Shades of The Rainbow Nation

In Archbishop Desmond Tutu’s book God Has a Dream he referrers to the people of South Africa as, “the rainbow people of God” and reminds us that “In God’s family there are no outsiders. All are insiders. Black and white, rich and poor, gay and straight, Jew and Arab, Palestinian and Israeli, Roman Catholic and Protestant, Serb and Albanian, Hutu and Tutsi, Muslim and Christian, Buddhist and Hindu, Pakistani and Indian-all belong.”

My first month of walking in the shades of this rainbow of people has been one that has awaked my many senses. This awakening is not some romantic or magical journey into the heart of Africa, instead it is the sobering realization that the next 10 months will forever change me. At first this concept is an uncomfortable one, even scary at times. And yet it is liberating, a real sense of mental and spiritual freedom enters within. I only hope that by the Grace of God I am able to adequately absorb the things I experience and the people I meet during this process, so that I can best reflect upon them.

I came to South Africa with many preconceptions, some founded in the books I’ve read, others in statistics I’ve seen or news reports I’ve heard. These staggering bullet points of South Africa include:

-One of the highest crime rates in the world

-The world’s highest population of HIV infected people

-Government corruption

-Staunch racism

-The economic juggernaut of Africa

-One of the most progressive constitutions in the world

-Home to the Truth and Reconciliation Commission that

emphasized forgiveness over retribution

These fall under what I consider to be “the world’s view of South Africa” which, though true on many levels, don’t begin to explain this county’s true colors. After living here for only a month I don’t claim to be an expert, but everyday I feel I gain a better understanding of life here and the spirit of it’s people. I love Tutu’s description, not because it is some warm and fuzzy idea of South Africa’s people, but because it expresses the beauty of diversity as well as the reality of it. I am living in the village of Umphumulo, about 70 kilometers north of Durban. The setting is fairly rural, and I am quite literally the only white person for miles. The vast majority living in this area are black with small pockets of Indian populations. The town of Stanger (or known by its Zulu name, KwaDukuza) is about 40 kilometers away and is home to significant populations of both blacks and Indians. Move closer to Durban and the diversity continues to increase. These waves of cultures and people from all walks of life converge in a country that only 15 years ago was bound by the shackles of Apartheid. A system which destroyed the lives of everyone living under it, black, white, coloured (a term used to describe people of mixed race), and Indian, all became victims on some level. Even though the shackles were broken and justice prevailed the poisonous residue of Apartheid remains and continues to haunt the daily lives of its people. It is not racism the way we as Americans might see it, instead it is the idea of racism drenched in the fear of the unknown. It’s a difficult thing to explain. For so long each race, each color of the rainbow, was forced to live separately, forced to learn and internalize their existence in the context of only their own community, nothing else. Ignorance continually spread like wildfire and fear was the fuel that kept the blaze burning. For blacks it meant the lowest standards of education, and those who were educated, were taught that they were an inferior race to all, as a factual declaration. The white minority controlled the land, the government, and the economy. Coloureds and Indians found themselves somewhere in between, but were also severely oppressed during this time.

Since 1994’s first free and fair democratic elections South Africa’s black population has gained tremendous ground in government positions, including all three presidencies. Though they have made many gains in the realm of the government, whites still own roughly 80% of the land and continue to drive the engine for most of the economy. Many coloured and Indian people continue to feel stuck somewhere in the middle. It is a difficult position for all South Africans to be in, freedom has indeed arrived, but equality will take some time. When one really thinks about it, true equality has yet to arrive anywhere on earth. We may be quick to judge others because of what we perceive as unjust actions. Yet we as Americans live in a society where women, as a whole, still earn less for doing the same job as men, where minorities still encounter barriers in the work place just because of the color of their skin, and where gays and lesbians still have yet to possess equal partnership rights. Yes, South Africa still has a long road ahead to realize true equality for all, but so does the rest of the world.

Archbishop Tutu also points out that, “What does the color of one’s skin tell us that is of any significance about a person? Nothing, of course, absolutely nothing. It does not say whether the person is warmhearted or kind, clever and witty, or whether the person is good. But this irrelevance, like all other prejudices in the world, has caused great suffering…The endless divisions that we create between us and that we live and die for-whether they are our religions, our ethnic groups, our nationalities-are so totally irrelevant to God.”

The people of Umphumulo have opened their arms and welcomed me into their homes. I may be the only white person for miles but when I’m praying during morning chapel, or helping to peel vegetables with the cooks in the center’s kitchen, or kicking around a ball with children from the village, I am no longer white and they are no longer black, we are just shades of the rainbow.