My Journey to South Africa

My Journey to South Africa

I started out my long journey to visit the country of South Africa, I wanted to

experience a new way of life and see how different it was watching and living with all the

different cultural experiences.

In South Africa there were many different ethnic groups; there were the, Zulu, Xhosa,

and the Tswana. I soon found that the South Africans were very religious, 70% of the

populations were Christians and the other 30% were either Hinduism, Islam, Animisms.

Being able to see how their religious background was so important to them just amazed

me, I really enjoyed being able to experience this. South Africa does have many great

places to visit if you just want to explore and have a relaxing vacation, on the other hand

there are still many areas of South Africa that still live in poverty, whom deal with

discrimination and racism everyday.

The South African government Apartheid ended in 1994 which made it easier for

Africans because they did not have to deal with the inhuman laws and policies. The South

Africans are still dealing with loss or lack of jobs; they are unable to speak out about

what they need for their communities. It is a shame that such a vibrant cultural has to be

shut out from their government. As I continued on my journey to explore more areas of

South Africa I did however see where the discrimination of ethnic backgrounds came into

play. There are among the black South Africans, white South Africans. The majority of

the White South Africans do tend to see themselves as being superior to the black South

Africans because of their race. While the South Africans were under Apartheid they were

all being categorized by their race and their ethnicity. The Apartheid, categorized “race”

as the blacks and the whites, they also categorized the “colored’s” as the South Africans

whose ethnicity brought them together because they were a mixed race. To the

“colored’s” life after Apartheid did not change at all. They were still being treated as if

they were their own race and their lives were possibly worse than ever The colored’s

were not offered anything such as, better education, better jobs, and they could not get

away from being poor because they are not black or white they were just left behind as

some would put it.

Race was defined as the color of someone’s skin; it is the classification of human

beings, they classified them by their bone structure, hair texture, and color of skin. They

classified their ethnicity by their heritage, language, and kinship of the South Africans.

Even though the South Africans may have shared the same ethnicity, that would make no

difference to the Apartheid, they only wanted to judge by their race. South Africans still

suffer from discrimination and racism. They are still lacking proper education, dealing

with low pay jobs, and laws that humiliate and discriminate against. South Africans are

still however a very strong group, they are extremely religious and will stick together and

fight for what they believe is right and wrong. The always try to fight civilly; they do not

try to harm anyone during their marches or rallies. Many of South Africans probably half

of the population all struggle from poverty. If you could imagine how bad poverty in is in

the US just picture it being 100 times worse over in Africa. We have shelters and soup

kitchens, and access to welfare, and health care. South Africans, do have access to a few

of these but they are so far away that it is not even worth it to attempt. They really do not

have any means of transportation and some of them are just no able to take a trip by foot

to see a doctor.

Although there are several bad areas of South Africa there are still so many other

wonderful places to go here, such as the ; Knysna, Durban, Cape town, and hermanus.

There are so many tourists’ attractions here and the areas that we visited were so

beautiful, I will mark this experience down as a wonderful visit and I know that next time

I plan on taking a trip some where that South Africa will be where I choose to go. It has

been a wonderful experience learning the history and lives of the South Africans.

References:

Seekings, Jeremy (Jan2008). The continuing salience of race: Discrimination and
Diversity in South Africa Journal of contemporary African Studies; Vol.26 Issue 1, p1-25, 25p, 1 Diagram, 1 Chart, 2 Graphs, DOI: 10.1080/02589000701782612

South Africa. (2002). In Continuum Companion to Twentieth Century Theatre. Retrieved from http://www.credoreference.com/entry/conttct/south_africa

South Africa. (2005). In Encyclopedia of Intelligence & Counterintelligence. Retrieved from http://www.credoreference.com/entry/sharpint/south_africa

References: Seekings, Jeremy (Jan2008). The continuing salience of race: Discrimination and Diversity in South Africa Journal of contemporary African Studies; Vol.26 Issue 1, p1-25, 25p, 1 Diagram, 1 Chart, 2 Graphs, DOI: 10.1080/02589000701782612 South Africa. (2002). In Continuum Companion to Twentieth Century Theatre. Retrieved from http://www.credoreference.com/entry/conttct/south_africa South Africa. (2005). In Encyclopedia of Intelligence & Counterintelligence. Retrieved from http://www.credoreference.com/entry/sharpint/south_africa