Berkley Center

In South Africa, Nelson Mandela is like George Washington, Abraham Lincoln, and Martin Luther King, Jr., combined. More than a year after his death, his legacy as a freedom fighter and leader still dominates the country. And yet, as much as Mandela and others have achieved, in my first few weeks in South Africa I have been exposed to many areas in which progress is still to come. Although South Africa today, more than 20 years after the lifting of apartheid as government policy, no longer has a political system based on racism and bigotry, historical factors still influence a society marked by “soft segregation,” a social phenomenon especially apparent in the college town of Stellenbosch.

Cape Town and its surrounding areas are eerily reminiscent of my home state of California. Cape Town proper, with its beaches and relaxed culture, is Los Angeles if LA were prettier and less pretentious. Meanwhile, Stellenbosch, 45 minutes from the city and nestled among acres and acres of vineyards, is Napa Valley. Walking through the Stellenbosch University campus and downtown feels like strolling through a Mediterranean city, with its whitewashed buildings, outdoor restaurants, and abundance of art galleries. However, in downtown Stellenbosch, one question comes to mind: in a city where the majority of the population is colored, why are most people here White?

For context, it is important to discuss racial classifications in South Africa. The three major races are black African, colored, and White. Black Africans make up about 75 percent of the country’s population, while colored and White people make up about 10 percent each. Black Africans are descendants of the tribes who migrated to South Africa from other regions of Sub-Saharan Africa long ago. colored people descend from the Khoisan people who are indigenous to South Africa, and they also have mixed blood that includes that of Afrikaner settlers. White people have two major ancestral origins: Dutch Afrikaners who settled the land in the 1600s, and the English who colonized the country in the 1800s.

In Stellenbosch, the ethnic makeup is 52 percent colored, 28 percent black African, and 18 percent White. The stratification of these races within the city is startling. Whites and students occupy the idyllic center of the city, and colored people populate the neighborhoods on the outskirts. Finally, many of the black Africans live outside of the city, often in destitute conditions. The most visceral of these black African neighborhoods is Enkanini, an informal settlement of 10,000 squeezed into shacks on the side of a hill, across a highway and a river from the rest of the city.

Although the segregation of Stellenbosch’s residents is not institutionalized, it is perpetuated through factors that are remnants of the apartheid era. Take, for example, transportation. Residents of Enkanini, whose ancestors were forcibly removed from the city proper, are at an automatic disadvantage because of the long walking commute needed to reach the city and train system. In a system where they are so disadvantaged, it is nearly impossible for these impoverished people to achieve social mobility through economic success. As a result, physical segregation persists. However, this physical segregation is not limited to the informal settlements. Even the university, which is reputed to be a liberal beacon in a conservative area, is tinged by racial separation. For example, I remember a South African friend explaining the town’s popular bars to me.

“English people go to Bohemia and Mystic’s,” she said. “Afrikaners go to Nu-Bar and the coloreds go to Entourage. If you go to Nu-Bar and you’re trying to pick up a girl, you better be buff and Afrikaans.”

It is surprising that certain bars are connected with certain races, even more so when considering that the “colored” club Entourage is directly upstairs from the “Afrikaans” Nu-Bar. This sense of soft separation is not limited to the nightlife; its undercurrents are widespread across campus.

Just as recent turmoil in the United States has confirmed that race is still an incredibly relevant factor of controversy and discussion, the issue of subconscious discrimination has been pervasive in my short time in South Africa. Having been in this country for three weeks, I cannot claim to have even an inkling of an idea of how to solve this problem. However, like in the United States, the problem stems from historically institutionalized racism, and it is perpetuated today by a system that inhibits social mobility. The first challenge that was completed was to remove racism from South African politics; the next challenge will be to remove this racism from people’s minds.