Colonization
In trip planning, I consistently underestimated the vastness of Africa. Flying from Cape Town to Cairo equals the distance from New York to LA…and back. Kenya, South Africa, Namibia, and Egypt are the four countries we visited and even within this small subset the wide cultural differences match the immense geographical distance between. Not only that, the landscapes and languages, flora and fauna, culture and customs, resources and riches are immense in variety.
This is why Europeans have had their mitts on the expanse of Africa for over 400 years. In 1885, European nations even held the Berlin Conference to determine together (no African nations were invited) how they would divide up Africa, as if it was theirs to decide.
The residual effects of colonization are so obvious and in your face, it added such a strangeness to our travel experience. Like Africa, but off. German-named streets and towns (eg. Lüderitz or Von Bodenhausen Straße), plus signs for “famous appel streusel” in Namibia. Huh? In South Africa, the Afrikaans language is a close cousin to Dutch, and English is spoken widely in former British colony, Kenya.
Colonizers take over, steal what they find valuable, force their ways of doing, and build their new systems. After they get kicked out (like in Namibia) or are forced to reckon (like in South Africa), the colonizers then expect the native people from whom they’ve stolen land, language, and culture, to succeed. Not only to succeed, but achieve success by the colonizer’s definition and by using the cultural scraps left behind - cities, buildings, seaside forts, a fishing trade, signage, tarred roads, tilled up land, nonnative animals, a bastardized language.
Show up, steal it, muck it up, give it back unrecognizable, and expect native people to be thankful to have it returned, to forgive and move on.
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The second night of our camping trip we stayed at Draaihoek Farm Campsite just outside Vredendal, South Africa, owned by Deon and Nikki. The farm has been in Deon’s family for seven generations, since 1750. They used to only grow grapes (to sell to wineries) and raise sheep, but Deon has diversified. Now, they grow sweet potatoes, raisins, cauliflower, zucchini, and some table grapes. (Table grapes are delicate and require a covered growing space. Their skin is fragile and if punctured, by birds, or if burned in the sun, they are no longer sellable. Plus, they have to travel long distances to wherever they get sold.) Deon also sells vegetable seeds, tried growing rooibos tea (successfully, but was kept out of the market by the exclusivity of rooibos valley growers), and contracts with a local university to provide orange tree cuttings for study from their 100-year-old organic orange trees.
On average, they employ 70 people at a time, 25 on the core team and dozens of others as needed. Deon said the local (black) workers “are not loyal” and will leave for other work when it pops up. To me that sounds reasonable, not like a character flaw. There are no black landowners in the area because “they don’t want to work,” as the government gives them enough to live on. According to Deon, they have every opportunity to be successful, but don’t take it.
Of course it’s the same story as in the United States with Native Americans, the Maori in New Zealand, and the Aborigines in Australia. Maybe recovery from individual abuse follows the same steps as state-on-state abuse (read: colonization). But culturally speaking, like in South Africa, how can you recover when your abuser is still there, doesn’t really understand what they did, and doesn’t really want to change?
