Being black in South Africa by Arnold Kawuba

December 31st 2009, 18 Drew university students and two Professors, Dr. Yanique and Dr. Addo boarded their 16 hour flight destined for Thambo Mbeki international airport in Johannesburg South Africa. Full of mixed feelings and emotions, I boarded that South African air flight not knowing what to expect as the pre-departure course had 'fired' me up to go experience what injustice, prejudice and sheer violence can do to a society. Yes, as Alan Paton beautifully writes is his introductory pages of Cry the Beloved Country, the mountains are gorgeous, the landscape is breath taking, the wine is some of the finest. However, Paton later goes on to juxtapose the beauty of South Africa with the atrocities of racial degradation in South Africa and yes, what I experienced demands the attention of all those that believe in justice, human rights and mere respect of human dignity. Until the Nelson Mandela years, the blacks of South Africa were oppressed, were made to feel as if South Africa was not their home; they were physically beaten and when they tried to fight for their land, their humanity and their dignity, they were either tortured more or were thrown in prison. Walking through the prison where Mandela and many others were imprisoned for being black was a wake up call for me because for some odd reason when I read and studied apartheid in South Africa I was not convinced. But, after visiting Robben Island (Prison where Mandela and many others were imprisoned), listening to some of the stories of those that experienced the brutality, and touching, feeling and smelling the soils that soaked the blood of many blacks I was convinced that I had a personal responsibility. A responsibility to go back to the United States and spread the word--we can not forget what happened in South Africa. Our brother and sister across the Atlantic need us to ensure that another racial genocide does not occur.