The Gift of South Africa

It is difficult to even know what to share about our time here in South Africa, except that it is an extraordinary gift to be able to learn just a bit more about this precious land, its history, its pain, its glory, its people and their desire for a better future.

CAPE TOWN

View from the yard of our Lodge

The astonishing beauty of Cape Town's rugged coastline and mile upon mile of beautiful beaches is most impossible to describe.

Our digs at Fullham Lodge

Our stay at Fullham Lodge, the seafood at Camps Bay, and the caretaking of Isaac, our ever-ready-to-help driver, made us feel about as spoiled and fortunate as privileged white Americans can get. Even spending many hours at the Water Front (think San Francisco wharf on steroids) solving multiple technology problems was (almost) pure delight.



A little Sunday afternoon wine tasting

 A visit to Groot Constantia winery was a lesson in the Cape's history, as well as a picture of family pleasures on a Sunday afternoon, and the lush beauty of the wine lands.

While experiencing the wonders of Cape Town, it is astonishingly easy to forget that over a million of its residents live in a mammoth squatters camp just behind the city's airport. And it was stunning to us to learn, as we were leaving in our taxi for the airport at 4:30 am, that many homeless people were living in the bush just outside the door of the guesthouse where we had been so pampered and cared for. These are among many more millions of men, women and children all over South Africa who have yet to realize Nelson Mandela's dream

Carole and Isaac at the Tutu Center

Our first interview here, with Nomfundo Walaza, CEO at the Desmond Tutu Peace Centre (founded in 1998 to build on and leverage the legacy of Archbishop Tutu to foster peace in the world), was worth the entire trip to South Africa. Nomfundo is a clinical psychologist who has worked in the human rights field for the last two decades, where she has focused on empowering and healing victims of torture, trauma, and violence, many of whom suffered severely at the hands of the apartheid government. She served as a commissioner in the Truth and Reconciliation Commission, where she was instrumental in ensuring that the voices of women were raised, and as the Executive Director of the Trauma Centre for survivors of violence and torture. It will be a great privilege for us to share a bit of the story of this most wise, passionate, resolute, stately and generous woman with others.

Our interview with Maryse Barak and dinner with she and her husband, Steve, was an opportunity to hear about Maryse's consultancy, focusing on creating "thinking environments," as well as an opportunity to share an evening with a Cape Town couple who are living the story of South Africa's emergent democracy first hand. Maryse is also part of a group of women who own and operate a retreat center and sustainable farm near Cape Town.

Our new Chaeli Campaign friends

Our final interview in Cape Town was with the founders of the Chaeli Campaign, a non-profit organization whose mission is the inclusion and empowerment of differently abled people. The organization's story begins with two pairs of sisters, determined to raise the money to purchase an electric wheel chair for Chaeli (who has cerebral palsy), then only nine years old. The girls, ages six to twelve, astonished their mothers by raising the funds in a matter of weeks, primarily by selling their own artwork. The rest, as they say, is history, an incredibly worthy one at that. The Campaign now supports numerous fundraising, rehabilitative, cultural, artistic, and sports programs.


JOHANNESBURG

Our stay at The Melville House in Joburg was everything promised in its reviews, the highlights of which were the joys of engaging with owner, Heidi Holland, and other guests over an early evening glass of wine. Heidi, born in Zimbabwe (then Rhodesia), long-time resident of Joburg, newspaper columnist and author of numerous books, including a History of the ANC, African Magic, and Dinner with Mugabe, is hostess to a range of most fascinating writers, diplomats, development workers and others who pass through for a night or a while. A fascinating interview with Heidi, revealed the insightful views of a sensitive, caring and courageous observer of sub-Saharan Africa's social, economic and political scene.

Chene Swart, who generously drove from Pretoria for our interview, and Colleen Magner, partner in REOS, a global consulting firm, provided fascinating insights into what it means to work with managers and leaders in a culture still deep in the throes of transition from the systemic abuses of apartheid to the promises of democracy.  Much of Chene's work in recent years has been with an enormous platinum mining company, whose  exploitation of people and place is an essential part of South Africa's history. Chene has built a professional practice based on the discipline of "narrative therapy," which she uses with cross-sections of all employees of the mine to surface the old "problem stories" and evoke stories of possibility for the future.

Colleen and her team, focusing largely on the work of Adam Kahane, author of Power and Love: Solving Tough Social and Organizational Problems, work across difference in many forms, including race, class, culture and institutional boundaries. When asked to tell a story of possibility for the future of South Africa, Colleen spoke of the recent hosting of the World Cup. What she observed was a joyful, proud, lived experience by thousands upon thousands of South Africans who may have, for the first time since the end of apartheid, actually experienced what a future beyond the pain and suffering could bring.

Our final interview here in South Africa was one of the most moving experiences of our lives. Mabule Mokhine of the GreenHouse Project in Joubert Park here in Joburg, is a young man whose wisdom opened our eyes to how little we know and how much we have to learn from those who have lived the South African experience. Born in Soweto during the years of apartheid, he embodies the spirit of ubuntu or a connection with the wholeness of everything that is, and serves to both demonstrate and invite others into a life of sustainability, sufficiency, and care for one another and the earth's blessings. It will only be the sharing of his own words, not ours, that can express who Mabule is and what he brings to life.



David and our guide, Lasuto in the Court

 Yesterday, we visited Constitution Hill, the home of the country's Constitutional Court, built on the site of the unimaginably cruel prisons of the apartheid era. It is difficult to get one's mind around the fact that it was only in 1991 that apartheid laws making it illegal for any black person to enter Johannesburg without the infamous passbook through which they could prove employment were abolished. Impossible to understand are the conditions in which these and perpetrators of other "crimes" under the regime were held for days, weeks, months or years. Among those who served time in the site's prisons were Nelson Mandela and Mahatma Gandhi, along with countless others who were fighting for freedom or simply trying to stay alive.

Cell for up to 60 "non-white" men

The Court, built in 2003-04 in part with the bricks from the "Waiting for Trial" prison, stands as a symbol of what an era of justice in South Africa can mean. Its theme and logo, depicting people gathered beneath a tree symbolizes a justice system where people come together in a spirit of equality to resolve the injustices of the past, the present and the future.

Entrance to the Men's Prison

Today, we visited the Apartheid Museum where we spent four hours and could have spent many, many more. Having learned a lot, we came away with the sense that no one will ever really know how it is possible that humans can knowingly inflict such degrading pain, humiliation, brutality and suffering on others.

Tomorrow we may visit the Origins Centre, and then must prepare to move on to Mumbai. We remain astonished, joyful and humbled by this opportunity to see the world and to be in the company of so many people modeling ways of thinking and being that hold the potential for transforming our workplaces, communities and societies.


Humanity was born in Africa
All people ultimately are African