South Africa

If’s a busy news cycle right now in Southern Africa. here are a number of stories that caught my eye in today’s chock-full Mail & Guardian and elsewhere:

As the thirteith anniversary of the murder of Steven Bantu Biko at the hands of the security forces approaches different South Africans remember Biko’s life and death differently.

the Zimbabwe crisis continues unabated. The economic calamity has opened the door for corruption. Some maintain hopes  that South African-brokered talked will lead to a resolution of the political elements of the country’s conflicts, but it seems that  this may not be the time for whistling past the graveyard.

Meanwhile, transformation isn’t always easy. Members of the Democratic Alliance (DA) are up in arms over the Tshwane metropolitan council’s reported ban on white businesses. If the allegations are accurate, the DA would certainly seem to have a case that they will bring before the Constitutional Court. Meanwhile in a  pronouncement that is likely to be equally tendentious, the Black Management Forum  (BMF)  has argued that white women should be removed from the list of groups previously disadvantaged ”in terms of . . . employment equity legislation.” It is a bit hard for white women who benefitted in every imaginable way from apartheid suddenly stepping forward to claim their lots alongside the black South Africans on whose backs the Apartheid system built white privilege.

Finally, the M&G’s longtime rugby columnist Andrew Capostagno has a nifty piece on how this Rugby World Cup represents a “big chance” for the Springboks. He concludes his historically astute article by arguing that if the Boks achieve their considerable promise and “Win this one” South Africans “can forget, for a long, glorious moment, about politics.”

Well, that probably seals the pending victory. Nelson Mandela stopped in France to wish the Springboks well on the eve of the opening of the Rugby World Cup. Mandela’s embrace of the Springboks, historically the embodiment of Afrikaner Nationalism, proved one of the feel-good stories of transformation and reconciliation in 1995.

Now the great man has spread his pixie dust over the 2007 version of Amobokoboko. How can they lose? 

Thuli Manunga, a ten year old who speaks Xhosa at home but is fluent in three languages has become the first black junior pupil to win the prestigious national Afrikanse Taal en Kultuur Vereeneging speaking competition.

The South African wine industry is burgeoning and has been for several years. Wine exported from the fertile terroir of the lush Western Cape vinyards can be found in any city in the United States, and indeed, even in smaller communities the occasional gem can be found with “Product of South Africa” stamped on the side. I am something of a reverse wine snob inasmuch as if i can find it, I prefer South African wines, and then will choose wines from the Southern hemisphere over those from more highly regarded wine strongholds such as France, Italy, or California.

That said, my esoteric wine tastes do not come without at least a little bit of concern. Wine is, virtually by definition, a stronghold of privilege. In South Africa the meanings of this privilege are reenforced ny the privilege of race — wine is in South Africa an endeavor nor only of privilege, but of white privilege, with all of the ramifications that implies.

 But as in many areas dominated by white South Africans blacks are beginning to make inroads. The process has been slow, but both the industry and the government have worked to encourage black involvement in all aspects of winemaking. Today’s LA Times has an article about Ntsiki Biyela, a Zulu woman who has cracked open doors for so long closed to her. Biyela has had to overcome skepticism not only within her new world, but also at home among family and friends to whom winemaking is alien and at times alienating.

Transformation is going to take a long time in South Africa. But it is encouraging to see that even the most privileged bastions are opening their doors, however slowly.