Steven Otter - Khayelitsha uMlungu in a Township

In 1999, I had the distinct pleasure of visiting Capetown, South Africa for a five week stint.  From the safety of my classroom I enjoyed the beauty of the Table Mountain and the Harbour. Whilst there, I had the pleasure to visit various places such as V&A Waterfront, Jakkalsfontein, Saldanha, Cape of Good Hope, Cape Agulhas (where the Atlantic meets the Indian Ocean) and Khayelitsha. You must remember that this was just 5 years after historic 1994 elections that saw Nelson Mandela elected as the first black president in a 'free' South Africa. I must digress to add that I was the only other black student in my class and my visits to all these places including Khayelitsha was at the courtesy of my 'white' classmate Tim who was determined that I should have something positive to say about this great nation that had just escaped the claws of a political system that was so difficult to understand.

So when I saw this book in a bookstore thirteen years after my first visit I was evidently drawn to it.  Interestingly, on the flight from Jo'burg to Cape Town, I had sat next to the 'black' Bishop of South Africa and a 'coloured' South African now at Howard University and I took time to educate myself by discussing the continued disparities - 18 years after the fall of Apartheid - in this rich nation that reminds me, ever so often, of the mighty Tshaka Zulu.

Khayelitsha  is one of the fastest growing informal settlements in the Western Cape. It is hidden somewhere beyond the mountains where it does not 'disturb' the average visitor's view...almost as one would hide a step child.  Khaya - as it is known in short - is 99.5% black - mostly Xhosa - with the remainder of the populace being of mixed race. Now I cannot strictly tell how this came to be but there was a time when South Africa's political system was famously known for Apartheid - to be set apart - with very strict pass laws.  My 'coloured' classmate in 1999 had attempted to educate me on the 1950 race laws when people were confined to live in certain areas in accordance to their race.  He explained to me the challenge that arose when a 'coloured' child was born to a 'black' mother and 'white' father (or vice versa)...All the three had to be separated unless the child could be defined as either black or white.   Then there is the complex story of SKIN where a dark child was born to two white parents. Officials struggled to define whether this child was black, white or coloured for the purposes of where she would live & school.  There was strictly no mixing of races - and the church condoned it - but that is another topic altogether for another day.

This book is not about the sin called apartheid but the effects thereof that continue to plague an otherwise great nation.  It is the true story of Steve Otter, a white South African, who throws caution to the wind and against the advice of his kinsfolk, takes a conscious decision to live in Khayelitsha during his journalism internship.  It is an extremely interesting read because the book  - in a very unassuming and non judgemental way - educates the reader on life in Khayelitsha.  In reading the book one faces the issue of informal settlements.   I could not help but compare Khayelitsha to the Kibra Townships in Nairobi, Kenya of which a lot has been said and written. Googling Khayelitsha I got 237,000 hits as compared with 2,200,000 hits for Kibra.  The issues in the Brazilian Favelas, the Kenyan Slums, The Egyptian City of the Dead and South African Black Townships are similar.   Most of the people who stand, squat, sleep or hang around these areas pay rent and try their best to eke a living despite the extremely unfair situation that they find themselves in. The human being is resilient and those who are forced to live in these settlements make the best of their situation.  A few even thrive but this does not reduce the tragedy of that existence.  That one is forced to raise their children in such deplorable conditions - either by choice, circumstance or design - is a mockery of the vote that they carry in a democratic society and a waste of the tax they pay either directly or indirectly. 

Governments find it impossible to do anything to address urban poverty given the entrenched interests at play, interests more powerful than drug & sugar barons or other mafia.  The story of informal settlements is a complex one for which there is no easy solution.  Some settlements are better than others and Khayelitsha & Soweto cannot compare to Alexandra, Kibra & Korogocho.  The elite, rich & middle classes sleep easy and blame those who live in such abject poverty for their own plight.  They glorify, explain or ignore informal settlements without understanding the challenges of poor sanitation, lack of space, lack of basic amenities, poor security and the stigma of that post code.  These challenges are best explained by the summary on "A House For Mr Biswas" by VS Naipaul which ponders about the dishonour of one having to live and die as one had been born, unnecessary and unaccommodated.


The question I kept asking myself as I flew back home is whether I - an African - would have the courage to experiment living in the informal settlements of Kayelitsha, Alexandra, Soweto or even Kibra. As it is, a cursory visit to Korogocho, left me traumatised for weeks on end.  I also wondered what God - in his mercy - would do with the folks who write, justify and perpetuate unjust laws, aided and abetted by those who condone them.  Is there a mansion waiting in heaven or will we be forced - in the sweet by and by - to live in shacks?

Ishmael Beah - A Long Way Gone

Ishmael Beah tells of his story as a child soldier....His is a first hand account of a childhood lost due to the conflict in Sierra Leone. One cannot but be moved by a situation that one cannot wish upon the children of their worst enemy. It is a scenario that is difficult to comprehend unless one has walked the same paths that Ishmael trod.  Having finished the book, I came about the IsiXhosa saying "Vana Nabantwana" - translated to mean "The interest of the child is paramount".   It took me longer than usual to finish "A Long Way Gone": Not because the book was dull but because in between I took time to watch "Blood Diamond" in order to provide a back drop to the story. Ishmael's book is not a political book....It does not seek to provide a reason for the war (or explain why it was unnecessary) nor to glamorise it....It simply recalls the time when he lived with his family & friends, the period & experiences when he was conscripted to fight in a war for which he knew nothing about and the period after.

Many a time, I was drawn to the cover page that shows a sad child carry arms. Whilst reading the book, I googled Mikhail Timofeyevich Kalashnikov the maker of the AK47s. Although not a pacifist;  I cannot but be amazed by Mr Kalashnikov's comment as a visitor to Germany in 2002 that he got nervous when he saw Bin Laden with his AK-47.  If that was all he worried about, he has not seen children (he has four of his own) being kitted with AK47's and enjoined in wars that bring them only trauma and early death.

It is indeed poignant that I completed the book when BBC reported that polls had closed in Sierra Leone in its third general election since the 1991-2002 civil war, which killed more than 50,000 people.  This will always be a black spot on an otherwise peaceful nation....the Lioness Mountains..the land of the Temne, Mende & other indigenous peoples.  I have met many Sierra Leonean Folk and  befriended some of them. Although I can never bring myself to ask...I have nonetheless wondered what their own take is of the war and whether perhaps some of them benefited or lost from the conflict that ravaged the nation. What is their story?

Having watched "Blood Diamond", read Aminatta Forna's books and finishing Ishmael Beah's "A Long Way Gone", I am non the wiser about the Sierra Leone Conflict that has earned Charles Taylor a cell at the famous International Criminal Court.  I must digress to indicate that African Leaders have complained that the ICC seems to have been created only for Africans given that other perpetrators of injustices are tried at special tribunals set for them.  Be that as it may...upon reading "A Long Way Gone" one must wonder whether something is really the matter with us as a people or whether there are other powers that we can do nothing about at play.  Was the conflict simply about Diamonds that adorn many a celebrity? Was it about Corruption? Was it because the different peoples could not live together as a Nation? Was it because someone had to sell arms and thought nothing about the impact it would have on the country and the region? Maybe the underlying reason is not as important as the fact that many a child lost their childhood rather prematurely.

The book makes one wonder why child soldiers are recruited to resolve a conflict that they know nothing about and from which they benefit very little. The storyline made me ponder child issues more broadly to encompass other things that children must grapple with...child prostitution, child marriages, child headed households, child labour, child abuse, child health care rights (or lack thereof) and child welfare. Now, it is disingenuous for me to ponder these things as I recall my own childhood with nostalgia. Like many other childhoods - it was fraught  with 'challenges'  that shaped my future but in the night, I dream about the Doulous Ship that docked on the port of Mombasa where my mum took us to buy books; I recall the sibling rivalry; I remember the Grimm Fairy Tales; I ponder the trips upcountry to visit my grandparents; I thank God for three daily meals & tea with a feast at Christmas;  I reminisce with friends on FB about the boarding school where the worst was being tutored by a  faculty that had no idea that "all work and no play made jack a dull boy"...;When all is said and done, I think that to take away one's childhood is an unforgivable sin even for a loving God to forgive.

I am saddened that Ishmael lost a childhood.  (Even though he does not engage in a pity party). Whatever the reason or cause for the conflict, I would wager that this was an "adult only" affair and children should have been left out of it. Policy Makers should advocate that the "age of consent" should be defined and applied strictly to situations such as these with no exceptions.

Ishmael Beah is brave and he is lucky he made it.  I would never have had the courage to talk about these things. Perhaps in so doing he needed to exorcise the demons that plagued him and which still plague so many like him - children and adults.  Whether the "conflict" is, the Wars for Independence, the Indian Wars, The Civil War, the World Wars, the Vietnam War, The Afghanistan War or the Sierra Leone War...It does not matter the perpetrator or the reason behind the conflict...The impact on the survivors is the same.