Langa

It took me a while to get the enegy to write about this day… in the past 2 weeks I already got quite some insights into how colonization fucked up yet another country but out all of the countries I’ve visited South Africa is the one where the impacts are still extremely visible to the day (Bolivia follows right after). I’ve never felt so white in my whole life even though the Dominican Republic is also mainly black and this just got even more real and painful today. I had many friends who visited South Africa before and overloaded me with tips, but no one mentioned anything about townships or the possibilty to visit them. Totally understandable - it’s extremely controversial to go and look at other people’s pain but without going you cannot actually comprehend the reality of black communities in South Africa. When the apartheid started people were sorted to white, indian, coloured, black categories and soon after the homes of black and coloured communities were demolished and they were relocated to the outskirts of cities, called townships. Now 30 years after the end of the apartheid things are not a lot better but the only thing you hear as a tourist, don’t go there, it’s extremely unsafe… so I had to see the reality with my own eyes and I didn’t find anything else but kindness, extreme poverty and heartbreaking past, present and future of the community of Langa which is one of the biggest townships. My tourguide grew up and still lives in Langa, told me about the history, and answered all my burning questions that I couldn’t ask anyone so far as this topic is widely disregarded and ignored. We first visited a small museum, the first art gallery of Langa, the first cafe, and then we walked into the middle of the misery. The rooms in the pictures and videos host families of 5-8 people, and the one with the bunk bed is an orphanage for 38 children!!! The lucky families can get to live in a room of concrere house which was built as a barrack for single men to work (=exploited for cheap labor) during the appartheid, the less lucky ones in tin houses that are like an oven during summer and like a freezer during winter. Unbelievable conditions… We met a family whose tin house burnt down and the mum jumped into the flames to save her baby, they got zero support from the government to restart their lives. We talked to some ladies in the market selling sheep head as that is the cheapest part of the sheep that they can buy and cook for customers. And lastly, we visited a pre-school with the cuttest little kids ever, so well-behaved. 💛 The sad reality is that it’s almost impossible for people in townships to move out of the township ever as they all need to commute for work and therefore never be able to affort to buy a property. At the same time, actually, there are some of them who now have a better living and have proper houses right next to the tin houses, they call it Beverly Hills of Langa, but they still prefer to stay in Langa as their hearts belong to the community forever. 🖤 I also learned Mholo and Enkosi in Xhosa, the language spoken by the community (most of them never learn English and without English they are not employable), which mean Hi and Thank you. ✨This was a tough day, very emotional, but these people are full of hope for the upcoming elections and look forward to a brighter future (which is already on the way since the apartheid ended). Enkosi to my tour guide, Chippa! 🫶Read more