world full of monologues, I hope there will be someone to listen. Are you there?
Encounters and encountees: an inventory
I arrived in Cape Town in February 2016 with my wife for a new stage in our lives after having lived in Linköping, Sweden and then in Maputo, Mozambique. I had been admitted for a PhD at UCT in the project of Environmental Humanities South. My wife and I had been in Cape Town before on vacation. I remember when we got in Cape Town, on the first week of February 2016, one of the things that were very much mediated on the social media were the rapes occurring around Rhodes Memorial and the Rhodes Must Fall (RMF) movement which had already gained its momentum. I, being from Environmental Humanities South, got interested in understanding the Rhodes Must Fall movement, the wider racial politics and its interface with the landscape and nature, coming from Maputo where race is “hardly” a politicized issue. In Maputo most white people left after independence, Armando Guebuza, the then interior minister of Mozambique, gave the famous “24 hours to pack 20 kilos and leave” but in Cape Town and South Africa in general there was an attempt at reconciliation, a kind of Jomo Kenyattan, Harambee! But there were also many similarities; both cities had “white spaces and black and coloured spaces” – and resulting from this, both cities were built to be a white space – In Maputo we still call it Xilunguine – which means the place of the whites.
During my first week of classes at UCT, we had a seminar with Hedley Twidle; it was an opening seminar with students and staff from the programme. We were asked to bring an object which we should then talk about. I brought a burnt branch from a tree in front of the John Day building at UCT! RMF had burned a Mazda BT vehicle, as a protest against racial segregation at the University. It was intended to be a sort of recognition of the tree’s caused pain and suffering. We will come back to this later.
Fig. 1. Eulogy, the author (2016)
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Fig. 2. Flowers to the dead, author (2016)
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The journeys
When I first climbed Table Mountain in 2014 with my wife we had a terrific experience. We took approximately three to four hours to make a round trip. During our climb up we came across, Africans, Asians, Europeans, Americans, Australians and other earthlings going about meaning making their fractalities. Here the boundaries separating us were not as clear as when we arrived at our homes.
How far is it to the top? Are we there yet? Some people would ask us as we made our way down! /
Living in queer time-spaces
We usually tend to think of History as causal series of events connected to one and another which in turn lead to Nirvana. If progress bears such a big promise, then we must be so much enlightened by now. I ask myself how enlightened are the African elites of 21st century, after reading Frantz Fanon’s Wretched of Earth? How enlightened are the 21st century White supremacists after Nazism? Colonialism? How enlightened are the capitalists and moderns after wars, slavery, global warming?
Same talks, different times, peoples and natures
When I was searching for information to make my PhD research proposal, I came across a dialogue between White people about non-White people and Nature. They were doctors, some worked in South Africa, others had been banned from the country, and others were foreigners talking about Whites, non-Whites and Table Mountain. This conversation was happening in the form of correspondence in the British Journal of Medicine. In these conversations I could learn about cataracts, part-time medical officers, consultancy in Radiology, and other maladies like the “psychotherapy of the dying patient”; we most probably could use of this last one. But I was not interested in any of those. One topic caught my attention though. It mentioned Table Mountain. Yes, Nature had made it to a journal of medicine, a British one. It was not civilization penetrating Nature but other way round. After all the readings I had on Table Mountain I was asking myself what was it doing there? Reading the correspondence between the doctors I felt as if I was transposed to current conversations on social media about RMF and the whole racial segregation issue in South Africa, so I decided to “share a snapshot” of this conversation in a form of our contemporary way of correspondence, so you could read it yourself. The group chat involved Dr. W.P.U. Jackson, a British citizen who emigrated to South African, Joyce Leeson also a British citizen, D.S. Josephs, a British citizen, Allan O. Basson, a South African and Dr. Raymond Hoffenberg, a banned South African, who then moved to UK. This chat took place in the early 1970s, by then South African had already institutionalized apartheid, the Sharpeville Massacre had happened, Nelson Mandela had been sent to Robben Island. All the ingredients of apartheid were in place.
Conversation started 1 August
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W.P.U Jackson, Joyce, Leeson and 3 Others
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W.P.U Jackson
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01/08/1970
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Personal View
[…] Another topic which seems to crop frequently is that of emigration and brain drain. Why do people migrate and some stay migrated? I left Britain 21 years ago, my wife and were lucky to come to Cape Town and there is no other place we would like to live. I like my work: it is varied and interesting, my colleagues are pleasant, and the atmosphere of both university and hospital is congenial. There are drawbacks of course – where are not? Some of the recent one relate to suddenly finding oneself at” the most famous hospital in the world” as one visitor put it. I find it difficult to convince anyone that Groote Schuur Hospital was known to quite a few people before the first heart implant.
[…] why we stay emigrate? The other half is the environment. We live on the slope of one of the most fascinating and beautiful mountains, in the centre of one of the three richest floral areas in the world, with hundreds more a short drive away, and with a cold ocean a mile or two distant on one side a warm one on the other. We never freeze and we’re almost never too hot; the sun shines virtually every day for six months and quite often in the winter.
[…] A few nights ago we ate our dinner sitting on our stoep patio – as the sun set behind Table Mountain. A patient had just brought a sack of oysters straight from the rocks, so we started with these. Next came a nicely matured shoulder of springbok venison – given to us by a friend – which my wife cooked in red wine, and served with jelly made from our own guava cherries. Finally, we had local fresh peaches steeped all day in white wine. Gastronomically, where do you go from here?
[…] Some people may be deterred from coming – or staying here – by the political situation. I do not intend to enlarge on this, but will simply remark that we pride ourselves on belonging to an open university, that we stand for academic freedom, that that the medical school trains both white and non-white students, and that the hospital non-white patients. I will also say that some “important people” in Britain who dislike the present set-up in South Africa are behaving in the manner best calculated to retain and even to strengthen it, by persuading people not to visit or emigrate to South Africa, and not to play games or have any other dealings with us. On the other hand, the more interchange and intercourse between the two countries the more amenable the change are we bound to become. This inversion of intended effect reminds me of Rhodesia. Whom do you think is most hurt by sanctions? It’s certainly not Mr. Smith and his friends. […]
_______________ 1 August___________________________________
Joyce Leeson
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12/09/1970
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The Other Side of Table Mountain
[…] Your description of the idyllic life on the (white) side of Table Mountain, with its attached plea for emigration to, and co-operation with, South Africa, in order to make that country “more amenable to change” rang a little false to me.
I read it while a news bulletin reported the opening of the trial of Mrs. Winnie Mandela and 20 other South Africans accused of offenses which included studying Communism and disseminating the wave-lengths on which Radio Tanzania broadcasts. Most of them have already been tried and acquitted in February this year, only to be re-arrested as they left the court. Their real crime, of course is their inability to see that immigration of Professor Jackson 20 years ago, as a climax of a hundred years of bridge building, has actually solved any of the problems of their homeland. Perhaps recent reports from the Transkei missionary Dr. Guy Daynes that there has been a 600% increase in malnutrition in the past three years, and the estimate that one in five Transkeians suffers from tuberculosis weight more heavily with them than soft words, heart transplants, and talk of an “open university”. But then, they have always lived with the as-yet fairly silent majority of South Africans on the black side of Table Mountain – and perhaps Professor Jackson would not know about that.
On the subject of Brain-drains, it is no wonder that South Africa needs these not-so-subtle advertisements. Medical faculties all over the world are adorned by South African doctors who were forced, or who chose, to leave that delectable climate and its flora and fauna, for the sake of their principles. I am, etc.
__________________ 12 September___________________________
D.S. Josephs [endif]--
17/10/ 1970
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Other Side of Table Mountain
Like Dr. Joyce E. Leeson and I hope most other colleagues, I shall not accept Professor W.P.U Jackson’s invitation to join him in his gastronomic paradise.
I recently attended a lecture on protein-calorie malnutrition, illustrated by slides showing terrible conditions in the Cape Town shanty slums on the black side of Table Mountain. Here the infants suffer a Victorian mortality while the whites enjoy their oysters. This starvation causes the the admission and often death of many children at Professor Jackson’s own hospital.
Professor Jackson prides himself on “belonging to an open university…stand for academic freedom…trains both white and non-white students, and … treats white and non-white patients”. Does he deny these facts which I have obtained from a doctor with recent experience in South Africa?
The staff’s “stand” has not been conspicuous there having been no statement of opposition o Nationalist policies for almost three years. Protesting students who risk persecution by the secret police can expect little support from their teachers; Non-white medical students are admitted to Cape Town University only on the authority of a Government Minister in each individual case after they have qualified for entry by examination; Non-white students cannot examine white patients. They are barred even if the demonstration is post mortem; and Groote Schuur employs no non-white doctors. The reason given is that they might be placed in a position of authority over white nurses, and this, of course, just wouldn’t do! – I am, etc. /
Allan O. Basson
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31/10/1970
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The Other Side of Table Mountain
I remain puzzled by Dr. Joyce E. Leeson’s post in which she carefully chooses her facts to disparage the excellent Personal View of Professor W.P.U Jackson.
During the mid 1960s I spent five years in practice in a Transvaal Town not far from the then British Protectorate of Bechuanaland. It was by no means uncommon for or businessmen to send a truck through to bring back the sick and starving relatives of their Bechuanaland employers. A large proportion of my paediatric admissions were starving children brought from the Protectorate. Tuberculosis was rife. Many cases required more sophisticated treatment and thee in turn were sent through Pretoria. There was and still is no question that any treatment is denied any patient, or is unavailable to anyone. […] that there is great deal wrong in South Africa no once will deny, but cannot people like Dr. Leeson hear the glass shattering as they throw the stones. These imported cases received treatment ranging from food and water to cobalt -60 irradiations before returning to the care of the British.
Contrary to the impression created by Dr. Leeson, we have not felt the draught from a one-way traffic to Australia or Canada and the standard of medical care given to all races is as high as any I experienced during my 18 months’ postgraduate study in the United Kingdom. I think it bold indeed of any Briton to comment on brain drains. It is also pertinent that not everyone’s life is dictated by emigrating to a more favourable political clime. If this were so the world would be like a chess board.
That there is great deal wrong in South Africa no one will deny, but cannot people like Dr. Leeson hear the glass shattering as they throw the stones? – I am, etc.
____________________ 31 October__________________________
W.P.U Jackson
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07/11/1970
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Leaving aside Dr. Joyce E. Leeson’s rather unfair comment that “Professor Jackson would not know about that” – that being tuberculosis and malnutrition among the non-White population – I should like to ask her just one question. Does she think that doctors who leave South Africa “for the sake of their principles” do more good than those who stay and work among and for the non-White people to the best of their medical ability?
Perhaps some doctors who hold Dr. Leeson’s views should join the splendid man she mentions in her letter (Dr. Guy Daynes in the Transkei). – I am, etc.
_________________07 November_____________________________
Other Side of Table Mountain
As an ex-colleague I was not anxious to join the correspondence that followed Professor W.U.P. Jackson’s Personal View. […] I feel the issues have become confused and would like to make two points.
No one would deny the value of the work done by Professor Jackson in South Africa – this is not the issue, and those who sprang to his defense are merely camouflaging the facts. Many people here took exception to the fact that he chose to introduce a political “plug” into an otherwise entertainingly written article. If this was his “Personal View”, he must not object when others express their personal views.
I understand the resentment some South Africans feel when they encounter criticism from abroad especially with those who feel they are making a real, positive contribution by staying there to help alleviate non-White suffering. Their judgement of their ex-compatriots should be tempered by the realization that some of them left by force of government action, others because they could no longer continue without protest to provide patchwork medical care for diseases which should have been prevented. Malnutrition and infectious diseases like tuberculosis, tetanus, smallpox, and typhoid would largely be eliminated if true concern was shown by the government for the health of all its people. The fact that these diseases are so prevalent among non-Whites is a reflection of political and economic discrimination.
Those who remain in Southern Africa have this fact thrust in front of their eyes every day. If they cannot – or will not – protest from within, they must accept that others will make the truth known from without. – I am, etc.
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R. Hoffenberg
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12/12/1970
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_____________ 12 December_________________________________
Do you recognize this chat? I do. I have seen this chat over and over again in current discussions about RMF, racial segregation in South Africa on (social) media. This makes me wonder whether History is progressive or not. I ask you and the enlightened ones, are we there yet?
Rhodes fell!
I open a YouTube channel to watch the moment the Statue was removed. This is my contemporary way of being there. First of all, I see a huge number of people of different colors, rainbow is possible you would say; they chant; they scream; they take pictures; make movies as the roaring metal beast lifts the heavy and resisting statue. Everybody screams. Liminality is here. Who could have thought that Rhodes could unite?
But this is all strange to me. I was born and raised in the suburbs of Maputo city where there are no statues, but we have some of those in the city centrum; however, statues from Maputo are dead, stone, silent, no life. Should you be caught conferring with them, your judgment and sanity would quickly be put into question. But in Cape Town statues (at least some) can talk, live, interpolate or engage.
As I sit under the mild sun of April contemplating what used to be the Rhodes throne, I cannot stop to wonder about the complete silence and absence. Where are all those masses? Voices? Chanting? Rainbow? I try to track Rhodes gaze from his empty throne, I see a well prepared rugby field fenced by green trees, piercing the edges of the city and a blurred and dull image of mountains in the back surrounding the city. Why did they put him here? Was it like God who from time to time sat back and watched his creation? Himself?
Fig. 3 Empty throne and shadows the author (2016)
[endif]--The loud sounds and hundreds of bodies, today are just shapeless individuals, noise in the environment. Sounds of engines with TB, coughing carbon dioxide into the atmosphere, sounds of groups of students talking loud about their Easter vacation, companions, essays, work, family! There are also individual students walking to the soundtracks from their smartphones or thoughts. Rhodes throne is just like many other stones I used to see in Maputo, dead. All that is left is just a cast shadow from an alien sun to April. Some questions come to my mind: where did he go? What other souls, bodies and natures is he tormenting now and are they chanting Rhodes Must Fall as well? Who or what is he staring at now? Or maybe he has better imposed hosts than the Capetonians? Did he go to a non-place, a place where only shadows wonder around? A place of silence and invisibility? A place where modern waste is thrown?
Sitting here, I look at the empty throne and wonder who really moved? Was it the statue or the people? As far as Rhodes is concerned, he must have been very bored with a century of starring at the same landscapes, as they emerged following his footsteps. It seems to me as if we replaced noise with silence, shadows and absence! Not a silence of contemplation but a silence of avoidance. Let’s just be quiet and like cast shadows, who knows we will blend when the sun goes to sleep, tomorrow everything starts again! Is this all we are left with? Shadows and Silence of avoidance?
Casualties of our war
Fig. 4 The freak among peers, the author (2016)
[endif]--As I am standing in the front of the John Day building, I can hear the sounds of five fans rotating, they are at the service of enlightenment. Students walk past me and other “non-mobile” earthlings busy with their schedules and tasks. It is like being water in a river. We are just the margins. One specific earthling catches my eye. It is a survivor of our past and current battles! Like many other earthlings involved in these struggles it has a lot of scars: burnt skin, dark brown and grey leaves, exposed and dry branches, that look like hands raised to the sky praying to the gods: Apollo, Gaia, God, Ancestors, whoever is in power. It is a freak among its peers, what a freak! But it also has some green and yellowish leaves, maybe a token to remind it of what it used to be and what it would look like today. We all need something to hold on to, that thing that keeps us fractal half beasts half landscapes.
There is a breeze in the air, it is fresh and suave. On its passage it invites other earthlings to a dance. Yellow, brown, green leaves accept the invitation, it is a beautiful composition but then I look at this freak in front of me, standing there with apathy, sometimes with clumsy moves characteristic of freak shows. Boo, your freak! Who cares about what that freak used to be, could have been or what it is. It used to have a companion at least, the BT which also had TB but with good heart, indeed. They used to be companions in their inflicted suffering.
Resurgence and regeneration
I remember once I listened to a conversation between Haraway and Tsing. One thing Tsing said caught my attention; it was the idea of resurgence. In places where nature is destroyed it finds its way to grow again! I look at this burnt tree today and Rhodes’ empty throne. What is regeneration? What is resurgence? Will this tree be like it used to be? Will it change? To what extent? How will it look like? Are we there yet?
I learned that there is a commission at UCT which is going to be in charge of renaming the buildings at the university; I can’t help but wonder, if we aren’t there yet, is more waste coming? I guess the journey continues and I ask my companion earthlings, where to dispose of our modern waste?
Fig. 5 disposing of modern West/waste, the author (2016)
I wish it was that simple!
Bibliography
Wagner, Roy. 1992. The Fractal Person. In Godelier, Maurice & Strathern, Marylin (es). Big Men and Great Men: Personification of Power in Melanesia. 159-73. Cambridge
Barbier, Adrien & Maussion, Estelle. 2015. Mozambique, Angola mark 40 years of independence from Lisbon. Available at https://www.modernghana.com/news/625646/mozambique-angola-mark-40-years-of-independence-from-lisbon.html accessed April 7, 2015
South African History Online. Truth and Reconciliation Commission. Available at http://www.sahistory.org.za/topic/truth-and-reconciliation-commission-trc accessed April 7, 2016
Struggle for Independence/Jomo Kenyatta. Available at http://www.glpinc.org/Classroom%20Activities/Kenya%20Articles/Struggle%20for%20Independence.htm accessed April 7, 2014
Xilunguine: The Promised Land. Available at https://vimeo.com/56201525 accessed April 7, 2016
Fanon, Frantz. 1963. The Wretched of the Earth. Grove Press: New York
Jackson, W.P.U. 1970. Personal View. British Journal of Medicine. August 1 and November 7
Leeson, Joyce. 1970. The Other Side of Table Mountain. British Journal of Medicine. September 12
Josephs, D.S. 1970. The Other Side of Table Mountain. British Journal of Medicine. October 17
Basson, Allan O. 1970. The Other Side of Table Mountain. British Journal of Medicine. October 31
Hoffenberg, Raymond. 1970. The Other Side of Table Mountain. British Journal of Medicine. December 12
Rhodes Has Fallen – The Removal of the Statue of Cecil John Rhodes at UCT. Available https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9sjgixnXay0 accessed April 7, 2016
Ana Tsing & Donna Haraway: Tunnelling in the Chtulucene. Available at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FkZSh8Wb-t8&nohtml5=False accessed April 7, 2016
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