Day in the Life, Sept 2007

“The human race is said to be superior in logic,
But I see birds that fly free at night
And wish I shared their knowledge.”

-Melodic Scribes “Society”

(Big ups to UC HipHop, woop! woop!)

Greetings!

I know I just wrote a pretty long post…but Day in the Life just happened and as I’m going away next week for a week or so, well, I thought I’d get another post out now. I’m going to Mozambique and don’t anticipate seeing an internet café too often…and if I do see one I’m not going to spend a few hours composing a post. The shining sun, beach, and Raoni (if he’s any kind of friend) will perhaps pull me in the opposite direction.

So…please enjoy my day (as boring as it might have been) for September 15th, 2007 at:

http://picasaweb.google.com/lynseemelchi

As you can see it was a day of errands and studying. I feel like I’m always studying on a Day in the Life…which probably isn’t that accurate of an interpretation of what I’m doing here all the time. I mean I study and stuff, but many of my days are more interesting than just studying…promise! I’m sorry I forgot to announce to all you wonderful people that Day in the Life was coming up. It keeps on sneaking up on me such that I forget it’s time again and don’t have time to warn you all so you can participate too. Can you believe this is my 8th Day in the Life since arriving in SA? Whoa. I’ve been here 9 months…babies have been conceived and born in the time I have been here!

*Warning* I’m going to use some phrases I really hate a lot in the next few paragraphs. Phrases like: “3rd world,” “advanced,” “primitive,” “real Africa,” etc. I’m just too lazy to break free from the status quo terminology. Please consider that these are loaded terms that should be thought about a bit more carefully.

I’m going to Mozambique (a country bordering SA on the NE) at the end of the week. We have a week long school holiday coming up and Raoni is in Mozambique so the 2 added together definitely merit a trip to Mozambique! I think I’m going to skip some school to spend part of the next week in Moz too…so I should be gone about a week and ½. Getting a visa this week, got my malaria pills, and a bus ticket in my hand…it’s almost a done deal!!

I’m looking forward to jumping into “real Africa.” If that statement puzzles you, let me elaborate. South Africa isn’t exactly considered “real Africa,” although South Africans will jump to quote the movie “Blood Diamond” (“T.I.A…This Is Africa”) in order to describe the situation on the ground in SA. If you say so Claude. SA is way more westernized/industrialized than you might think. It’s probably the most “advanced” country in all of Africa, although not all the people in this country enjoy the benefits of such a broad statement. Yeah, some people here live in huts or shacks, some people don’t have running water or other basic utilities, some people are starving, many people are unemployed, you can find at least one article a week (maybe even 1/day) in the paper talking about witchcraft (called ‘muti’). On the flip though, I often think as I drive around Pretoria that I left the land of the malls (USA) to come to the land of the malls (SA). Not what you expected, huh?

As far as I can tell from my travels, there’s a range when it comes to how different a country is to the United States. It mostly has to do w/westernization and industrialization and all the shades of gray that come along with these terms. At the one end you have your super westernized areas: USA, Western Europe, Australia, Canada, Japan, New Zealand. In the middle you have places like South Africa (Brazil, maybe even places like Iran…haven’t been to Iran, so I don’t know). At the other end you have countries you probably picture when you think of “3rd world.” This last category includes most of the countries of the world. One thing you don’t usually think about when you think of the “3rd world” is that those places are not exempt from a western influence. No place is, really. The West is THAT good and spreading its tentacles! You can probably buy a Coke in every country in the world without having to look too hard. Baywatch and Opera can probably be viewed on most TVs around the world.

For me, the one thing that really typifies a country in this last category is the contrasts between the rich and poor. Often times there is a very very very very miniscule portion of the population that is living ultra wealthy (driving nice cars, sending their kids to schools in the West, watching cable TV) with most of the rest of the people just trying to get by, and possibly some middle class in between. These are the places with farm animals cruising around freely, bad roads, and generally situations that just don’t seem to follow a stream of logic Westerners are accustomed to. Although these places can be frustrating and insane at times, they are often the most rad places to go, provided you bring an open mind and chill out when dealing with situations. Why? Man, it could take me 10 pages to explain…it’s just something you have to experience for yourself. And it’s probably different for each individual. Usually things are way more laid back, simple, less pretentious, and for Americans…cheap. Best of all, these places are different…really different. But of course, not lacking in a common human element. We all share things that can’t be changed by country, region, language. You know that kids’ book “Everybody Poops”? Well that’s what I’m getting at. Sometimes these places are more “dangerous,” sometimes they are supposed to be dangerous and aren’t, sometimes they are peaceful. Like I said in my last post…don’t believe the hype!!!

So, Mozambique is supposed to be one of these places at the opposite end of the spectrum from the Western world. When you talk to people here about Moz there are usually 2 responses: the person explains some crazy situation they encountered, the person describes a place of mystical beauty/serenity. I’m sure both are true. It sounds great to me :)

I think I’ll stop here cos I’m sure I’ll have tons and tons to say when I get back!

I also thought this was a good time to drop some text on you that I encountered in Grahamstown at the International Library of African Music. It seems rather appropriate in the context of what I’ve been talking about so far. This is the Editor’s preface from a book called “The Native Races of the British Empire: British Central Africa.” The preface was written by Northcote W. Thomas, London, November 22, 1906.

“Interest in the subject races of the British Empire should be especially keen in the Mother Country, where there are few families but send into our dependencies some member, be it as Government official, soldier, or colonist. Anthropological text-books are at once too technical and too bulky to attract the ordinary reader, who wishes for no more than a sketch of habits and customs, accurate but readable, in which matter too abstruse, or otherwise unsuitable for general consumption, is omitted. The present series is intended to supply in handy and readable form the needs of those who wish to learn something of the life of the uncivilised races of our Empire; it will serve the purpose equally of those who remain at home and of those who fare forth into the world and come into personal contact with peoples in the lower stages of culture.

Unless otherwise stated the contributors to the series will be anthropologists who have personal knowledge of the tribes whom they write; references to authorities will be dispensed with, as unnecessary for the general reader; but for those who desire to follow up the subject a bibliography will be found at the end of each volume.

The present series may perhaps do more than merely spread a knowledge of the dark-skinned races beneath the British flag. Germany awoke years ago to the importance of the study of native races from a political and commercial, no less than from a scientific point of view. In twenty-five years the Berlin Museum has accumulated ethnographical collections more than ten times as large as those of the British Museum, and the work of collection goes on incessantly. England, with the greatest colonial empire which the world has ever seen, lags far behind. Money will perhaps be forthcoming in England for work in anthropology when savage life and savage culture has disappeared for ever from the earth before the onward march of so-called civilisation. If, one hundred years hence, English anthropologists have to go to Germany to study the remains of those who were once our subject races, we shall owe this humiliation to the supineness of England at the end of the nineteenth and beginning of the twentieth century. The past, once lost, can never be recovered; a living memorial of the past, and if England does her duty, she will lose no time in organising an Imperial Bureau of Ethnology, and thus enable English anthropologists to hold up their heads before their more fortunate German and American brethren.”

Whoa. A lot of things came to my mind as I read this text (they probably entered through the hole caused by my jaw falling to the floor), and I was so struck by the insanity of the words that I took it upon myself to photocopy this section of the book for future use.

I think we all know (I hope) that the point of view and terms in this passage are out-dated, downright racist, penned with a despicable air of superiority, and generally bogus. I hope I don’t have to go into a long-winded rant about this point. So I won’t. It’s not shocking that something like this was ever written about other human beings. I bet you can find equally horrific texts in the USA about black people, in SA about the “native races,” and I’m sure in just about any corner of the world where one group thought they were better than another. Some group in some place in the world has always found reason to elevate their group above another, often with “scientific” proof and other sketchy evidence at their disposal. Above all I think it’s most interesting that, at the time this was written, the people reading it were probably not offended at the terminology used. Shoot, people reading it were probably nodding their head in agreement with the thought process of the editor. It made me think of all the loaded terms that we undoubtedly use these days, and don’t think twice about, in the way we address other groups of people in relation to whatever group we belong to. And how we probably nod our heads along in agreement when absorbing these terms. A great example would have to be some of the forwards I get from people at home about immigration issues, American patriotism, Muslim people/Islam, etc. I am shocked, offended, and disappointed by the blatently racist language/ignorant thought processes in a lot of these forwards and the fact that people don’t even think critically as they send the words off thru the electronic ether to their email contacts. I just don’t like when simplistic arguments are applied to extremely complicated situations. It just doesn’t work for me.

I feel like I have a lot more to say about this, but it’s 4AM and if I get started now I’ll never stop and never go to bed. So in conclusion (regarding this text) I’ll leave you with:

1. Don’t believe the hype
2. Think about what loaded terms you use in your own life to describe others
3. Everybody poops

Talk to ya when I get back from Mozambique

Love and all that gushy stuff
Lynsee