Recently posted by Dan Connell

By Amanda Gross

The hair salon was buzzing with customers. The adolescent boys were packing their backpacks for their first hike up Table Mountain. Neighbors gossiped across balconies while watering their plants. Voices echoed off the buildings as the Cape Town Boys Choir warmed up for their weekly rehearsal.

But their town, District Six, was being targeted by the apartheid government, that saw this close-knit community of Malaysians, mixed-race people, European immigrants and people of all religions as threatening to the white regime and its idea of "separate development." 

The District Six Museum in Cape Town, South Africa conjures up such images from the neighborhood's glory days -- the 1940s and 50s -- so its visitors can understand the thriving, close-knit dynamic in the long-standing neighborhood of freed slaves, immigrants, artisans, and merchants that was District Six.

The museum also depicts the destruction of this quaint city-side community.

In 1966, the 60,000 residents of District Six started to receive notices on their doorstep, informing them they had been evicted from their home by the government because it had decided that space was to be whites-only. In 1968, those who hadn't moved were forcibly evicted and sent to follow their former neighbors to the Cape Flats, a desolate plain several miles to the northeast, even further away from the convenient access they had to the city and the harbor.

"We had blacks, Indians, Hindus, Portuguese, Chinese, Japanese, Christians, Muslims - one big happy family and we proved to the apartheid government that it can work," said Noor Ebrahim, former District Six resident who wrote a book on his life in and out of District Six and now works at the museum. "They didn't like that, and I still believe that was one of the reasons they declared District Six a white area."

The bulldozers and dump trucks started rolling in soon after, and by 1982, the only thing that remained of District Six was a wasteland of bricks and cobblestones.

In 2009, the wasteland remains.

Despite the government's seemingly urgent need to rid the land of its residents in the 1960s, it never actually did anything with the land it snatched from the people.

Renaming the area "Zonnenbloem," the South African government tried to attract developers who could turn the area into a modern suburb. But protests successfully dissuaded them, and the land remained untouched.

The District Six Museum now stands as a memorial to the ex-residents of District Six, as well as a means to educate the rest of its visitors about forced evictions in Cape Town and across South Africa.

The museum is also a part of the initiative to "rebuild" District Six -- literally and psychologically.

A Land Rights Act was passed in 1994 with the "New South African" government offering restitution and reconciliation to those who were dispossessed of land through the racist practices of apartheid.

Former residents can apply for restitution, and many have in an effort to redevelop the site with the past in mind -- rebuilding their past while allowing the space itself to serve as a memorial for the District Six identity.

However, many former residents are hesitant to reopen this closed and sensitive chapter of their past.

The museum aims to work with people directly to "put itself at the heart of the process of reconstruction of District Six and Cape Town through working with the memories and experiences of dispossessed people, " according to its Web site.

Some see the museum's role as a purely educational and historical one in the rebuilding process, providing a "safe place" for ex-residents to mourn and reminisce.

Others, however, want the museum to take a more involved approach to the actual redevelopment of the land. Bonita Bennet, the current director of the museum, sees the museum's role as more involved in the ex-residents' claims to land and claims to their identities that were destroyed by the apartheid regime.

"We continue to draw our inspiration from many sources," she wrote in the museum's annual report for 2007/2008. "And will go on exploring ways of surfacing and combining the many elements that draw us forward."

Remember Dimbaza

Remember Botshabelo/Onverwacht.

South End, East Bank,

Sophiatown, Makuleke, Cato Manor,

Remember District Six.

Remember the racism

Which took away our homes

And our livelihood

And which sought

To steal away our humanity.

Remember also our will to live,

To hold fast to that

Which marks us as human beings:

Our generosity, our love of justice

And our care for each other.

Remember tramway road,

Modderdam, Simonstown

In remembering we do not want

To recreate District Six

But to work with its memory:

Of hurts inflicted and received

Of loss, achievements and of shames.

We wish to remember

So that we can all,

Together and by ourselves,

Rebuild a city

Which belongs to all of us,

In which all of us can live,

Not as races but as people.

-Poem at District Six Museum

By Dorothy Manley

Asserting our identity in the face of prejudice and discrimination can help us fight more effectively for our dignity and our rights. But failing to grasp our fuller human identity can hurt us while also blocking us from helping others with their struggles. This was the message of one of South Africa's most famous gay activists--Zackie Achmat--at a University of Pretoria forum we attended early in our trip.

We chatted among ourselves anxiously at the university's Centre for Human Rights on a dark and rainy May winter morning awaiting Achmat's arrival--a disparate group of wide-eyed students, professors and social justice activists. His topic: "Threats to Our Equality: Sexual Orientation, the Constitution, and Social Justice."

When he arrives, he says he has been asked to speak about sexual orientation and activism. But he has come to take us in a different direction.

"I believe that lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, intersex struggle for equality in South Africa is at a crossroads and is heading in the wrong direction," he says. "That is going to be the underlying theme of what I say today."

Zackie Achmat is well known in the LGBTI (lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, intersex) community for his relentless activism and personal sacrifice for the rights of sexual minority groups and HIV positive people. He is the founder of one of South Africa's most effective advocacy groups--the Treatment Action Campaign (TAC), which fights for the rights of HIV/AIDS victims.

Joking about his elaborate introduction, he says: "Very often when you are an activist, you get reduced to the things that you have done, and not your personality." All his titles and awards are not so important. And narrowing who he is to a single identity--as a gay activist, an HIV/AIDS campaigner, whatever--not only trivializes him, it denies his essential humanity by reducing the potential for others to see us as whole multi-dimensional, relatable human beings, he says, adding that this is what is wrong today with much of the LGBTI community.

"We have entrenched the divisions within our society. We don't see each other's humanity, and we don't admit to it. We try to hide it, we do not speak about it because we fear these things," Achmat says.

He goes on to insist on the need to construct the broadest possible alliance of people who otherwise never look at each other and never recognize each other's humanity.

During the apartheid era, which ended with South Africa's first free democratic election only 15 years ago, social discrimination created deep divisions solely based on one identity--race. Achmat likens this to the "identity pride" fostered today within the LGBTI community, arguing that it also limits us as human beings.

"The dignity of white people was totally diminished because they thought they were superior beings,"he says. "We have so commodified our sexual identity that we are exploited as a market, and we exploit other people as a market."

We need to see beyond these identities, so we can empathize with others and in doing so, not only realize our own humanity but also build a deeper and broader movement for the rights of everyone, according to Achmat.

"Unless we as Africans assert the rights of Iranians and the people in the United States to express their equality, to express their autonomy, to express their dignity, then our own humanity is diminished," he says. "It is both at the level of humanity and at the level of law that we have to operate."

Not what any of us expected, but I am still thinking over what he said--and how to work it into my life.

By Elizabeth Feskoe '10

Our group has shared this experience together as a collective soul. We witnessed the same injustices, felt the same compassion, and tried our best to empathize with each situation.

Now, propelled by our souls' curiosity, its need to create and its low tolerance of injustice, we will shine light on social issues of South Africa kept in the dark to the world. Our goal is to reflect South Africa's beautiful, inspiring and resilient soul.

One can only dare to explain it through words or photographs, yet through the different talents our collective soul possesses, we dare to do it.

With Alicia Lochard's hatred for injustice and her courage to act. Courage everyone wishes they too were born with, but will never gain.

With Amanda Gross's ability to create a relaxed atmosphere perfect for communication, along with her contagious curiosity and humor.

With Ashley Haight's accurate judgment that leaves no one or reader astray and a rare ability to know exactly what is right from wrong.

With Beth Cortez-Neavel's warm and gentle being that is able to get any answer out of anyone at anytime. A true artist.

With Cassandra Cacoq's always open mind that one only wish they have and a rare ability to communicate through art and science.

With Dot Manley's compassion for those in helpless situations, ready to dedicate her life to rid these situations for as many as her heart can handle. It's a good thing that hers is immeasurable.

With Katie Poole's communication through photography and her instinct to capture true moments of life; moments rarely ever caught through a lense.

With Michelle Geoffroy's natural ability to carry genuine and meaningful conversations to anyone from strangers on a plane to children in informal settlements.

With Shannon Brown's talent whose writing of stories simultaneously honest and influential is also true for her personality.

Finally, it can be done with Dan Connell, his love affair with life and his insisting devotion for all to share in this love.

Through the combination of these different tools of communication, the work to be produced is anything but indifferent.

The experiences we shared stirred emotion that will not rest until change for South Africa, its people, and its future are finally created.

There is much we as communicators and you as the audience can do together for this urgent and important cause.

By Shannon Brown

 

It takes a village to raise a child.

 

In the Bara Squatter Camp, an informal settlement in Soweto, a township outside of Johannesburg in South Africa, the age old African saying is alive and well.

 

The Bara residents, who do not have running water, electricity, or heat in their make-shift homes, have organized to ensure that ever child in the settlement is provided with the uniform and books needed to go to school.

 

"The only thing that can change this life we have is education," says a decade-long Bara resident, who goes by Kurt. He is one of the people of the squatter camp who gives tours of the area to raise funds for the community.

 

Kurt was born in the Eastern Cape and moved came to Johannesburg with his mother 10 years ago looking for work. When they discovered there were no jobs, they came to Bara and have been living there ever since.

 

The majority of Bara's inhabitants are not native to Soweto. Many of the other residents are originally from Mozambique and Zimbabwe. Altogether, Bara is made up of 20,000 people from 9 different tribes. They live in about 7,000 shacks that line the dirt roads around them for as far as the eye can see. Despite their differences, all of Bara's residents live together without separating themselves among their cultures.

 

"There is no segregation among us," Kurt says.

 

Kurt, in his red and white stripped polo, faded jeans, snake skin shoes, and oversized wool hat, does not fit the stereotypical shack dweller image. They only physical sign that shows he has lived a hard life is the way he limps slightly as he leads the tour.

 

One of the goals of these tours is to get visitors off the bus and into the communities. As part of Kurt's tour, he goes one step further and brings his group inside one of the residences' homes. This one belongs to Prim Rose. She tells the visitors about life in her shack, which she shares with five others, including her four daughters. Rose explains that her daily life consists of doing laundry, cooking for her family, and taking her children to school.

 

The inspirational dedication of the parents in the community along with the financial support brought in from the tours ensures this village can raise its children.

By Amanda Gross

Apartheid officially ended with the 1994 election of the African National Congress, but almost everyone we've talked to and everything we've seen has illustrated that the legacy of apartheid still lives on in peoples' minds, hearts, and backyards.

Nazli Howa, an education training employee at the Human Rights Commission in Johannesburg, gave us a first-person account of how apartheid still contains people in their minds.

Growing up in the Western Cape as the "colored," or mixed race, daughter of two uneducated parents who spoke an uncommon dialect of Afrikaans, Nazli had a distinct feeling of insecurity repeatedly playing through her mind throughout her childhood: "œIs there something wrong with me?"

Nazli told us she remembers how a child could be chased off a beach because of the National Party's Group Areas Act, which among other things banned anyone of color from the beaches the government deemed "whites-only."Such incidents, she says, perpetuated her constant feeling of inferiority.

"Your language, your color, the way you looked was never good enough," she says, adding that the ideology of inferiority is deeply entrenched, even now.

After the apartheid laws were repealed in the early 1990s, Nazli was walking along the beach one day and saw that a flat was for sale. Although "New South African" law stated that she could rent the house, Nazli said her continual self-consciousness around whites caused her to hesitate from inquiring about it.

Once she did build up the courage to ask about the flat, she says, "œit was a shock I was allowed to live there."

Nazli says she still sees people as inferior and superior based on race.

Apartheid was a psychological onslaught designed so that no South African could escape it," she says.

However, Nazli is slowly and thoughtfully planning her escape.

She asks herself, "œDo I want to remember my dysfunctional beliefs or do I want to recognize them and alter them?"

She says the main thing people can do to abolish this racist mindset is interact with all types of people. Through these interactions, she says, we can see that we are the same, we can see each other's humanity.

Through such communication among different groups of people, particularly the whites who have a collective guilt and the non-whites who feel that they need to be listened to and have their pain and suffering acknowledged, the whole society can begin to heal, Nazli says.

"Guilt affects interactions between people," Nazli says, and creates a wall. What she feels whites need to understand is not that apartheid and racism and all the hurt and discrimination that came with it was their fault, but that that that's "where I came from," she says. "That is when the barrier will be broken down."

Nazli says she believes all people are capable of good--that all people are capable of self-improvement. The ultimate question, she says, is "what can I do to improve myself, black or white, and make myself a better person?"

By Dan Connell

I am laying on my stomach on my bed, typing. So many different views have run past my eyes in the past few days; so much information has passed from my fingertips through my pen to my lined flip notebook; so many songs have resonated in my head from radios and CD mixes in our tour van and the local restaurants. It is all very difficult to process. In the past three days I have taken pictures, audio and notes as we traveled around Johannesburg. We are staying in an upper-middle-class mixed-race neighborhood in the subdivision of Johannesburg, Mellville. high stucco and concrete walls topped with spikes or electric wiring protect the houses from the potentially dangerous passerby. Yet, a dog barked hysterically at a black man walking by, staying serene as a small group of my colleagues - all white students - coo at it from the other side of the fence. We visited the Johannesburg subdivision of Soweto - a place that contains both extremes of the standard of living. South Africa seems to contain - so far - a first world country and a third world country all in the same block. In Soweto we toured the Diepkloof Extreme Park, a community park built in 24 hours, complete with multiple jungle-gyms, fountains, a soccer sand-lot (sand to make the legs strong like in Brazil, said one of our guides), a multi-purpose court and an enclosed area with a giant community TV screen (cable channels paid for by the Extreme Park organization). After a lunch at the famous South African buffet-style Wandie's Place (I tried Tripe for the first time...ew), we walked through an informal settlement, rife with the most extreme poverty I have ever witnessed. There was one outside water tap for more than a hundred inhabitants, basically living on top of each other. Many have to carry heavy buckets of water yards from the tap to their home in order to drink, cook and wash. In a bittersweet moment, a young girl took me by the hand, marveling at her voice played back to her in my digital recorder. I laughed as her settlement sisters and brothers crowed around, theirs ears bent to listen. We then hopped in our Mercedes tour van and drove home to Mellville and the bustling hip 7th Street - only a few blocks walk away from the Guest House - to eat a rich dinner at The Loft. We are eating great food and spending so little (relatively, the Rand is about 8.45 to the USD). I had Mushroom Risotto and a Ginger Whiskey Cocktail for about 100R (about 12USD), something that would cost maybe upwards of 20USD. The children of the settlement barely had enough bread to keep the hunger away. And that was only in the first day. We have visited the Hector Pieterson Museum - a reminder of the June 16, 1976 shootings by African Police on a large group of youth protesting the instructional language in their schools: the language of the instigators of Apartheid, Afrikaans. We went to the Mandela House, which was a bit disappointing in its lack of original amenities. Yesterday we drove through the "Beverly Hills" area of Johannesburg: Houghton and saw lavish, even more heavily secured mansions and then walked through the intense exhibits at the Apartheid Museum. I went from seeing immense private tennis courts through heavily electric-wired gates to touching an original 'Hippo' - the armored vehicles used as an intimidating mode of transportation by South African Police forces, usually on their way to violently break up protest gatherings or arrest some human rights activist. I had the privilege of interviewing - during lunch with the group at the Wits Cafe - Professor Franz Kruger of Wits University (or the University of Witswatersrand) about the media and the U's developing radio program. Today, we sat in at a lecture and Q&A session led by South African AIDS Activist Zackie Achmat. He discussed how we need to identify as humans and only humans. How human rights issues in South Africa are not any more important that human rights issues throughout the world. Solidarity throughout the world. We are all sisters and brothers in the struggle against intolerance and racism, classism and hate crimes. We also listened to Dan expound on Eritrea and the ongoing struggle there. We then left all our belongings on the van, except our trusty notepads and pens, and took our passports to the U. S. Embassy to discuss the U. S. A. view on South African affairs. It is a lot to pack into a day. 17 more to go. Despite our heads so full of information, despite our exhaustion, we are coming together as a group.

Michelle Geoffroy, 2010

By Dan Connell

We took time out today during a visit to the University of Witwatersrand (Wits) to catch up on the latest news around campus--after a session with Franz Kruger, the head of the Journalism Department's new Radio Academy, where Beth Cortez-Neaval discussed hooking them up with Simmons College radio in the future. Stay tuned!

Today, we had a day-long tour of Soweto, South Africa's oldest black township, with a tour of Diepkloof's new Xtreme Park with Johannesburg City Park officials; lunch at the inestimable Wandi's with Lena Horne and other classics playing in the background; visits to the Nelson Mandela House and the Hector Pieterson Museum (commemorating the students who lost their lives in the anti-apartheid protests of 1976); and a guided walk through an informal squatter settlement.



Johannesburg City Parks Project Manager Buki Njingolo guides our group through the new Xtreme Park in Soweto's Diepklof neighborhood--built in 24 hours, after six months of planning and extensive community participation, it now serves a population of 10,000 and is a model for dozens more popping up in poor communities around the city.

By Amanda Gross '11

For Alicia Lochard, traveling to South Africa is a chance to trace her buried African-American roots back to their source. The daughter of an African-American/Native American mother and a Haitian father, Lochard feels it is virtually impossible to complete her family tree, she said. She sees visiting Africa as an opportunity to see where she came from.

Lochard, 21, a junior at Simmons College, is a film and media studies major with a minor in political science. She is one of 10 students traveling to South Africa this May as a part of a three-week travel course led by professor Dan Connell. On the trip, the students will examine human rights in post-apartheid South Africa, traveling to four different areas of the country.

Social movements, revolutions, and change fascinate Lochard, so she is naturally excited about the content of the course, she said.  

"I am always interested in studying oppression," she said, adding that South Africa is "complex" and there will be a lot to learn.

Lochard plans to focus her studies on the forms of expression South Africans use to relay their life experiences, specifically spoken and written word, she said. She looks to explore the ways the culture is influenced and the way the culture is influencing, she said.

Ashley Haight, 22, another student going on the trip, said she is interested in gender issues, education, women's organizations, and student organizations in South Africa. Haight, a double major in PR/Marketing and Women's studies with a double minor in English and journalism, saw the course as the perfect fit for her interests in journalism and study abroad.

"I didn't know anything before now," she said of South Africa, but adds that she is very excited to learn more about the complex social issues she will encounter there.

Dot Manley, 20, a junior sociology major with a minor in psychology signed up for the course after taking a sociology class in which she studied apartheid and read Nelson Mandela's autobiography.

Manley said she is interested in gender equality and exploring how South Africans are or are not still oppressed by the former apartheid regime.

"It's very much also a sociology class," she said of the course, which is categorized under communications and political science.

Katie Poole, 20, is a seasoned traveler who preceded her trip to South Africa with a semester in London in fall of 2008, and travel course to China last spring.

Poole said she loves to travel, and this class fit well into her journalism major.

As a photography minor, Poole hopes to look at art in South Africa, as well as the similarities and differences between "our generation and theirs cross-culturally" she said.

The students embark on the trip May 17 to return June 8. They will each complete at least five pages of writing for the course, made up of interviews and experiences they have with various people across the country during their visit, focusing on the vastly varied issues of their choosing.

By Shannon Brown '09

Her passion is apparent. As soon as she begins to talk about South  Africa, Michelle Geoffroy's eyes brighten and her speech speeds up.

"Nelson Mandela is one of my personal heroes," she says.

An English major with a minor in leadership, Geoffroy says her  Simmons classes, where she studied the South African constitution and  read most of Mandela's autobiography, have inspired her to go see the  county for herself.

She is one of 10 students going to South Africa on the third Simmons study abroad trip to look at human rights.

Although a journalism class is not required for either her major or  minor, Geoffroy is going to South Africa for herself.

Beth Cortez-Neavel, is a communications, writing major who has a  passion for art and travel. She is excited to be able to add South  Africa to her already extensive list of travel experiences.

"Traveling everywhere interests me," says the Austin, TX native.

Although Cortez-Neavel will have already graduated by the time she  steps on the plane, she is continuing her education for her own  satisfaction.

Another student who loves to travel and is looking forward to taking  the trip is Liz Feskoe. The human rights major and communications,  writing minor says this short-term class encompasses everything she is  interested in.

The rising senior says she rarely goes home to New Jersey, opting to  live in an MIT fraternity house for the summer just to be able to stay  in Boston.

"It's such a charming place," she says. "I think I'm gonna stay for a  little while."

Cassandra Cacoq, is a Chemistry major with a minor in art and physics.  Her do-it-yourself attitude has guided her from everything to  designing her own t-shirts to taking a journalism class to South Africa.

"I have zero background in writing," says Cacoq. "I'm just looking  forward to being in a different country."

These four students, plus the six others, make up the eclectic group  who has chosen to embark on this journey for themselves. Their  collective passion for South Africa is sure to help them succeed in  this short-term course. 

She studied about it with her favorite professor and ever since South Africa has been calling Michelle Geoffroy to go.

And so, along with 10 other Simmons College undergrad students, she is off to South Africa on a three week Human Rights travel course.

Led by Distinguished Lecturer in Journalism and African Politics Dan Connell, these students will visit Johannesburg, Durban and Cape Town. They will stay in four-star hotels and in small B&Bs. They will visit both the affluent neighborhoods and some of the poorest urban communities in the world.

The course is offered through the College's Political Science and Journalism Departments, which is a slight deviation from the requirements of Geoffroy's Major of choice: English, with a Minor in Leadership.

In fact, the majority of the students taking the course are not trained journalists. This week, they are preparing for the work that is required in order to complete the course. Each student will write at least one three-to-five page feature-style articles on an issue regarding human rights in the current country of South Africa.

"It sums up everything I'm interested in," says Political Science Major Liz Feskoe. "Human rights, politics and writing."

The students are learning the basic structure of a feature story: the lede, the nut graf -- or theme of the piece -- and the different types of endings. But writing isn't the only way these students will learn how to communicate.

Apart from the mandatory feature, Connell encourages the students to explore different media as a way of sharing what they learn with a wider community.

Communications Major Katie Poole is excited about putting together a photo essay, though her topic is still undecided.

Other students are discussing film projects, radio segments and blogging.

Some of the students have already started brainstorming what issues they want to focus on.

"I don't know, but I'm very much into the environmental aspect. I'm excited to visit the toxic waste plants," says Chemistry Major Cassandra Cacoq. "I'm interested in how chemicals interact with our environment. I want to learn how these toxic waste sites affect the people around them."

Throughout the trip, weekends are mainly blocked off for writing workshops and interviews. Connell expects the majority of the projects to develop while in South Africa. On returning home students will spend three days in Boston tightening their stories and finishing up their projects.

The women will get field experience. Apart from talking to the locals, they will meet with local organizations such as groundWork, whose mission is to "improve the quality of life of vulnerable people in Southern Africa through assisting civil society to have a greater impact on environmental governance."

The students will also meet with female artists who attend the Funda Community College in Johannesburg, as well as many other students, government officials, fellow journalists, townspeople and human rights organizations.

Tourist highlights of the trip include visiting Robben Island where Nelson Mandela was held prisoner from 1962 to 1990. Also included is an excursion to see the African Penguin colony at Boulders Beach.

With a full itinerary, these 10 Simmons women are about to embark on an adventure that will open their eyes to a culture entirely different from their own.

"I just want to have my jaw drop every time,"says Arts and Administrations and Communications Double Major Shannon Brown.

            Elizabeth Cortez-Neavel
            Journalist, Photographer
            Simmons College
            Communications '09
            ecortez.neavel@gmail.com

For this third Simmons study abroad trip to South Africa, we're opening up new connections there and here that will make this trip distinctive and make it a voyage of discovery for everyone, including me--something I think is essential for all teaching to keep us from becoming stale but also part of what makes this undertaking exciting.

A story in the New York Times on an innovative city parks official,the managing director of Joburg's parks, Luther Williamson, who is doing some very interesting things with parks development in black townships, led to arrangements to meet him in Soweto and visit the Diepkloof Extreme Park, built on what had been little more than a trash dump site and is now a center of community identity and activity.

We're also on for a meeting with a representative of the South African Gender Commission, which is housed in remnants of the old women's political prison in Johannesburg, near the Constitutional Court, which will be a first for one of our groups. And we're spending a day with a shack-dwellers movement--Abahlali baseMjondolo--in Durban with the help of one of my Africa Politics course students, Maya Semans (maya.semans@simmons.edu), who spent the spring semester over there and is now working with them.

As busy as he is, South African Human Rights Commission head Jody Kollapen has agreed to meet and brief our student reporters at the SAHRC's Jozi (Johannesburg) headquarters in May, during the first week of our trip. This will follow our tour of the Constitutional Court, built out of bricks taken from one of the country's most notorious political prisons, two of whose towers remain standing next to the court to remind South Africans--and visitors like us--of what the country endured on its way toward freedom for all its citizens.