Berkley Center

Dear Intensely Interested Readers,

When I opened the email that told me that I was accepted into a study abroad program in South Africa, my mind was filled with images of the amazing AFRICAN adventures that I would have there: —spending the night in the bushes with lions and elephants, buying tribal jewelry and headdresses, dancing around fires in rural villages—…all to select music from Disney's The Lion King. Not really. But this is the conception of South Africa that many of the people from the country have expected me to have held before arriving here. "Did you expect to be crawling around with lions?" is the type of question most often asked to me upon meeting someone from South Africa and being identified by him or her as an American abroad. I tell them that no, I did not expect lions, or any other large game animals, to be in close proximity to my place of residence (I was much better informed, having seen Disney's other movie about Africa—South African apartheid to be specific—The Color of Friendship). I have been told that some Americans are not as well informed as I am (I would again have to point them to Disney's more enlightening work). However, despite my superior movie-watching background (I actually do read, too), I was not able to conceive what I was to be introduced to after arriving in South Africa.

When I landed at Cape Town International Airport in January, I was a little dazed but very excited to be in a country that was new and unfamiliar to me. Driving from the airport to Stellenbosch where I am studying, I didn't get to see a lot of the city, but I got a good look at the township that lies between it and my new home. After passing the township, which is miles long, I entered the Western Cape's wine country, filled with picturesque vineyards and interesting animals and land formations. Arriving in the town of Stellenbosch, I was confronted with an old, almost European town with beautiful, grand, white buildings lining the streets, containing cute shops and restaurants. The university takes up a large portion of the town, with its impressive residence halls and class and administrative buildings. I felt like in the short, half-hour drive from the airport to Stellenbosch, I had passed through several completely different worlds. I continue to learn more about this as I spend more time in this area.

Stellenbosch University is one of only two Afrikaans-speaking universities in South Africa, and Afrikaans-speaking students make up about 55 percent of its population. The town itself is very affluent, and the proportion of white people that one would see on campus is drastically higher than the proportion of white people in South Africa. Stellenbosch is very often, and accurately, described as existing in a bubble that separates it in many ways from the majority of South African society. Therefore, when I am asked if I expected to be sleeping with lions, I find the question a bit surreal. This is not because I can't imagine Americans expecting to find large game animals roaming the streets of South Africa (again, not everyone was as thoroughly educated by Disney as I was), but because the way that the question is asked seems to imply that where it was asked——in Stellenbosch——is what the real South Africa is like. And while I do acknowledge that of course Stellenbosch is a part of South Africa's past and present, I believe that there is much more to the country than is contained in this small, tourist-friendly, privileged town in the middle of the vineyards of the Western Cape.

This is not to say that I am frustrated by living here—; Stellenbosch is close to paradise. I do look forward to, however, learning more about the rest of South Africa and the lives of the people who live there! I'll keep you all updated on what I come (or more accurately, try) to understand!

Lots of South African Love,
Vicki Handley