So I’m sitting in the Los Angeles airport right now, feeling a mixture of emotions about being back in the States – above all, I’m totally stoked to see what this holiday has in store for me.
But before I plunge into my innermost thoughts at this moment, let me share a little about the last few weeks…
One of the most striking elements of the past few weeks has been the attacks on Norway – the Waterford community was hit hard by this, as six of our students are from Norway. I consider myself very close with the Norwegians at the school – if folks recall, I traveled with Jenny to Cape Town and Mozambique during the April holiday, and I’m very close to my IB1 co-years (Jenny, Live, Ingrid) and have a good relationship with the IB2s (Ane, Yulai, Jens). Because of this, I felt very affected by the atmosphere of gravitas, the weight of sadness, which was carried by many at the school on that day.
I wanted, in this post, to make special mention of the incredible fortitude and strength I’ve seen from the Norwegians since the event. In particular, I want to mention Jenny, who attended the island camp for the Youth Party for years before coming to Waterford, and who lost four friends in the shootings.
The bravery I saw from Jenny on the day of the shootings, and in subsequent days, has nearly reduced me to tears more than once. If this had experienced this horrendous event in the way that she did, I surely would have locked myself in my room and refused to see anybody. Yet I saw the complete opposite from Jenny – she was at the carnival (not jumping around and laughing merrily, granted, but with other people, getting fresh air and talking about what had happened), and later helped to organize a community forum of solidarity for victims of the shootings. If this isn’t already remarkable enough, what I saw at the forum made me even more proud of my amazing, amazing friend.
At the meeting, Jenny told us about what had happened, based on accounts not only from the news, but also from her friends who had managed to escape. She told us stories of friends hiding in fear for over an hour, friends who tried to swim away, friends who jumped in front of others to save them. She illustrated the scene for us, so that we could understand just how horrible the nightmare wreaked by the shooter was. Yet she also did something that took more strength than I could ever find in myself – she called for forgiveness, not hatred, towards the politics of the shooter. She realized, and vocalized, that hatred cannot be met with hatred; rather, it must be met with a continued fortitude and endurance of the politics of those who had been killed. The shooter was out to destroy more than lives – he wanted to destroy an ideology. If the Norwegian Youth Party leaves its ideology in favor of hatred, then they allow the shooter to win. However, with courage and persistence, they prove that an idea cannot be shattered with firearms. Jenny reminded us that hatred between political beliefs breeds no progress; rather, it leads to more degradation. In my opinion, this is not only incredibly brave, but also incredibly wise. The world has a lot to learn from this display of strength and forgiveness from Jenny.
My co-year Dimitri (France) wrote a speech for assembly the Wednesday after the attacks – I was very impressed with the speech, and asked him for a copy afterward to post on my blog. Here it is:
On Friday the 22nd of July a dual act of monstrous barbarity rocked the peaceful, idyllic nation of Norway. I am sure you all know of the details of what this one man did in the space of a few hours in one of the most peaceful countries. As Norway mourned the death of more than 90 people this past weekend the Waterford community was also hit on a personal level. On Saturday evening a memorial service took place up in Emhlabeni, and amidst the silence that we shared many powerful words were spoken. And I would like to renew that message of solidarity today, and I hope every one of you can spare a thought for our affected friends.
Today I come to you with my reflection from this horrible attack. I believe this monstrous act is testament of a very worrying trend in Western liberal democracies in particular, but also across the globe: I am talking about extremism in all its forms; fascism, Islamism, and the rest. There has been a resurgence of racism which has been created by people forgetting their values, forgetting the fundamentals of human rights, forgetting that we are all equals. This is not only something that has happened across Europe, but in all parts of the world: Pakistan, Libya and Mexico to name but a few. Also the divide between the haves and the have nots, between those with opportunities and those without, has been exacerbated by the current economic and population crisis. With these hardships politicians everywhere are blaming the other, the foreigner, for the misery. We cannot continue like this, we cannot always blame the other, we cannot always confront each other. There are now 7 billion humans on Earth, we cannot afford hatred, we cannot afford intolerance, we cannot afford to forget the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. We are all equals, we all have a right to a home, to security and to a decent living.
What happened in Norway, and especially the man who perpetrated the massacre, embodies the worst ideas upon which a modern society might be constructed; not only does he reject minorities, but he also despises the Norwegians who work with foreigners and support the concept of multiculturalism. By accepting so many asylum-seekers into Norway the country has carried out one of the most beautiful acts of solidarity which the haves can make towards the have nots, and this murderer committed a horrendous crime to protest against this solidarity. Although this man’s aim was to provoke hatred and violence from his enemies, playing into his game is the most dangerous thing we could do today. I think Jenny in IB1 best summed up how we should react in such a time of crisis; she said: “It is not time for hatred, but for forgiveness.”
I would like to express with my plea to you: do not forget your values, your ideals, always remember what you have learnt here at Waterford, how you have learnt to listen, to tolerate, to respect. Never fall into the trap of hatred, never fall into the cycle of violence. We are here together, we must live together in peace and solidarity.
Jenny ended up going home early for the term, as she was hit particularly hard amongst our Waterford Norwegian community. However, I ask you to hold Jenny, Ingrid, Live, Yulai, Ane, Jens, and the rest of the Norwegian community in the light as they continue to recover from the attacks.
The last weeks of school brought few exciting, interesting things, besides piles of last-minute homework (which teachers have extended into holidays… ugh). However, worth mentioning is the Social and Cultural Anthropology class field trip to a Swazi sangoma (diviner). As we were studying Swazi society for the entirety of the second term, Mlunga (teacher) organized a trip for the class to the diviner. Sangomas basically have a special connection to the spirit world – they are able to communicate with their own ancestors, and ask them to find your ancestors, who then tell the sangoma’s ancestors about you. Unfortunately, due to lack of time, I was one of about half the group that wasn’t able to be seen – however, I heard quite interesting accounts from those who were seen…
So apparently the first thing that happens upon entering the room is that the sangoma ‘throws her bones’ – these are usually a collection of trinkets, including dominoes, dice, small animal bones, etc, that the diviner throws over the table and thus interprets for meaning about the subject’s life. Then she asks the subject what he/she wants to know. From those who were seen, the common interpretation from the diviner, for almost all the students who saw her, seemed to be this: your ancestors are angry with you. For some reason or another, they want to withhold your luck from you, or prevent you from getting married, etcetera. Thus, your parents and you must hold a party when you get home to honor the ancestors. So, even though I wasn’t seen, I’m going to stick with the common prediction, and send out this message:
Mom, Dad – the ancestors are angry with us, and thus we need to have a party when I get home. I’ll bring the chips and salsa.
Still unsure if I buy into this whole supernatural set of beliefs that the traditional Swazi hold – there’s a lot in there that really goes against my firmly established Western over-rationality, yet there’s a certain draw to the whole thing. The idea of magic, witchcraft, and divining is still a very prominent idea in Swaziland, and I don’t want to discount the whole thing… just yet.
And this brings me nicely to being home. I’ve only been in the States for a handful of hours now, and already I’m feeling mixed emotions. Maybe it’s just because I really hate airports (and LA), but I find it quite interesting that I feel more confident and knowledgeable walking the streets of Maputo than trying to navigate LAX. But moreover, there’s a certain… atmosphere to Southern Africa that I feel is missing here. Perhaps I’m just crazy (it’s very likely that I am, actually, as I’ve lost my sense of space and time after flying for so long), but I feel almost like there’s a quality missing, as I sit in this airport. People seem more detached, more “bubble-oriented”.
At the same time, though, most of the people I’ve dealt with have been airport personnel, announcements, etc. And you guys know as well as I do how annoying TSA in the USA can be. There are lots of similarities as well – for example, I stepped off the plane in LA and was confronted by an escalator… which was completely broken. I nearly muttered the letters T.I.A (“This Is Africa”, a common phrase of exasperation for non-functioning aspects of Southern African daily life), but caught myself. Because, after all, this is NOT Africa.
In any case, to sum it up everything feels very different, and simultaneously exactly the same (because I know that makes things clearer). The first thing I did when I got to my terminal was buy Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups (none in Swaziland). Yum :)
Gonna cut the post short here, dunno if I’ll be able to throw it online before I get out of LA, but I’ll try. See many of you all in a matter of hours!
Cheers
Eli
boop boop boop
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