Some Assembly Required

Well, I guess this is civilization – I’m sipping filter coffee in a wireless-equipped café above a busy shopping plaza in Cape Town. And I’m confused. Shell-shocked, even. Only a week ago, I was staying in New Bethesda, which didn’t even boast a bank machine, let alone a grocery store. And now I’m smack in the middle of a busy city with a soccer stadium and movie theatres. Which is the real South Africa? Will I like this one as well as the last?

Without hesitation, I can say that the month-long program at Rhodes was one of the most interesting and important things that I’ve ever done. In particular, the two weeks conducting field work was exactly what I was looking for, in terms of practical experience in international development. And now, anti-climatically, I’m starting a semester at a university in a metropolitan city – which is not dissimilar from the past four years of my life. I hope that I can reinvigorate myself and my stay by starting volunteer work with a school in the township.

But for now, I’m nostalgic for small-town South Africa. I split last week between New Bethesda and Graaff-Reinet, mountain towns in the rural Eastern Cape. We spent our days interviewing the owners of small businesses and our nights playing cards, telling stories, and wandering beneath the vast Southern sky. Just imagine how many stars you can see when a town doesn’t even have streetlights. Also imagine how hard it is for you to find your own darkened house.

As a group, we conducted over 100 interviews in total, the objective being to record data and opinions about the region’s business environment and the support structure that is (not) available to entrepreneurs. We interviewed anyone and everyone, from owners of toy stores and beauty salons in the town to the owners of bars and cab companies in the township. One intense experience was getting through an interview with a paralyzingly frightening apartheid-era South African police officer who refused to give his name (because people are still looking for him) and who actually chased non-white people out of his store, barking in Afrikaans, while I was present.

On the final day of the program, we hosted a Local Economic Development meeting with the business owners and city councillors to discuss the problems that small businesses face and ways in which the municipality can assist them. I’m directly divided between enthusiasm at all the simple yet effective ideas that were tossed around and cynicism as to whether anything will actually be accomplished. Is international development anything more than an exercise in guilt alleviation?

As I see it, the problem in small-town South Africa is marrying the first-world town to the adjacent third-world township. Apartheid catered to the needs of the town and now that enclave needs to expand. I believe that an expansion of the town’s industrial/ manufacturing sector (to create unskilled jobs); investment in the township directly (such as the establishment of a gas station, small plaza, and a proper school); promotion of racial mixing (by, for example, building a unique attraction like a movie theatre in the township); and providing mentoring for new business owners (because the entrepreneurial spirit is present in young people, but the means to do something with it is not) would make a world of difference in levelling the playing field.

I love all the food for thought here.

The four remaining shacks in New Bethesda - government housing has significantly improved living conditions but more are still needed to accomodate new families and alleviate overcrowding.

My interviewing partner Jolanda with "Auntie Evelyn" who runs a (very delicious) restaurant out of her kitchen.

Sitting pretty above Graaff-Reinet.