Excitement with South Africa

South Africa has been much in the news lately. With elections in India the much-awaited second season of the Indian Premier League in cricket seemed in jeopardy. But then the management dramatically changed location and South Africa played host to an Indian domestic tournament. [Surprise, surprise, last year’s winners, Rajasthan Royals couldn’t make it to the knockout stage. Instead, wooden spoon holders Deccan Chargers won the tournament!]

In Pittsburgh where we are now, people are intellectually inclined. Here authors, actors, musicians, and politicians present themselves to the populace and many turn up to hear them speak, as in Carnegie-Mellon hall or in Heinz hall.

Sometimes the entry is free. At other times people get in on their seasonal tickets or stand patiently in the queue to do so after the paid seats are taken.

Pittsburgh is said to be a small town. [Its zoo certainly is. We saw about six elephants there – compared with the sixty thousand that are found in the African game reserves.] Still, there are six universities that, we’re told, receive healthy funding from wealthy and powerful community groups.

We went to Carlow University to view a documentary on the South African judicial system. During Apartheid the regulation of laws was conducted entirely by white males. There were no women on the judiciary until perhaps the ‘nineties. The film-maker, Ruth Cowan, has travelled to that country to record change in the present social scenario.

The dismantling of the erstwhile regime gave hope to women, both black and white. They have struggled to establish themselves, and today there are many donning the robes of judicial magistrates. The women have had to battle to be heard. When we wear the robes, they say, there no longer is any question of differences of gender and race.

Despite the power and prestige of their positions, the women don’t forget their roots. They return to their villages and blend into the community just as before. In fact many help the local councils dispense justice. All this, they say, has been made possible with the new constitution written in the last decade that bases on the 7 pillars of equality, democracy, respect, responsibility, diversity and reconciliation.

We, along with all those who attended the screening including American women lawyers and judges were immensely impressed with the intensity and conviction of the women in the film.

The continent of Africa is very large, and its populated area exceeds that of USA. South Africa is one of its 35 countries, and economically it is pretty advanced. It is also perhaps the only country in the world that has two Nobelists who resided on the same street!

African leaders including Nelson Mandela were incarcerated on Robbens Island, where those afflicted with leprosy were also banished. But there they formed the “University” whereby on the principle of each one, teach one, literacy was carried forward.

The African Safari is perhaps the best in the world. It rests on the big five – lion, elephant, leopard, rhino and buffalo. The city is westernized, but in the villages, as in many parts of the world, people live in thatched mud huts. A bachelor has no perimeters. As he marries and forms a family, he constructs a wall around his home.

But is the same attitude is really seeping into the fabric of society at large? Cities are not safe from robberies and car-jacking. 25-30% of the adults are afflicted with AIDS/HIV.

Perhaps the impact of change on people in South Africa is like the changing economy of India. You know it is there because the western world has noticed and raved about it. But among the general population of the country, the same sense is yet to arrive.

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