I just read my first post from this blog and had to laugh. It took me back to September of 2007 when I was frantically packing and trying to prepare for my first journey to South Africa. The laughter was not over my idealistic visions of how this year would turn out, but rather over the fact that I now find myself once again frantically packing and preparing. I leave in just one day for a very special trip. I will be touring Southern Africa (specifically Botswana, Zambia, Zimbabwe, Mozambique, Swaziland, and South Africa) in a Land Rover with one of my best friends. Then, I will be traveling to East Africa to do some film work in Uganda, Rwanda, and the Democratic Republic of the Congo. All told, I will be away for one month before heading home for the holidays.
I find myself now in the strange position of being between journeys. My Fulbright year in South Africa is officially over and the next phase of my life has yet to begin. I am extremely busy, but everything I’m doing has to do with closing one chapter and opening another. I’m selling my car and moving out of my apartment, while trying to book camp sights in Botswana and fuel sources in Zimbabwe. It is hectic, but exciting. Times like these are special though, because they allow you to look at the past and future without being stuck in any one place. And it is through this lens that I have begun to look back on my year in South Africa.
It is strange to think that twelve months ago I was still nervously making my way, trying to figure out how to survive in this “harsh” environment. I was disoriented, worried about security, and hadn’t figured out where I would be teaching or even where I would be living. Now, I look back on that time with a bit of amusement. The things that seemed so difficult then are a breeze now and life in South Africa has become completely comfortable. In fact, the idea of living in the US again seems kind of strange to me now!
The experience of living in a foreign country and getting to know new and beautiful cultures has been one of the greatest and most defining experiences of my life. I have so many wonderful stories to tell from this year that I wouldn’t even know where to begin. I have traveled all over South Africa and have managed to see bits of Lesotho, Namibia and Zimbabwe as well. I have gotten to know the Field Band Foundation from the bottom up and the top down, and I have made many lasting friendships which I will cherish. I have bettered myself personally and have also learned a lot about life.
I originally thought that my year would be defined by my Fulbright project and the work I would do with the Field Band Foundation. But, I had no idea how powerful the experience of simply living here would be. The memories that stand out in my head are not the lessons I taught or the films I made, but rather the moments when I found myself hopelessly and happily fixed in present time, living.
I remember vividly the first time I visited a township and was shocked by the images of poverty which I now somehow take for granted. I remember staring out from my car window and gaping at a row of unearthly baobab trees in Limpopo and thinking, “I really am in Africa!” I remember watching a single tear stream down the face of one of my students when he found out that he would not be able to go to Norway with the National Field Band. I remember dancing one night in the middle of a township in the Northern Cape as two young black children stared at me with the most beautifully innocent curiosity. I remember so many moments like these, where time seemed to stop and the full perceptions of everything around me just took over.
South Africa is a unique and special place. I’ve grown to love it dearly, but did not always have such positive feelings. Life can be very complicated here. Crime is never far away, race relations are often troublesome, and basic infrastructural issues, like power outages, broken traffic lights, and failing roads, are becoming a major problem. These are the things that keep many people away from South Africa and which scared me quite a bit when I first arrived. But, once I got past this and began to really look at this country for what it is behind all of that, I saw something very beautiful.
South Africa is a multicultural society in the fullest sense of the term. Even within the many races that exist here, there are a multitude of cultures and subcultures. I have become fascinated with how it all works and the fact that somehow, despite the abhorrent history of this country and the cultural differences which abound, people can actually live together as South Africans. There is still plenty of racism, disparity, and governmental problems, but it is a free society and one which has triumphed one of the greatest tests in history.
No matter what people may say, the magic of South Africa, glorified during the years of Nelson Mandela’s rule, is still alive. It is alive in every person who can put race aside, even if for a moment, and treat a person simply as another human being, or as fellow South African. I see this happen all the time, even if it is never reported or even noticed. People are often so concerned about racial tensions and the many other problems in this country that they often fail to see the holes being broken in racial barriers.
It was a very special experience for me as a white man to work in black South African communities and to really get to know theses areas. I gained an enormous amount of cultural perspective and understanding of South Africa, which I will treasure forever. But, I think, perhaps my students gained more than I did from this arrangement. I showed them that they could trust me and may just have changed their perspective on racial issues in the process. I first became aware of this when Sello, one of my students, made a comment while I was filming him that I had showed him that “white people, they love black people.” This very innocent and generalized statement really struck me. If I was actually somehow responsible for changing my students’ opinions on race, what else might I be teaching them?
In my first post, I wrote that, “my project deals with the importance of music in childhood education.” And that’s very much how I looked at what I was doing for a long time. I was simply teaching music. But, while I was showing my students a certain technique or telling them about drumming in America, apparently there was more too it.
When I first started working for the Field Band Foundation, several people stressed in their conversations that the foundation is a life skills program which simply uses the medium of music and dance to reach children. While I understood this concept, it never really hit home until recently. The music really is just the thing that brings everyone together under one roof (or one field in this case). But, it is the interactions and the process of working together and learning from each other that makes the program really work. When I think about it, I realize that I learned an enormous amount from my students, and very little of it had to do with music.
In the end, I think that I may have had more of an impact than I suspected. And my drummers won the National Championships too! So, despite any doubts I may have had along the way, I am really proud of everything I did. I honestly can’t imagine a better thing to have done for a year. I managed to do all the things I love doing and picked up some true life lessons along the way. I think I will live the rest of my days with at least a bit of that South African magic running through my veins.
Thank you for reading my blog. It’s been a blast to write and I really appreciate the comments you’ve sent me and the interest you’ve had in my work. I will be starting a new blog soon and will continue my work in music and film. I don’t think I’ll be able to avoid doing a bit more teaching either! Feel free to contact me at jimcol@gmail.com. Thanks again, and, as they say in Zulu, Hamba Kahle – go well.
