South Africa: Complex evermore

I really wish I had written more during my time in South Africa. There's a reason so many amazing novels come out of that country - South Africa represents the frontline of humanity. It grapples with all the uncomfortable issues that the rest of us squirm to avoid: Race; class; poverty; violence; religion; language; identity; all are write large across its much traumatised landscape. It is quite simply like nowhere else on the planet.

A NY Times article - HERE - catches a glimpse of South Africa's social complexity. It looks at how Afrikaaners are dealing with their dual history of victimhood and victimisation, and the reaction of other ethnic groups to their expression of cultural pride. People need identity, and history - and its bloody hard to be weighed down by histories mistakes. I met plenty of young Afrikaaners who were so proud of their new nation, proud of their heritage and language, but well aware of how history and the world stereotypes them. I also met a fair few unreconstructed isolationists (like the Orania types in this article). Alistair Sparks (I think) noted that the ANC are fonder of the Afrikaaners than they are of British South Africans - In their view the white english-speaking liberals were all talk and no action during apartheid, and dual-passport holders. The Afrikaaners at least were committed to the land, perhaps a little too ruthlessly. That the ANC and the National Party have since merged is testament to this - strange bedfellows in a strange bed. Anyway, have a read before it disappears into the NY times vault.