It’s not often that I experience culture shock. Travelling to Ethiopia I had mentally prepared myself for the potential culture shock of the Africa nation least affected by colonialism. I was also concerned about potential civil unrest and over-planned to alleviate any concerns. I did this to the detriment of South Africa where we would travel next. South Africa was an after thought as it is the most developed, most western nation in Africa. I think we both felt the culture shock in South Africa.
We knew going in that South Africa, aside from being the most developed nation in Africa, it also had incredibly high rates of violent crime, and was only a few generations removed from apartheid —essentially it was living its antebellum period. The culture shock came when we arrived in a country that was almost American. Johannesburg did not seem at all European, there were no old colonial buildings like those scattered around Latin America or Asia, it was new and modern, the streets were wide, chain restaurants were everywhere, and the supermarkets were where people shopped. Seemingly nothing was left of the indigenous culture.
When gold and later diamonds were discovered, the Dutch and then the British wanted it and fought over it. Johannesburg itself is built over gold mines — not near gold mines, but there are literally gold mines in the city. Many of these mines and their tailings piles are being mined today illegally by immigrants and the poor. It is no longer economical for big mining companies to do this, but in the informal economy overhead costs are low.
As with most or all colonial endeavors, they are fueled by economics. Lands without natural resources and/or people that can be enslaved aren’t colonized. South Africa had both. The colonists stripped away all indigenous culture and replaced it with capitalism and capitalism is about all that exists today - in the large cities at least. Johannesburg is some weird combination of rights and wrongs like what you would get if someone tried to recreate the US without ever having been there. It is the bizarro US. It is a country that is a melting pot where things don’t really mix. By far the largest population is black. There are also significant populations of whites, and also some Indians and Asians. There are also colored which includes Indians, Asians, and any mix of races and is not considered to be derogatory, it’s just a necessary term in society that defines itself along racial lines.
The money is still mostly white, politicians are mostly black. That was the deal struck to end apartheid. Corruption maintains the status quo where the rich get richer and poor are kept in their place. Whites account for about 15% of the population and that’s declining, mostly due to emigration to the US and Europe. Blacks account for about 82% of the population and that’s increasing mostly through immigration from other African nations. The people we met which mostly included a collection of servants, tour guides, and Uber drivers were pleasant, upbeat and entrepreneurial. These people worked incredibly hard, looked to the government for nothing, and were largely trying to make a go of it on their own. I guess conservatives had it right all along — the people really just needed to be fucked into being entrepreneurs. A university professor told me that the university requires students spend 60 hours in community engagement — not community service. In community engagement students go out into the community and work with people in the community to complete a project. Life is so hard here and the unemployment rate so high, that students may take several years after graduation to establish themselves in careers that this is important for the community and the students to develop skills to build a society and to understand what they can contribute to the society. He believes that the community engagement is performing a role that the government should be providing, but is failing at.
As for immigrants, people from every African country as well as parts of Asia and India have made their way to South Africa. They have all set up their own communities with their own restaurants, they have no political power and thus their needs are largely ignored by the government. So, they too are entrepreneurs. We went on a food tour in Yeoville (pronounced Youville), an area that counts immigrants from 22 African nations among its residents. In order to go on the tour, it was necessary to hire a car and driver to drop us off and wait on us. It was possible to get Uber to take us there, but no driver would ever come and pick us up. The streets were alive, restaurants serving cuisine from all of these countries were represented, and a market that sold ingredients was also present. The streets were in bad shape and trash was everywhere. The government simply doesn’t care about a place where only 5% of the people can vote.
During the booming years when apartheid existed and the rest of the world didn’t know or didn’t care, the white middle class built beautiful neighborhoods in places like Johannesburg and Pretoria. The blacks were sequestered into squalor in places like Soweto (SOuthWEst TOwnships) and were allowed to come into Johannesburg to work for whites, but Johannesburg was essentially what we in America would be called a sundown town where blacks had to leave by a certain time. This made whites feel safe in their beautiful homes. Then the world began to notice the wrongs of apartheid and mostly shut South Africa out of the world financial markets and apartheid ended. Whites panicked. They were afraid that blacks, who greatly outnumbered them, would extract revenge because in the post-apartheid world, blacks could go wherever they wanted, whenever they wanted. So, the whites built fences and walls and gates around their beautiful homes (the guesthouse we are in now has a beautiful bay window on the front that looks out onto a carport and gate.) As blacks achieved middle class affluency, some moved into the houses surrounded by walls, so whites moved to the suburbs (does this sound familiar?). We asked a black tour guide why retribution never happened and he responded because Mandela said not to. Such power and wisdom, is it any wonder the man is revered?
I don’t want to give the impression that there aren’t reasons to visit South Africa or that it isn’t safe or that you will hate your time here, it is merely the weirdest fucking place I have ever visited. It’s tortured past figures into everything. There is a lot of violent crime, but that doesn’t make the entire country unsafe. It does mean that you need to take precautions. The people are incredibly friendly and the races do interact publicly at least. Once you get over the preconceived notions of all the things that you shouldn’t do it is pleasant and the climate is mild.
The most popular thing to do in South Africa is to go on a safari. This was not something that I was ever that interested in doing, so we booked the one that checked the box — the one, that when people asked if we went of a safari we could say yes and not have to explain why we didn’t go on a safari. Turns out, I liked the safari. From Johannesburg, a one day safari from Pilansburg National Park can be had. Longer (3 days or more) safaris to Kruger National Park are also possible. For Pilansburg, we left about 6a and returned at about 7p. It is 2-3 hours each way. When there, they load in an open air vehicle and drive you out into the park. We saw brown hyenas, white rhinos, elephants, jackals, cheetahs, zebras, impalas, wildebeests, giraffes, about everything but lions and hippos.
We also toured Johannesburg and Soweto and the Apartheid Museum on a one day tour and the aforementioned food tour of Yeoville. On our own we went to the neighborhoods of Melville, Maboneng, and Sandton. Melville and Maboneng are both middle class and bohemian to different degrees. Maboneng is known for its street art and is more vibrant. Melville is more affluent. Sandton is new and very wealthy. It is Africa’s Wall Street. We also spent some time in Pretoria where we met with some University people. Pretoria is the center of government and where the embassies are. It is wealthy and modern.
So, can you get a good meal in Johannesburg? Absolutely. They have Indian, Japanese. Chinese, Mexican, French, Portuguese and many more. If you are willing to go into sketchy neighborhoods where Uber may not pick you up, you can even find African restaurants. Just don’t go looking for South African cuisine — the colonists killed that off years ago. South Africa also has many nice strip centers and shopping malls with very nice food courts offering food from around the world just not from here.
A few miscellaneous notes: The electricity uses a 3-prong plug with all round plugs. My multi-country adapter did not include this one. Both of the places we stayed had an adapter to the 2-prong UK style. The country does take electronic payments and credit cards in most places. Smaller establishments and roadside stands probably won’t.