(a “cloud” blurb to add) “Everyone born in Kenya and throughout East Africa at least, has a tribal name and a Christian name. Both are used, normally the tribal name most used at home”.
(January)I enjoyed at real break from the job and heat during the holidays, traveling to JoBerg SA to visit friends. The complexity of the South African history and heritage is unavoidable. Human evolution began here. Yet it is ironic that humanity suffered in the place of it genesis and the scar of a crashing mederoite (Tswang Crater) is not clearly as etched on the soil as the cruelty of apartheid. Africans began here – with the Busotho, Tswana and Bapedi tribes, much replaced by the arrival of early explorers – but their stories were retold, and I was reminded why we are able to hear these stories again. The many monuments, for instance the women’s prison,
the Old Fort, and the Hector Peterson statue, the tribute to the slain youth of Soweto, are testimony to the bravery of many heros.
Then there was the renaissance “50’s, giving a place in the world to artists and musicians who grew to be international legends like Marian Makeba. None however is more famous than Nelson Rosihlahla Mandela, perhaps the most recognized statesman of this century. Now he has returned to his village on the western cape, high in spirit I hear, (his middle name stand for the word “branch,” growing in a different direction) to live out his nineties in peace.
Jo Berg is a major political and economic force on both sides of the African continent. Its also known as Gautang..the “city and province of gold” where the founders mined and stayed - planting so many trees that its almost known for the
being the city in the forest more than it’s gold deposits. Since the signing of the freedom charter, the treason trial in Rivonia (Mandela, Sobuko and nine others,
Mandela’s law partner Oliver Tembo already exiled to England) and the 1976 school massacre (Hector), Jo- Berg has evolved into a multifaceted treasure with many future growth possibilities. It pulsates with global advancement, music, public art and design, film festivals, sport mecca and fashion center. And no place in the world could be as culturally complex with the British, Dutch and 12 national tribes all intertwined. Jacob Zuma, the president, is known to be very engaging but corrupt to the core.
I particularly enjoyed my visit to the Constitutional Court, nestled dramatically into the Old Fort and Men’s Prison campus (where Mandela and MH Ghandi both were imprisoned at one time, years before Mandela’s 27 years at Robbin Island)…a poignant, daily, reminder of just how freedom came about for South Africa. I never could learn who the architect was. Somebody look on line for me. The Aparteid Museum, is staggering but uplifting in a way I know that progress is possible.
I also visited Winnie and Nelson Mandela’a early home in Soweto where their children were raised along with his two sons by his first marriage. Mandela returned to live there after his release from Robbin Island. And after a museum was established, Winnie still lives close by when she’s not in Capetown serving as a regional representative.
Mombasa and even Nairobi are real Kenyan communities and the change in environment for me after 8 months in Kenya was startling. I savoured the food, the washing machine and wonderful running water!
11 Judges Preside
SA Constitutional Court in Jo berg Mens prison, also on site of Old Fort
MOYO Restaurant, Jo berg
Nelson Mandelas Cell
Supreme Court Main door of Constitutional Court where Freedom came for SA in 1996. There are more guarantees for individual rights in SA than any other constitution in the world.
Cool Jo Berg Restaurant MOYO
Sheldrake Baby Elephant and Rhino Sanctuary. Rescued infants are on view.
In silence one hour daily so they can be released when healthy into the wild again! Soya milk only, fed no animal products, blanketed at night to ward off pneumonia since ekes can't cough.
Kipange House, Nairobi; Many Kenyans registered for papers at the turn of the century.
Local business teaching dressmaking
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