Diversity (Jaime Olsen)

Our first task in approaching
Another people
Another culture
Another religion
Is to take off our shoes
For the place we are approaching
Is holy.

Else we may find ourselves
Treading on another’s dreams.
-Unknown

Since my arrival in South Africa just over three months ago, I have had the wonderful opportunity to visit five out of the nine provinces (Gauteng, KwaZulu-Natal, Mpumalanga, Limpopo and the Free State) and another country, the small mountainous kingdom of Lesotho. Each province is vastly diverse in both physical geography and culture. Traveling so much has also given me the opportunity to hear many of South Africa’s eleven official languages, to learn about the different cultures present within the country, and to come to the realization that South Africa just might be the most diverse country that I have ever visited.

Part of my work with ELCSA Development Service consists of helping to plan and to put on Cultural Diversity Education workshops. The goal of the project is to build peaceful communities by bringing together native South Africans and immigrants who inhabit the same community. In the beginning of November, ELCSA Development Service held a Peace Monitor Training workshop in the Mpumalanga province, where we focused on how to understand conflict and how to prevent conflict between different groups of people. At the end of the three day workshop, we had successfully trained twenty-five individuals to be Peace Monitors – members of the community who will pay special attention to the potential for conflict between groups and help to alleviate tensions before violence occurs.

What I have found thought-provoking about the Cultural Diversity Education project is the difficulty of explaining the meaning of “cultural diversity” to individuals who are a part of one of the most diverse countries in the world. It is not only difficult to explain what diversity is, but it is also difficult to explain why diversity is important and why diversity should be embraced and accepted. I have realized that for many individuals, saying “I accept diversity” and actually carrying out that idea in practice oftentimes do not coincide. In a country such as South Africa, with its history of past apartheid and with a constitution so focused on human rights, I arrived with the expectation that the Rainbow Nation had moved on from discrimination based on race and ethnicity. I envisioned a country where (so-called) Coloureds, Blacks, Whites, Indians, and immigrant populations lived peacefully integrated together – no longer having to struggle against the walls created by apartheid laws and regulations.

However, I have realized that my expectation of South African peace and unity was too idealistic; many of the apartheid sentiments and divisions are still visible and still felt today. Black townships still exist and areas of primarily one racial color still exist – both are long-term results of the apartheid government’s Group Areas Act of 1950, which divided the country into residential “areas” based on race. And of course, some of the apartheid sentiments still exist. Reflecting on the history of apartheid in South Africa and acknowledging that the system of apartheid only came to an end with the election of Nelson Mandela in 1994, leads me to the conclusion that South Africa is very similar to the United States in terms of diversity and racism. If one thinks about how long it took for slavery to be abolished in the United States and how long after the abolition of slavery it took for civil rights to be equal for blacks and whites, it is easy to understand how a post-apartheid society is still struggling and trying to find the meaning of a diverse, equal, and peaceful society only seventeen years later.

Last week, all twelve of us North American volunteers got together for our first retreat in Pietermaritzburg, both to take a step back from our placement sites and our volunteer work, and to celebrate Thanksgiving (we added quite a bit of our American culture to South Africa on Thanksgiving Day by cooking our favorite Thanksgiving foods and watching American football!) One of the reoccurring topics of conversation was the issue of racism and cultural diversity, which many of us continue to encounter in our day-to-day lives; the most discussed point was how we as “outsiders” in South Africa should respond to what we perceive to be racist comments, jokes, and stories. Do we make it a point of saying to someone, “That’s a racist comment – you shouldn’t say things like that.” When we hear negative comments about White people, do we draw a distinction between ourselves as white Americans and those who are white South African? Do we simply keep quiet and keep our frustration to ourselves? Or do we ask questions and try to understand the roots of the comment?

The quote at the beginning of this reflection encompasses my “solution” to the problem of how to respond to racism encountered in my daily life. While it is important to realize that I am indeed an outsider and a North American temporarily living in South Africa, and that I obviously cannot fix the problem of racism, it is also important to realize that if I take off my shoes and take a step back (so as not to tread on anyone’s culture or religion), I am still able to ask questions and to make thought-provoking comments in response to a co-worker’s or a host family member’s racist comment or joke. As important as it is to be careful about what I say and how I say it, and to avoid pushing my views on others, part of why I am here in South Africa is to learn and to discover the “why” behind many of my questions. Rather than simply “letting it go,” it is helpful to ask why someone dislikes another race and to understand what has led a certain individual to feel prejudice against another ethnic group. By understanding South Africa’s history of diversity and racial tensions, and by attempting to understand the “why” behind racist comments, I am slowly becoming better able to understand the current diversity of this country and to understand why such diversity continues to lead to racism and discrimination.

Jaime Olsen is an ELCA-MUD participant-learner in Bonaero Park, located in the Gauteng Province of South Africa.