Saturday, August 21, 2010

Wednesday, August 18, 2010, 11:54 PM Cape Town Time- My Dorm (LBG)

Today was fairly enlightening. I know a few people from back home have hit me up because they don't really understand the idea of coloured people. Well it just so happened that today I had a lecture on exactly that!

            In my history class we talked about the development of coloured identity and this is a rough description from my understanding.

1. Coloureds are descended from the Khoisan Africans (Bushmen), white settlers, and East Asian former slaves (India, Java, Malaysia, etc.). (South African had a slave trade that brought people in from East Africa and Asia rather than West Africa.

            2. Before 1900 "Coloured" was used as a term for any non-European.

            3. After 1900 the identity began forming, specifically in the Cape.

4. Many coloured people in the Cape are Muslim because that religion was brought with some of the slaves.

            There's a ton of other stuff but I don't want to go into the whole bit but suffice to say that it is a complicated situation. It was good to just have a straight academic lecture though to couple with my understanding of it from talking to people informally.

            My other classes were also good but pretty regular. The weekly cipher didn't happen because it was raining today, which kind of sucks but oh well. This afternoon I went to volunteer with Young in Prison. We had a group of older boys who were all around 16. It was pretty cool. We played some games with them and then we sat down in groups to talk about the idea of friendship with them. We discussed what makes a good friend and the good and bad implications of things that friends can influence you to do. Some of the boys were very insightful but it was honestly pretty sad the way many of them are ghettoized to feel like their best prospect is to commit crimes. Even though they know that it's wrong they are still endorsing of that lifestyle, perhaps because they don't know of a better one. It actually reminded me of conversations with cats I've had back home in my neighborhood who are convinced that they have to be involved in gangs. It's always hard to reach a young man who has determined that he can't be saved.

Also did laundry today. blah. that's all.

"i wish my homies wouldn't have to suffer when the streets get the upper hand on us and we lose a brotha."

-twista

peace,

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