Story-telling, not forgetting, Museums

I was showing my parents some more pictures I took in South Africa. I found that I had forgotten the names of the adorable couple that owned the Bo-Kaap Kombuis restaurant. Why did I forget these names? Should I have written them down? I feel like story-telling would have helped me to remember. One of my close friends is a fantastic story-teller. This trait is not only enjoyable but helps him to remember. On a personal level, story-telling aids memory and builds relationships through sharing experiences. How do I share South Africa with people back here in Colorado? I intend to work on my story-telling abilities. These personal experiences with story-telling reaffirms the importance of story-telling for a nation. Furthermore, I still believe in the importance, beauty and potency of oral tradition. It is a direct human-to-human interaction versus recording on paper, film or photographs.

At first, I was a little bothered by all the museums that we visited in South Africa. I wanted to see the people. However, my new views on story-telling have shown me a crucial purpose for museums. We talked about memorialization and truth-telling while in South Africa. As an anthropology major, I focus on culture and didn’t at first see museums as part of culture. My current appreciation of museums is a result from understanding their impact on culture. Maybe, “understanding” is the wrong word. I am almost in awe of their potency. Who’s history is being told and how it is told seem obvious components to notice, but museums can have a subtle or covert effect on the mind.

To side track, I finally watched Cry, Freedom. Like museums, the oppressive apartheid culture had an effect on the minds of black South Africans that Steve Biko pointed out and addressed with black consciousness. Black South Africans were made to feel dirty, less worthy, or ugly. It is not that people are stupid for being affected by an oppressive culture or even museums. Again, I am awe of how these effects occur. Cry, Freedom was another personal means of story-telling and remembering the experience. I watched the film with my mother and she had a lot of questions. The film was a great means of trying to explain what I had done and seen in South Africa.

Back to the issue of museums. I have been thinking a lot about the Native Americans and their forgotten history in our country. I was recently in Durango where the Anasazi Heritage Center is located. I did not get a chance to visit the center but hope to visit it in the near future. What I have learned about the center indicates the importance of language. Descendants of the “Anasazi” do not necessarily like the word “Anasazi” but cannot agree on an alternative like Navajo or Pueblo peoples. When a word identifies you, it becomes of utmost important to be correct. The power of words amazes me (again like museums). How can you tell a forgotten history when a single word cannot be agreed upon? Is the conflict over the single word a result from the history being forgotten and the peoples being oppressed?

Back in Colorado. Reconciliation as the everyday

I was curious about how my international experience in South Africa would affect my work with the restorative justice program at CU (CURJ). I facilitated my first conference this last Monday. I entered South Africa being more excited about the subject matter than the country. However, seeing an entirely new (and international) context made me grateful for visiting South Africa. Current efforts at promoting restorative justice at home and at abroad come with opposition. Community representatives at CURJ assess the level of responsibility a perpetrator has taken. Before South Africa, I feel like I was approaching CURJ with the idea of benefiting the perpetrator. Reducing recidivism rates was a strong selling point to the restorative justice approach. This past conference made me more aware of CURJ’s responsibility to the community. Although in the conferences that I facilitate we do not have formal victims, we still pay attention to the points of the community representatives and meeting their needs. It is not only about the perpetrator’s needs. CURJ had trained to paying attention to these different needs, but now I have a new understanding.

Even truth-telling and healing is a part of CURJ. Some students chose to have an educational component as part of their agreements. Educating themselves and others has a level of truth telling. By understanding the laws, a future ‘stable peace’ can be built. Agreement items also contain a level of personal or relationship healing. I cannot go into too much detail about the conferences. Recently, a student was empowered to make a complaint about her interaction with the police. This action was included in the agreement items because harm to ‘self’ must be addressed as harm to ‘community’ or ‘parents’ etc. are addressed. Generally, in Boulder, student-police relations seem to be a huge and important issue. A stack of apology letters addressed to police officers could lose meaning. However, spreading awareness and understanding on the student end is a form of reconciliation.

Similar to how I was curious about the position and expectations of Afrikaaner students in South Africa, I am still thinking about changing populations and individuals. While there will be a student body constantly influx and changing police officers, how do you address this consistent flux? When looking at tensions between groups, where does the individual come into play? I feel like this issue is where psychological changes become important. A psychological shift to inclusion, understanding and community would make the peace of the present be sustainable. This shift goes beyond reconciliation in the present.

Ideally, I had expected reconciliation to result in inclusion and community. I became pessimistic in South Africa because of the daunting and impossible nature of actually achieving this. However, I have been viewing reconciliation as a process with ideals that are constantly being worked towards. There will be future tensions and new individuals but structures that enable reconciliatory processes to continue to take place have a chance. I have constantly been rethinking my reconciliation-communism statement. Slowly, I am reaching an optimism about the potential of reconciliation AND restorative justice. This optimism is different than my optimism before South Africa. Shafiek ‘just living his life’ is part of my new understanding. My new understanding involves the everyday (people, education, restaurants, etc.) and less of the grand (political leaders, constitutions).

May 26th, “diversity literacy” and “we are because of them”

In the morning, we listened to Melissa Steyn. Her talk reemphasized the importance about diversity literacy, which can the talk the form of disability studies, feminist studies etc. These areas create a knowledge base to enhance the discourses around difference. Ideally, more knowledge should humanize and legitimize oppressed groups. An increase in the knowledge base is a mutual process. The oppressed and the oppressor could learn more about each other to break down stereotypes and potentially never see race.

Professor Steyn’s discussion about hegemonic identity makes me think about CU and the issues of partying/drinking. This is the hegemonic identity. How do we change such a dominant identity? I have been fortunate to have wonderful friends that do not need to drink to have a good time. We consider it ‘just what we do.’ At the same time, someone I know that parties a lot describes his habits with his friends as ‘just what we do.’ Both actions become the norm and otherizes the opposite. Furthermore, these mentalities have the potential to polarize when there is actually a spectrum. Stereotypes are dangerous for this reason and decrease diversity. If South Africa really is to be a ‘rainbow nation,’ then there is a spectrum of difference. Perhaps, seeing a spectrum versus a polarized nation of identity would increase interaction and understanding.

However, South Africa is increasingly unequal. Steyn’s comments about whiteness having economic power versus political power reminds me of Pierre Bourdieu’s writing on capital. Bourdieu describes 3 categories: cultural, social and economic. In present day South Africa, a white person is tremendously likely to be wealthy and have high economic capital. High cultural capital comes in the form of the necessity of speaking English. The use of language demonstrates a manifestation of power. Furthermore, English holds of position of higher international credibility.

Later this day, we went to the Slave Lodge and the South African Museum. The phrase ‘we are because of them’ sticks with me from the Slave Lodge. Although slavery is an ugly part of many countries pasts, it is important not to ignore it. The Slave Lodge is a place of truth telling and memorialization. Again, I am reminded about the power of archaeology in telling untold stories. Archaeology has been used to reveal the lives of slaves at the Slave Lodge. In not ignoring the past and making efforts to reveal untold stories, healing can occur. Ideally, acknowledging the past will promote justice in the future. This quote made me think: “At the Cape from 1711 to 1795 slaves outnumbered colonists.” With ever increasing inequality, are the poor still slaves? With ‘The One and Only’ hotel having two workers per guest, how far has South Africa (and the world) come besides a formal abolition of slavery?

Like Professor Steyn was saying about political versus economic power, black South Africans are not the most powerful group. There is hope that with the vote and political voice working conditions will not be as bad as under slavery. Economic inequality cannot be destroyed with a legal document like slavery was made illegal. With the truth telling that occurs at places like the Slave Lodge, a dialogue on basic human rights does occur and could apply to modern day life and dialogues.

At the South Africa Museum: The sociable weavers at the South Africa museum could be an example found in nature of an inclusive community. We talk about interdependence as part of the reconciliation process and building a peaceful future. Interdependence now may need to be constructed by the government when it was once part of nature.