home and ends...
i've made it home. the last weeks have been a little crazy and exhausting so i haven't posted. hopefully this will begin to make up for it.
so first, the march 2 wks ago monday: about 2000 members of Abahlali baseMjondolo marched down West St to Durban's city hall, to hand a memorandum of demands for housing and other desperately needed services to a rep from the city govt:
The guy who collected the demands, when briefly given the mic, said something about how everyone would have a house in six years time. He was promptly booed off.
It was a sweet victory for Abahlali just to rally at all, given the police and city manager's desire to keep them from leaving their settlements... the police were at foreman and kennedy rds before dawn, with helicopters overhead. by 6 when people were gathering to get on the buses, police led by a notoriously racist commander stormed into the crowd at foreman rd and told people to disperse and go home. when residents tried to tell him they were at their houses, he responded with orders to grab some of the young leaders from inside of their homes. 3 young guys were arrested, one of them an innocent bystander, and M'du, probably a known organizer, was picked up by the police on the street waiting for a bus to take him to work.
for me it was a long and exhausting day, but for most of Abahlali members, like the hundreds stuck at Jadhu Place [many there were from other settlements] without food or water when the buses they were riding were turned away from downtown by the police, had taken the day off work. so, as Sibanga told me, they had no other plans. They would wait until they were allowed to go back to the city center.
The high court ruled that the city had no right to block the march. so instead of 10 a m, around 3 Abahlali kicked off with an hour window allotted to get to city hall.
election day, i went to foreman road, to talk to mnikelo and lungi and jama, who were having a quiet day at the settlement and planning an evening celebration braai {barbeque}. there were 2 huge police trucks parked at the entrance to foreman from clare road, and other police drove by, but outside of an entourage when the councilor arrived early in the morning to transport the few voters who wanted to go to the polls, the police weren't causing any trouble.
after getting a ride with jama and george and lungi to SPAR grocery to get some specially-cured meat that George ordered, they dropped me at one of the nearby polling stations, where i ran into Zelda Norris, an organizer at the Sydenham Council Flats, allies of Abahlali, historically a place where "coloured" families were sent to live when the apartheid govt separated families into communities based on race. it's still largely a coloured community, though this polling place at a community center she was observing at had quite a mix of folks in line--Indians being shuttled in via ANC escort vans [usually mostly empty], whites driving into the parking lot in fancy cars, blacks on foot, with kids playing makeshift football on the huge lawn behind the building.
Zelda told me that Baig seemed "up to his old tricks"--she had been stationed at another poll as an election judge, but before she arrived the ANC judges had sealed the ballot box without any other witnesses. He's apparently known for his dirty politics--last election cycle the results were thrown out because he had been bribing people to vote. Zelda said she also witnessed instances of coaching of voters by ANC judges, and had complained. The other judges asked that she be removed.
So she switched to this other place, which gave her the opportunity to observe activity in multiple precincts--all over this ward, turnout was low. it ended up being around 35 to 37% of registered voters. i wonder what the percents would be if they including the district's eligible voters, not just those who are registered. A lot of Abahlali supporters didn't even register to vote. Plus a lot of people, especially young people, have yet to receive identity cards from the govt., and you need one in order to vote, go to school, work, there's a serious backlog. Lots of people are waiting.
and just like the housing crisis, something that seems easily fixed, if programs were better staffed. it's not like the funding is not available--national reports that came out right before the election talked about millions of rands that had not been used by local govts to provide "service delivery", the catch phrase for plumbing and water, electricity, houses, healthcare, etc.
for some reason, SA FM radio thought i would be a good election observer to talk to, so at 5:45 the next morning, i was on the air trying not to sound incredibly stupid answering questions about observation standards. i had spent all sorts of time preparing to talk about the local mishaps happening in Baig's ward, but didn't get enough time.
first rusty instance in a long while of not taking advantage of the air time to direct the conversation. SA FM newsdesk did eventually get the story, but i'm not sure what happened in the end.
except of course, that Baig won, again.
last monday there was a followup court hearing to determine who would pay the costs of the original proceedings of abahlali vs. the eThekweni municipality. The court ruled against the city, saying it was responsible since it had disallowed the march. a victory, and a groundbreaking moment, perhaps, for civil society and the future of protest for movements in South Africa.
Jama and Mnikelo say that they will continue to put pressure on Baig, that really it's easier for Abahlali to continue to pressure him rather than someone new since they have a "working relationship" of sorts[ and also on the provincial government, now their point of focus, since they deliver the funds to local councils.
when i said goodbye, everyone seemed in high spirits, the foreman rd guys were busy painting a banner for international women's day. it was especially hard to say goodbye to S'thembile. many tears shed. when will i be coming back? soon, but probably not soon enough. no money left, and so much work that needs to be done on this side of the world.
how to return enough thanks to all of my new friends who gave me so much of their time when i was visiting? thank you so much, and i hope someday to be able to return the favor(s).
it's been hard to reconnect to this side, perhaps partly because of the cold, partly due to the long estrangement from my partner and my co-op community. plus i'm looking at starting anew with work or school or some other path quite soon. 3 months doesn't seem like a length of time that could change my perspective so drastically, but...
culture shock ---> so much of everything everywhere. my body recalls the fastness and vastness of this city, but my brain is still a bit overwhelmed. hard to just jump back in to my life. i've been gone, things are not as i left them, my 'hood looks different, my house has new members, my love is distant, my path is unclear. not to mention my govt is being really reckless and it's stressing me out.
it's hard, knowing what's happening on the other side of the world, and also knowing that no one around me can imagine where i have been. i was confronted by this hippie-Jesus missionary the other day as i was doing a book event for Jonathan Kozol at the main library downtown, he's the Bono or Michael Moore, which might be a more appropriate comparison, of the teacher/education activism world in the US. This lady was explaining to me how she has just let her God lead her day to day, how she hasn't had to use her social security card in nearly 30 years. how "his" teachings hold a lot of wisdom for me to discover. outside of the fact that my dad's a minister and i've grown up knowing some of this stuff, i was amazed at the way this woman so accurately represented the insulation and self-involved-ness of some people i've run into being back... and talking to people like her about taking a trip to "Africa" is not easy... the dark continent is full of hopeless poor people that need our help, right? people who can't help themselves... stories like abahlali's don't often make it this far.
and maybe it's not that so many people here are selfish and self-absorbed. my eyes, my body, my thoughts, are just used to seeing and being a lot less confined, and maybe i've had more opportunities to ask the right people decent questions....
there will have to be a part 2 to this, as my west coast conscience reminds me, i've done a poor job of writing about my thoughts. so soon, another post. but til then,
thanks for your time and your eyes.
for more on the continuing struggle, see shannoninsouthafrica.blogspot.com, or durban-poison.blogspot.com, or CCS's webpage.
and special everflowing thanks to Richard, Raj, Fazel, Helen, S'bu, Jama, Mnikelo, S'thembile, Esther, Thandi, Philani, George, Lungi, Nonhlanhla, Sibu, the rest of the Abahlali committees, Zelda, David, Genda, Antony, Shannon, Amanda, Anokhi, Vash, RichB, Ashwin, John, Amisi, Jacob, Busi & Wiseman, Lionel, Jerry, Dana... for your time, wisdom, help and friendship. and to Ry, my parents & gram laura, and friends & housemates for your patience, love and support. "onward!"
so first, the march 2 wks ago monday: about 2000 members of Abahlali baseMjondolo marched down West St to Durban's city hall, to hand a memorandum of demands for housing and other desperately needed services to a rep from the city govt:
"We the shackdwellers of Durban, democrats and loyal citizens of the Republic of South Africa, note that this country is rich because of the theft of our land and because of our work in the farms, mines, factories, kitchens and laundries of the rich. We can not and will not continue to suffer the way that we do.
"Our voices cannot be stifled. Today, like everyday, we braved heat, hunger, thirst, exhaustion and police repression. Today, we had our day in court. Today, we won a recognition of our right to speak. Today we march on the city because today we stand up for our right not only to speak, but to live, to breathe, to eat, to sleep and to work in dignity and safety."
The guy who collected the demands, when briefly given the mic, said something about how everyone would have a house in six years time. He was promptly booed off.
It was a sweet victory for Abahlali just to rally at all, given the police and city manager's desire to keep them from leaving their settlements... the police were at foreman and kennedy rds before dawn, with helicopters overhead. by 6 when people were gathering to get on the buses, police led by a notoriously racist commander stormed into the crowd at foreman rd and told people to disperse and go home. when residents tried to tell him they were at their houses, he responded with orders to grab some of the young leaders from inside of their homes. 3 young guys were arrested, one of them an innocent bystander, and M'du, probably a known organizer, was picked up by the police on the street waiting for a bus to take him to work.
for me it was a long and exhausting day, but for most of Abahlali members, like the hundreds stuck at Jadhu Place [many there were from other settlements] without food or water when the buses they were riding were turned away from downtown by the police, had taken the day off work. so, as Sibanga told me, they had no other plans. They would wait until they were allowed to go back to the city center.
The high court ruled that the city had no right to block the march. so instead of 10 a m, around 3 Abahlali kicked off with an hour window allotted to get to city hall.
election day, i went to foreman road, to talk to mnikelo and lungi and jama, who were having a quiet day at the settlement and planning an evening celebration braai {barbeque}. there were 2 huge police trucks parked at the entrance to foreman from clare road, and other police drove by, but outside of an entourage when the councilor arrived early in the morning to transport the few voters who wanted to go to the polls, the police weren't causing any trouble.
after getting a ride with jama and george and lungi to SPAR grocery to get some specially-cured meat that George ordered, they dropped me at one of the nearby polling stations, where i ran into Zelda Norris, an organizer at the Sydenham Council Flats, allies of Abahlali, historically a place where "coloured" families were sent to live when the apartheid govt separated families into communities based on race. it's still largely a coloured community, though this polling place at a community center she was observing at had quite a mix of folks in line--Indians being shuttled in via ANC escort vans [usually mostly empty], whites driving into the parking lot in fancy cars, blacks on foot, with kids playing makeshift football on the huge lawn behind the building.
Zelda told me that Baig seemed "up to his old tricks"--she had been stationed at another poll as an election judge, but before she arrived the ANC judges had sealed the ballot box without any other witnesses. He's apparently known for his dirty politics--last election cycle the results were thrown out because he had been bribing people to vote. Zelda said she also witnessed instances of coaching of voters by ANC judges, and had complained. The other judges asked that she be removed.
So she switched to this other place, which gave her the opportunity to observe activity in multiple precincts--all over this ward, turnout was low. it ended up being around 35 to 37% of registered voters. i wonder what the percents would be if they including the district's eligible voters, not just those who are registered. A lot of Abahlali supporters didn't even register to vote. Plus a lot of people, especially young people, have yet to receive identity cards from the govt., and you need one in order to vote, go to school, work, there's a serious backlog. Lots of people are waiting.
and just like the housing crisis, something that seems easily fixed, if programs were better staffed. it's not like the funding is not available--national reports that came out right before the election talked about millions of rands that had not been used by local govts to provide "service delivery", the catch phrase for plumbing and water, electricity, houses, healthcare, etc.
for some reason, SA FM radio thought i would be a good election observer to talk to, so at 5:45 the next morning, i was on the air trying not to sound incredibly stupid answering questions about observation standards. i had spent all sorts of time preparing to talk about the local mishaps happening in Baig's ward, but didn't get enough time.
first rusty instance in a long while of not taking advantage of the air time to direct the conversation. SA FM newsdesk did eventually get the story, but i'm not sure what happened in the end.
except of course, that Baig won, again.
last monday there was a followup court hearing to determine who would pay the costs of the original proceedings of abahlali vs. the eThekweni municipality. The court ruled against the city, saying it was responsible since it had disallowed the march. a victory, and a groundbreaking moment, perhaps, for civil society and the future of protest for movements in South Africa.
Jama and Mnikelo say that they will continue to put pressure on Baig, that really it's easier for Abahlali to continue to pressure him rather than someone new since they have a "working relationship" of sorts[ and also on the provincial government, now their point of focus, since they deliver the funds to local councils.
when i said goodbye, everyone seemed in high spirits, the foreman rd guys were busy painting a banner for international women's day. it was especially hard to say goodbye to S'thembile. many tears shed. when will i be coming back? soon, but probably not soon enough. no money left, and so much work that needs to be done on this side of the world.
how to return enough thanks to all of my new friends who gave me so much of their time when i was visiting? thank you so much, and i hope someday to be able to return the favor(s).
it's been hard to reconnect to this side, perhaps partly because of the cold, partly due to the long estrangement from my partner and my co-op community. plus i'm looking at starting anew with work or school or some other path quite soon. 3 months doesn't seem like a length of time that could change my perspective so drastically, but...
culture shock ---> so much of everything everywhere. my body recalls the fastness and vastness of this city, but my brain is still a bit overwhelmed. hard to just jump back in to my life. i've been gone, things are not as i left them, my 'hood looks different, my house has new members, my love is distant, my path is unclear. not to mention my govt is being really reckless and it's stressing me out.
it's hard, knowing what's happening on the other side of the world, and also knowing that no one around me can imagine where i have been. i was confronted by this hippie-Jesus missionary the other day as i was doing a book event for Jonathan Kozol at the main library downtown, he's the Bono or Michael Moore, which might be a more appropriate comparison, of the teacher/education activism world in the US. This lady was explaining to me how she has just let her God lead her day to day, how she hasn't had to use her social security card in nearly 30 years. how "his" teachings hold a lot of wisdom for me to discover. outside of the fact that my dad's a minister and i've grown up knowing some of this stuff, i was amazed at the way this woman so accurately represented the insulation and self-involved-ness of some people i've run into being back... and talking to people like her about taking a trip to "Africa" is not easy... the dark continent is full of hopeless poor people that need our help, right? people who can't help themselves... stories like abahlali's don't often make it this far.
and maybe it's not that so many people here are selfish and self-absorbed. my eyes, my body, my thoughts, are just used to seeing and being a lot less confined, and maybe i've had more opportunities to ask the right people decent questions....
there will have to be a part 2 to this, as my west coast conscience reminds me, i've done a poor job of writing about my thoughts. so soon, another post. but til then,
thanks for your time and your eyes.
for more on the continuing struggle, see shannoninsouthafrica.blogspot.com, or durban-poison.blogspot.com, or CCS's webpage.
and special everflowing thanks to Richard, Raj, Fazel, Helen, S'bu, Jama, Mnikelo, S'thembile, Esther, Thandi, Philani, George, Lungi, Nonhlanhla, Sibu, the rest of the Abahlali committees, Zelda, David, Genda, Antony, Shannon, Amanda, Anokhi, Vash, RichB, Ashwin, John, Amisi, Jacob, Busi & Wiseman, Lionel, Jerry, Dana... for your time, wisdom, help and friendship. and to Ry, my parents & gram laura, and friends & housemates for your patience, love and support. "onward!"
posted by stephatriseup at 1:07 PM
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