Quick Facts: Cape Town

Cape Town is a Cosmopolitan city featuring wi-fi cafes, museums, restaurants, shopping centers and open markets in a multicultural atmosphere. Its beautiful mountains, beaches, and golf courses however, contrast starkly with the poverty stricken townships that are still home to millions of “non-white” South Africans.

The townships remain as remnants of apartheid-era policy, which relocated entire communities based on race. These racial divides still exist today as economic redistribution has not happened overnight. The result is separated communities with a wide gap in access to health care and education.

Our objective during the trip is to introduce students to both of these worlds and to encourage understanding about how they affect one another, to see what steps are being taken to improve the well-being of children and their communities, to interact with these communities, and to reflect on what they have learned about children and families at the University of Illinois and what they have experienced in South Africa.

Jan Brooks, 2009

Course Readings

There are four books we are required to read this semester:

• Long Walk to Freedom by Nelson Mandela
• Cry, The Beloved Country by Alan Paton
• Mother to Mother by Sindiwe Magona
• The House on Tyne Street, Childhood Memories of District Six by Linda Fortune

Each week we write a response to the assigned readings. Our readings typically consist of an assigned book and a short list of articles we can find online. The following is my response to Magona's novel and I hope it encourages all of our blog readers to learn more about South Africa!

In Sindiwe Magona’s Mother to Mother, Magona details the murder of Amy Biehl and illuminates the all too common effects of the South African Apartheid. Magona’s goal is not to justify the murder of Biehl, but to explain how Biehl was a consequence of the inequalities and prejudices that the South African Apartheid created. Biehl’s murder is another example all of us can use to examine the social and racial relations between whites and blacks in South Africa. Her murder can also be considered a historical legacy of South Africa’s past. This novel definitely influenced the way I understand South Africa’s history and has broadened my views on life in general. I think that most of us are too quick to judge acts of violence because attempting to understand the specific reasons behind each act can be very difficult. I feel that Magona’s novel is very special because I was able to not only see her message in a South African perspective, but I can also place her message in an American perspective and see how murders like Biehl’s are a common part of urban America. Magona’s novel opened my eyes and showed me that there is more to be seen than just violence—there will always be the events, people, and social/racial issues that lead up to such horrible occurrences.

Like Magona, Biehl's parents also believe that their daughter's murder was a consequence of the apartheid. As a result, they started a foundation in Amy's name: http://www.amybiehl.org/

This website is a great place to visit and you can really see the importance of grassroots organizations in South Africa.