Friday, May 16, 2025

Youth

Rural Dreams

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The life she lives is one she appreciates, mostly because it’s all she’s known, but that doesn’t stop her from dreaming. It’s her ability to dream that keeps her grounded while allowing her to be free, as freedom is the only thing she truly seeks.

The rural landscape of Dokodweni, which is home to a few hundred South African natives.

Just a few hours outside of the bustling city of Durban is the rural town of Dokodweni. Like anywhere, it has the four necessities for it to function; a church, a school, a clinic and a grocery store. The residents work both regular and odd jobs, most unaware of what lies beyond their homestead.


The same can be said for Lindelwa Dube, who has gone no further than a few kilometers into town, never venturing further.

She finds freedom in her ambitions. Because of the burden of expectation that comes with being a Zulu woman—namely being a homemaker and the requirement of marriage— she spends a good amount of time submitting to the wishes of her mother and father.

The main house on the Dube plot.

 

“I always have to be available to help.” she says. “Even if there are things I don’t want to do, I do them because I don’t want to disappoint my mother.”


Humility and respect are two concepts that govern Lindelwa’s life, both of which challenge her daily – on the one hand, submitting to her parents, while on the other rebelling against school to the point where disrespecting teachers is a daily activity, most times to the detriment of her education.

She tells how she  and her schoolmates sang and danced during a lecture. And how one week the teacher decided not to show up. But education remains part of her plan – Lindelwa still wants to be a doctor.

 

Lindelwa Dube, age 15.
gracefully smiling after being caught off-guard.

She smiles as I ask why. All she knows is that her mother deserves a bigger house and her father a new car. As we sit on the sofa, eyes glued to the TV set where Imbewu: The Seed tracks the daily drama of a Zulu family caught in a big city tale of ambition and tradition, she can see herself living this life – fast paced and glittering. But her ties to her rural homestead remain powerful. She breathes and says, “One day I’ll go to America…but I want to stay here forever.”

By Corey D. Smith

Suicide spike jolts varsities

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OLIVIA DECELLES & AISHA HAUSER

Academic and financial pressures taking their toll on students.

A spike in suspected suicides at South Africa’s top university has campus managers seeking the help of depression and anxiety experts.

Six University of Cape Town students have died from unnatural causes on its campuses so far this year.

Last year it was three, with the university management establishing a mental health task team after the deaths.

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Become a part of the art at 3D interactive exhibition in Cape Town

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By Sealy McMurrey

Capetonians are capturing moments of themselves hiking the Grand Canyon‚ featuring in The Last Supper‚ and riding a camel without breaking a sweat.

An interactive 3D painting exhibition by world-renowned American pavement artist Kurt Wenner‚ currently on display at the V&A Waterfront‚ is making all of this possible.

Incredible Illusions is different to most art shows.

Instead of the typical museum instruction to “look‚ but don’t touch” people are encouraged to interact with the paintings for a photograph that will make it look like they’re actually there.

Wenner said that the art was chosen specifically “to provide an interactive experience to the public”.

“I wanted to share to [with] them the possibilities art offers to change our environment with imagination‚” he added.

Sealy McMurrey at 3D artist and inventor, Kurt Wenner’s “Incredible Illusions” exhibition at the V&A Waterfront Watershed. Photo by Ruvan Boshoff

Cape Town is the first international city to host Wenner’s travelling showcase.

Wenner said he got the idea for the showcase after setting up a museum in the Playa Del Carmen in the Mexican Riviera‚ and decided to start the showcase in Cape Town because of how impressed he was with the city when he first visited some years ago.

“I grew up in Santa Barbara‚ California‚ which is similar in many ways‚ although I must concede that Cape Town is even more elegant and spectacular. Naturally‚ I was delighted with the opportunity to display my work in such an enviable venue.”

For those who crave a more scholastic angle‚ there is also an educational zone that provides a history on pavement art and shares the crucial role that geometry plays in the creation of 3D interactive artwork. More creative museum-goers can learn about the foundation of 3D art and make their own masterpiece at the Art Jamming zone.

While Wenner was aware of the political situation in South Africa‚ he said that he generally avoided politics in his art because he felt “that my message is one of inclusion and hope rather than protest”.

“The whole world seems to be unstable at the moment and there is certainly plenty to protest about across the globe.”

The exhibition started on April 4 and runs until July 23. — TMG Digital/TimesLIVE

Read this article online here

Inanda Seminary Promoting Confidence in Young Women

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Due to the legacy of Apartheid, most of the private schools in South Africa contain predominantly white students. But Inanda Seminary School is purposefully made up of only young black girls. Inanda is an independent boarding school, founded by American Missionaries in 1869 and situated among the hills of Inanda Township, 25 kilometers from the city of Durban. Emily Rizzo interviewed two archivists and experts of the school. Their jobs are to collect and organize the school’s and students’ important documents and artifacts. Today the two women tell us about the warm familial environment of Inanda Seminary and how it nurtures confidence and pride among the young women. The students truly exemplify the schools’ motto, Shine Where You Are.

Listen to the audio piece below:
https://soundcloud.com/emily-rizzo-659593274/inanda-seminary-for-girls-1

By Emily Rizzo

I Care: A Safe Place for Durban Street Children

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I Care is a non-profit organization based in Durban, South Africa. Their mission is to help solve the problems of street children. This is an interview with Donation, an I Care employee. His job is to attempt to convince the children to experience the safety and comfort that is I Care and to get off the streets. I Care provides a get-away for the children. They are served meals, provided beds for naps, books to read, and games to play. The kids can even do arts and crafts or listen to music. But I Care hopes to eventually get the children in school or back living with a family member. Today, Donation tells us what it’s like to be a child begging on the street, and how we can help as citizens. Listen to the audio piece on sound cloud below:
https://soundcloud.com/emily-rizzo-659593274/donation

If you want to get involved or just learn more, check out I Care’s website:

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By Emily Rizzo

Thobani Ndlovu on being black and gay in South Africa

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By Sealy McMurrey

Thobani Ndlovu is a 27-year-old black gay man. Originally from a small rural town called Ndwedwe, Thobani came to Durban for university at the University of Kwa-Zulu Natal where he still studies Gender and Sexuality. Thobani came to talk to SIT South Africa: Social and Political Transformation, where I first met him. The way Thobani talked about the context of race and sexuality and how they overlap in South Africa made me want to know more. As noted later in the interview, Thobani’s inflection in his voice is a little more obvious to passersby that he MAY be gay, being less deep and overbearing as stereotypical male voices sound.

Have you found a community and place where you feel comfortable?

It’s taken a while in Durban to find that community, but I have. I found that I couldn’t quite fit in because I didn’t identify with any of those things [top or bottom] so it was really, really hard for me to find people who understood me because I was always being forced to be one thing or the other. I’ve found that I was comfortable with my race… but they were homophobic so I was comfortable in other areas like… when we were talking about race and stuff they get it. But when we’re talking about things like sexuality or even sexism they didn’t get it. So I sort of had to build my own community and then stay within those confines because I found that every time I decide to venture out I’d come back hurt because of something [they said].

How has being black impacted your experience being gay and how has it impacted your role in the LGBTQ community?

They [other black people] say that black people don’t behave like that. It’s not a black thing to be gay so I always found that my sexuality allowed people to deny me my race, like I’m not black enough because I’m into guys… But in terms of the LGBTQ community, my sexuality and my race have kind of come together to allow me to see like the intersectional issues. The fact that it’s not just the fact that I’m black, it’s not just the fact that I’m gay, but these things make it very complex because I’m black… Then I’ve found that dating is also [hard]. I always thought that because you’re gay you understand being discriminated against. But if you go online on a site and then you chat with someone and if you don’t have your picture there then they ask you your race and then you’re like “I’m black” and they’re like “Oh sorry I’m not looking for blacks, just whites only.” Yeah that and the gender performance as well as the “No fats, no fems, no blacks”… And we don’t really get much mixing of races… I haven’t had friends that were dating outside of their race.

How has being gay impacted your experience in racial discrimination and the black community in general?

I used to lead by my sexuality first but then I realized that when I came out of Ndwedwe that even before a person can notice my sexuality or before I can pronounce my sexuality, they see my race. I’m treated in accordance to my race. In black communities you don’t want to be seen as weak. So you’ll try to… buff up and change how you walk. But when I’m in white spaces in the white community, you don’t want to be seen as threatening, as a danger, so you try to be less macho so it’s always something that I need to catch myself [doing] because it’s not something that I do consciously. Because sexuality was a thing that was most prominent. It forced me to speak about it because that’s what I’ve always lived with. But when I got out of it, there were other issues I also deal with. So it’s made me want to be more active and speak out more against race issues and stuff.

Have you noticed a rural and urban divide in how people treat you?

There’s this assumption though that the people in the rural areas are more homophobic than people in the cities. [But] nobody has ever heckled me in Ndwedwe. Nobody has ever verbally abused me when I was walking on the street, but it’s happened here in Durban. Generally, the assumption is that people are more homophobic in rural areas, but where I come from they are… more tolerant of it. Perhaps it’s because when you come to Durban, because it’s a bigger town and it’s within the city, people are more comfortable to express themselves. So maybe that’s why there’s such a strong pushback.

By not being a “Born-Free” (black South Africans born after Apartheid ended in 1994), what is the difference between the experience you’ve had in the LGBTQ community versus the experience of “Born-Frees” in the LGBTQ community?

Younger black males are more likely to come out earlier now because it’s legal. And that was [passed] after 1994. So whereas we were bombarded with “you shouldn’t do that, boys don’t do this, don’t act that way” and stuff, they probably didn’t get that as much. Or even with like the media, it’s showing more representations. Over the years we’ve had shows showing gay relationships which have been taboo in the past, so I definitely think that there is a difference. When I was in school I was trying to find participants for my research and I would ask them “So how do you feel about that?” And they’d be like “well that’s who he is, so there really isn’t any issue.” I actually had a lot of experiences where I would have thought that my friends would stick up for me but they didn’t because they are now associated with this guy that everyone either suspects or they’re sure that he’s gay so if they stick up for me, then they also stand a chance of being bullied as well. Whereas now, the kids when I talk to them they say “No! I stick up for him if this happens or if someone says this to him.” So yeah, I definitely think that there’s a difference, but there’s still a long way to go.

Hair Policy in South African Schools

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One of the earliest conversations I had with my homestay sister after arriving in Durban was around education. When I asked her what was one thing she would change about her school, without hesitation; she said the ‘hair code’.
In August of 2016 protests at the prestigious Pretoria Girls High School sparked a hashtag, #StopRacismAtPretoriaGirlsHigh, that went viral, trending worldwide. The protests were in response to school’s the hair code, which states that students may not wear their hair in wide cornrows, braids, or dreadlocks.
Historically, Pretoria Girls was an all white school under the apartheid regime. It began admitting black students in the mid- 90s. In support of the hair code, some educators have argued that the hair dress code deters personal expression that may take the focus away from learning. However, while the hair code never explicitly singles out Afro- textured hair, it does not limit straight hair styles to such a degree and with such specific detail.
South Africa’s minister of arts and culture, Nathi Mthethwa, tweeted after the eruption of protests that, “Schools should not be used as a platform to discourage students from embracing their African identity” (NPR, http://www.npr.org/sections/goatsandsoda/2016/09/06/492417635/a-ban-on-black-hairstyles-raises-deeper-issues-about-race). Black students have also recounted experiences in which their teachers and peers described their dreadlocks as “bird’s nests”.
One student said natural hair was being criminalized, stating, “You’re in fear when you go to school because you know you will be policed,”(The Guardian, https://www.theguardian.com/world/2016/aug/31/south-african-students-speak-out-ban-afro-hair-pretoria-school).
#StopRacismAtPretoriaGirlsHigh hit home for many Americans, myself included, as issues of black beauty and empowerment have plagued our culture in the United States. The issue of wearing naturally Afro- textured hair in particular is one that has affected my confidence and feelings of self- worth for much of my life. I made the decision to come to South Africa to study in July of 2016. Seeing #StopRacismAtPretoriaGirlsHigh on social media one month later prompted me to think about the ways in which racism continues to persist in South Africa. I remained curious to hear about the experiences of students at these newly desegregated schools.
Last week when I visited Durban Girls College, the faculty informed me that their hair code is currently under revision. It appears as though South African institutions may not be keeping up with the social transformations that the nation has undergone.
Despite the small victory of the students at Pretoria Girls, the girls at historically white schools still seem to be the ones who must assimilate into the preexisting culture of the school, as the schools are doing little to adapt to the changing demographics and social climates.

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