Friday, May 9, 2025

Alumni

Finding the Right Track

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By Natalie Elliott

The buses stop running before midnight in Como, Italy.

This I discovered when arrived at Como Camerlata station from Milan Garibaldi around 11:30 p.m one night.

It was very dark outside and I was in a country where I didn’t understand a word of the local language.

On this particular day, I had missed a flight, and a train, and had run the battery of my phone down to just one percent. Spanish subway drivers had gone on strike, leading to this precarious state of affairs, landing me on the last train of the night to Lake Como. And as I had found myself at the wrong Milan train station, a connection gap of 30 seconds gave me no choice but to trust the universe and jump on the first train I saw.

Milano Porta Genova was not the train station I was meant to be at, but it sure is beautiful.

This decision changed how I see life.

 

After plenty of confused tears and panicked pacing, I met Arianna Sogetti. I had been desperately scanning the train for a young person who looked like they might speak enough English to understand my question. Finally, I worked up the courage to talk to the Italian girl in the seat across from mine.

 

Arianna spoke no English, but she came to my rescue. Confusion on the faces of Arianna and her friend gradually turned into understanding nods and eventually laughter as I typed what I needed to say into Google translate, using the last little bit of my phone’s battery. Yes, she nodded. I was on the right train. And when the time came, she made sure I got off with her at the correct stop.

Once the next morning came, I felt lucky to have made it to Lake Como.

It was then I discovered that the taxis also stop running before midnight.

Thank goodness the very large and very loud Sogetti family did not.

Their kindness in driving a stranger they could not speak to to a hostel on the other side of town has stayed with me.

It is them I thank for my lust of travel and the reminder of what can come from being spontaneous.

I have learned not to ask why thing sometimes seem to conspire against me. Who knows what it might bring.

Learning how to disagree

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By Kelly Vinett

My grandfather went vegan the third time he got cancer. One of my last memories of him is picking at a tofu scramble wearing his “Make America Great Again” baseball hat. He was a life-long conservative Republican — and a devout Catholic. In the months before his death, he ate strictly whole foods and attended yoga classes.

Cancer either takes hold of you, or it doesn’t. You have time, or there’s little left. I can’t imagine the suffering my grandfather had to go through: three different diseases and three different treatments.

At one point Grandpa was my idol, being the first to teach me how to ski and how to sing. However, as I got older, I started thinking with more independence. Some cynicism crept in, and my grandpa’s virtues began to fade.

Our family tree on my grandfather’s side primarily consists of politically conservative jocks. Although I was on the taller side growing up, I never became a basketball star like many of my 23 other cousins. I suppose my affinity for playing classical piano didn’t receive the same reaction from my grandfather. He couldn’t say, “She scored 3 goals,” to his many listeners. Grandpa barely bragged about me. Luckily, I liked it that way, since I was never attracted to the spotlight. I loved to play the piano but hated to perform. Applause never felt like a true reward.

On one of Grandpa’s last days, we spent it fighting about politics. It began with my grandfather reminding me he grew up poor but found status in the white middle class after completing an engineering degree. Somehow, we got to where he was voicing his staunch opposition to Mexican immigrants “taking our jobs”, and arguing that “slavery wasn’t all that bad,” because, after all, India’s hierarchical caste system still exists. Before this moment, I’d never had the guts to express my personal views to my grandfather, although he knew they weighed liberal. Instead of remaining silent and uncomfortable as always, I finally told my grandfather, “I disagree.”

Whether to forgive and forget is a question I have grappled with following his funeral. How can I love someone with blatantly opposite views about the world, about humanity? My mother told me I didn’t have to like my grandfather but she found it unfathomable for me to say I couldn’t love him.

Do I have to make a choice?

Facing the dichotomy between my moral and emotional compasses hurts a little too much— and I haven’t yet found my way.  

Reexamining Nelson Mandela’s Capture Site

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By Natalie Elliott

Empty rural roads wind along the South African countryside. In the Midlands region of KwaZuluNatal, signs of life begin to appear in the form of family homes turned into coffee stops for tourists, wine country beckoning foreigners, and billboards advertising Nelson Mandela’s capture site. 

At the Mandela Museum, one might notice a news article about an addition to the site being built down the road for R74 million. The addition will be a visitor’s centre, complete with a replica of Mandela’s prison cell on Robben Island, an ampitheatre, an underground tunnel leading to the actual capture site across the street, and a place for vendors to sell their goods, including arts and crafts, indoors.

Students symbolically follow Mandela’s “Long Walk to Freedom” at his capture site.

“It’s a really beautiful place and it’s hard to imagine that something so tragic happened there,” said Callie Struby, a student on the SIT Social and Political Transformation program.

 

The quietness of the area seems to be in contrast to the historical significance of the site itself. Nelson Mandela was captured on August 5, 1962 as he was en route to Johannesburg. A warrant of arrest had been issued shortly before, making Mandela the most wanted person in South Africa. Sergeant Vorster of the Pietermaritzburg police arrested Mandela in Howick, KwaZulu Natal and the future president of South Africa received a jail sentence of five years.

 

While at the time it was unclear how he had been located, it has now become widely accepted that the Central Intelligence Agency of the United States revealed Mandela’s whereabouts to his captors. In order to understand the reasoning behind this, it is important to think about the context of this particular period in world history.

 

The Cold War between the U.S. and Russia was under way during the 1960’s, and the fear of communism loomed large for much of the U.S. population. While Russia supported the anti-Apartheid movement, the United States supported the minority rule of the Apartheid government, according to the African Globe.

 

Fellow SIT student, Kelly Vinett, said the memorial site felt symbolic.

“It feels more like a celebration rather than a way to inspire change in the people who go there,” she said.

 

At the start of the site’s symbolic “Long Walk to Freedom” – a paved pathway that leads to the sculpture that is the centrepiece of the site – a banner advertising an app with more information strikes onlookers. It begs the question of intent and audience. What kind of people will be attracted to this site, and will they have the means to reach it? Does this accurately reflect Mandela’s message as a whole?

 

A banner outside the museum at Nelson Mandela’s capture site advertises an application for smartphones.

 

Would Mandela have asked for this new R74 million visitor’s center?

Class divides in Cato Manor

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News of the day from select.Timeslive.co.za:

By Hannah Green

“For a municipality-built house, the home Nompilo Mkhize shares with her father and son in Durban’s Cato Manor is impressive.

The floors are tiled, the sitting room has a silver Samsung TV, and there is even a platter of fake wooden fruit decorating the coffee table. Mkhize’s father’s job as a driver for night-shift Prasa employees has treated them well.

South Africa is often described as a land of two nations, divided between a financially successful white minority and a large community of impoverished black Africans. But in Cato Manor the divide is not that simple…”

Continue reading at select.Timeslive.co.za.

A land of two nations, but in Cato Manor it is not so simple

Lab tests give new hope for patients

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News of the day from Timeslive.co.za:

By Hannah Green

Researchers at the University of Johannesburg may have come up with a silver bullet for certain cancers.

Laboratory tests suggest a newly discovered family of silver-based anti-cancer drugs could provide smaller dosages‚ lower toxicity and fewer adverse side-effects.

Read more about their discovery at Timeslive.co.za.

UJ team discovers silver lining in the dark clouds of cancer

Malema takes aim at Zulu king over land: ‘There are no holy cows’

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MAIN IMAGE: The rolling hills of rural KwaZulu Natal seen from the national road. The debate over ownership of land is heating up in South Africa. Photo by Serena Hawkey.

South African media were today reporting on tension between opposition leader Julius Malema and Zulu King Goodwill Zwelithini over Malema’s call for expropriation of land without compensation. Zwelithini has warned that his warriors are ready to defend the three million hectares of rural land controlled by the Ingonyama Trust, which he heads. The trust was established in 1994 and placed control of tribal lands in KwaZulu Natal under the king.

Today the Sunday Times reported that Malema accused Zwelithini of “intimidating” those who were calling for expropriation of land without compensation.

The news outlet said Malema told a press conference on Thursday, “There are no holy cows in this country. We must debate issues openly‚ including disagreeing with the Zulu king. The Zulu king must call for engagement with regards to the land. He must be respected‚ he must not be feared. I don’t fear anyone‚ no one. I only fear God.”

See reports on News24 and Sunday Times below.

Read more at Sunday Times or News24

Malema takes aim at Zulu king over land: ‘There are no holy cows’

 

Photo of the Day: March 9, 2018

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School of International Training (SIT) students speak with a volunteer at the Durban Lesbian and Gay Community and Health Centre. The Centre provides support and services to the LGBTQ community around Durban and promotes equal rights for all. For more information on the Durban Lesbian and Gay Community and Health Centre, visit their website.

-Jackie Flynn

Ela Gandhi continues her grandfather’s legacy

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MAIN IMAGE: Portrait of Ela Gandhi taken by SIT student Serena Hawkey.

“He read the Quran, the Bible, all the scriptures so he could learn. These scriptures made him realize that there is something more to life. It’s about being more responsible, about the fact that everyone deserves to enjoy social justice,” Ela Gandhi reflects.

The man she refers to is her grandfather, Mahatma Gandhi, one of the most well-known historical figures around the globe. Known for his peaceful approach to conflict resolution, he showed mankind a new and nonviolent approach to political movements.

He was also an inspiration for his family, many of whom who have followed in his footsteps. Ela Gandhi has taken on political activism in her own life, previously serving as an ANC member of Parliament in the first democratic government and currently serving as a chairperson of the Gandhi Development Trust.

Speaking to a group of SIT students this week she said,“Contrary to what a lot of people believe —that he didn’t have a close relationship with his family — he was a very warm family member. He wrote letters to me up until the day he was assassinated — a seven-year-old. He felt it was important.”

Though Gandhi is widely known for his leadership in the fight for Indian independence from the British, he also had an influential impact in South Africa. He lived in the country for 21 years and had some of his first encounters with racism in Durban.

In 1893, Gandhi arrived in Durban to work as legal counsel for an Indian business firm. On a train ride from Durban to Pretoria, he was asked to move to a third-class car as Indian people were not allowed in first-class carriages. Gandhi had purchased a first-class ticket and refused. At the Pietermaritzburg station he was forcibly removed from the train.

Later on, while Gandhi was visiting a courthouse in Durban, he was asked by the local magistrate to remove his turban. Gandhi refused and walked out of the courtroom.

These events, along with growing legislative discrimination against non-white communities in the country, fuelled Gandhi’s involvement in South African social liberation movements. It also motivated the entire Gandhi family to speak for marginalised people.

Ela Gandhi, who is a social worker by training, was banned and subjected to house arrest for nine years by the Apartheid government. She remains passionate about the fight against inequality and non-violence.

Read more about Ela Gandhi and her work here Ela Gandhi Bio

A Journey through ANC History at the Luthuli Museum

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By Rebecca Redelmeier

A visit to the Luthili Museum prompts a reflection on the history of the African National Congress (ANC) by preserving the legacy of its ninth president, Chief Albert John Mvumbi Luthuli. Chief Luthuli served as the ANC President from 1952-1967 and is celebrated for his commitment to opposing white minority rule in South Africa through peaceful means and organised resistance.

The museum was built on the grounds of Chief Luthuli’s original home in Groutville, KwaZulu-Natal. It first opened its doors in 2004 and is funded by the Department of Arts and Culture. The original structure of the house has been preserved and just down the road lies the church where Chief Luthuli’s gravesite lies.

In 1936, Luthuli, who had been working as a teacher, was elected chief of  a Zulu tribe in Groutville. In 1945, he joined the ANC, just three years before the National Party came into power and began to implement the disenfranchisement policies for which it would become notorious. Chief Luthuli motivated the party to pursue peaceful means of resistance. When he was elected ANC president in 1952, the National Party government refused to allow him to hold both the presidency and the title of chief. Though the government revoked his chieftainship, the community resisted and continued to view him as their leader.

During most of the time that Chief Luthuli served as ANC president, he was banned by the government from leaving the Groutville district under the Suppression of Communism Act. Even so constrained, Chief Luthuli continued to lead the movement in organised and non-violent resistance. He was the first ANC leader to call for an international boycott of South African goods and was visited by international leaders, including Robert F. Kennedy. In 1960, he became the first African to be awarded the Nobel Peace Prize. At the time, his movement ban was only temporarily lifted for ten days so that he could travel to Oslo to receive the award.

Chief Luthuli died in 1967 while he was still serving as ANC president. Though the formal report on his death states that he was hit by a train near his home, both the autopsy of the body and context of his death suggest that story to be unlikely. There continue to be calls to re-examine his cause of death as many believe that it was a planned attack by the Apartheid government.

Today, Chief Luthuli is regarded as one of the key contributors to South African democracy. He advocated for a bill of rights and believed a constitutional court would uphold the ideals of the nation. Though he died before either were realised, his work paved the way for the ANC leaders who succeeded him. Today, the ANC headquarters in Johannesburg bears the name of Luthuli House in his honour.

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