South Africa is one fascinating and odd place. I never quite felt right there. The vibrations from apartheid are still there, even though there is much lip service paid to reconciliation and forgetting the past. Many people live in virtual prisons (the affluent) with electric fences, large concrete walls and bars on all windows and doors. It will be many years before the legacy of apartheid is diminished….though actual apartheid is over, economic apartheid is in effect. That said, there is some beautiful things happening in South Africa and I’d like to return if possible.
I went there in 2004 and 2005, at the same time I was visiting Zimbabwe. I came primarily to visit my partner Anu who was doing some MA research. Mostly stayed in Capetown, which is a great city with great mountains, music and penguins. Yes, there are penguins in Africa. Actually, South Africa is perhaps one of the most geographically diverse places on earth. With tropical aspects, rainforest areas, deserts, savannahs and all in between. I even got to visit the very bottom of the African continent….saw the “southernmost laundromat” and everything. Went back with my family in 2019 to revisit friends and it is from this trip that I have a few pics only.
It was in Capetown that I actually first learned to play the mbira from a wonderful human being named Dizu Plaatjies and also got exposed to the haunting and empowering music of the Xhosa people via one Madosini. Had some great times in South Africa, tasted some of the best dates ever, witnessed a sangoma initiation ceremony, got mugged by a baboon (for a bag of chips).
Good times.
Saturns and Sangomas (March 22, 2005)
I went there in 2004 and 2005, at the same time I was visiting Zimbabwe. I came primarily to visit my partner Anu who was doing some MA research. Mostly stayed in Capetown, which is a great city with great mountains, music and penguins. Yes, there are penguins in Africa. Actually, South Africa is perhaps one of the most geographically diverse places on earth. With tropical aspects, rainforest areas, deserts, savannahs and all in between. I even got to visit the very bottom of the African continent….saw the “southernmost laundromat” and everything. Went back with my family in 2019 to revisit friends and it is from this trip that I have a few pics only.
It was in Capetown that I actually first learned to play the mbira from a wonderful human being named Dizu Plaatjies and also got exposed to the haunting and empowering music of the Xhosa people via one Madosini. Had some great times in South Africa, tasted some of the best dates ever, witnessed a sangoma initiation ceremony, got mugged by a baboon (for a bag of chips).
Good times.
Saturns and Sangomas (March 22, 2005)