South Africa

Yesterday, as I drove to work I was listening to coverage of the South African elections on NPR news, and it really affected me. Maybe because when I lived there in 1997, it was right at the height of the Truth and Reconciliation committee's hearings and the newspapers were full of daily notices, like "Steve Biko's killer found." "Winnie Mandela on trial." Living there was like being caught in a giant political downpour. The NPR News feature was interesting because it started with them talking about Joseph Zuma's campaign song "Mshini Wami" (Bring Me My Machine Gun). For me, this song being sung by South Africa's leading presidential elect sums up South Africa very neatly for me with regards to how I felt when I lived there. Pretty much, to me, South Africa is both the most beautiful, and the most scary country that I have ever visited; full of dichotomies, paradoxes and oxymorons. 

I miss many things about living there, most specifically, all of my friends whom I have now lost touch with after 12 years. And I really miss the small things like eating Jungle Oats with jam stirred into it for breakfast; my afternoon Zulu lessons at the breakfast table; the smell of the Johannesburg air when I woke up every morning; bunny chow; riding in the back seat of a 1980 Volkswagen Beetle while drinking Diet Coke and seeing elephants. 

And it makes me wonder if I will ever go back to visit.