Assignement 5 – Take Away

The main thing I will be bringing back with me from South Africa is knowing the exact size and how far divide between people can be in our world in the present time.

That was what I was looking forward to appreciate when I got selected to come and South Africa was everything that I hoped it would be and more in this regard.
The experience was intense, profound and a lot more challenging and tiring that I thought it would be.

Since the beginning of this trip it was clear that South Africa has the exact same type of society than the French Caribbean (where I come from originally). Please note that this view is the one of a French citizen of dark skin complexion. Situations remain the same from wherever ones looks at it but where one stands determines how everything is going to be lived.

Everything is very similar even the scenery but it is on a totally different scale: A LOT BIGGER.

The mountains are bigger, the economy is bigger, the population is bigger and the social dynamic is bigger.

South Africa is peaceful and so is the Caribbean and relation between what is still called races is on a passive-aggressive model that does not irrupt in violence in both places. However it is clear that the problems are deeper and more serious in South Africa. I find myself being feeling this intimidation in front of certain white people. An irrational feeling made of respect and fear that is still in me from my childhood the Caribbean that I seldom experience anymore over there and never in Canada. In South Africa it came back with a vengeance even after all these years (I have been living in Canada for 8 years) and the fact that I am well into my twenties now.
This will probably never leave me and now I am sure I know the limits of the reality at the origin of this complex and for that I’m eternally thankful to South Africa and its people.
It was always been that “if I can handle South Africa I can handle anything regarding race related social divide”.

Of course there are other things that I have learnt here. They are mainly work and language related ironically. Studying at York for 2 years really has helped raising my English-level however working is a whole different setting. At work there are co-workers that one need to greet and acknowledge, supervisors that give assignments and projects and to whom there are reports to be submitted. In a word there is a lot more communication involved that at university at undergraduate level.

So my english have been improved as well as my relationships with people in general. It is not very related to South Africa in particular and could have been done in any other place in the world but it is true.

This is the last post as far as blog assignments are concerned but stay tuned as I’ll finally publish this paper on race relation before the end of this month!

Thanks for reading