woops

In the post about Prexy's Columbia class that I wrote a couple of weeks ago I made a factual error! I confused Ahmed Kathrada with Mac Maharaj. 

Let me explain: in the post, I had said that Kathrada was the reason that Mandela's autobiography, Long Walk to Freedom existed, because "Kathy" would smuggle it out of Robben Island prison for him (Steve and I will be going to Robben Island in July, I'll post pics). I was wrong! It was actually Mac Maharaj, who was also a political prisoner at Robben Island who smuggled out Mandela's manuscript in 1976. Coincidentally, Prexy's group also had a meeting with Maharaj. 

I have since edited my mistake out of the post. 

This just goes to show that it's been too long since I've read Long Walk to Freedom - which I recommend 100% to anyone interested in Southern African political autobiographies. Just kidding, but if you're interested in learning more about South Africa and apartheid, it's a stellar read and one of my all-time favorite books. 

South African films I also recommend:

Tsotsi (won best foreign film at the Oscars 2006)

Catch a Fire

you can find these on Netflix 

June Graduation

This is my brilliant friend Cynthia. She graduated last Friday with the same degree I'm going for (Master of Philosophy, African Studies). Cynthia does a lot of gender work for NGO's in Kenya where she's from. I wouldn't have gotten through the semester without her. She always took time to read through my papers and help me edit and work through my ideas more thoroughly. She will be returning to Nairobi in a week and I will miss her a lot. I suppose this gives me a good reason to visit Kenya!

On another note, the grad ceremony was a lot like American colleges with the robes and whatnot. However, there were no commencement speeches, no pomp and circumstance, and no blow horns. Every graduate got a fair amount of stage time. Their name would be called, they would walk onto stage and kneel (yes, kneel) before the vice-chancellor of UCT. The chancellor would tap their head with a grad cap and then the grad would stand up and have a garment draped over thier shoulders and then walk off stage. I was pretty impressed with how patient the audience was for all of this, there were around 200 grads. Overall, there are several grad ceremonies held throughout june and december to accomodate all of UCT's graduating students.

Climbing Lion's Head

On Friday, it was unusually warm and sunny in CT, so a group of 13 UCT students (most of whom were from Nava's architecture program) climbed Lion's Head Mountain. To say the least, it was pretty spectacular - three days later and I'm still sore throughout my arms and legs. Above is a photo of Lion's Head that I found on the internet. I tried to get a menacing image of the mountain to justify my prolonged muscle aches, I think I accomplished the task, it looks pretty hectic in this photo.

From left to right: Nava, Thapelo, Huda and Tiago - I've come to know them through Nava. This photo was taken at 2:30p.m.

Nava scaling with the provided chain


Reaching the top after an hour and a half

The Indian Ocean.

Heading back down I encountered serious vertigo.

Twilight over CT.
I don't know if you can tell, but this is Nava and I about half way down the mountain.

This is near the bottom. We got down at about 7p.m. then had dinner at an indian restaurant. It was a really cool day.

Project: Have Fun

I turned in my last paper a week ago and Project: Have Fun commenced shortly there after with the arrival of Prexy to South Africa. For those of you who don’t know who Prexy is, he is my mentor. I took my first Southern African history courses with him while at Columbia and traveled with him to South Africa in 2007. He has been a major influence on me in the last several years that I have known him. Part of his Making the Road Non-Profit company is to bring groups to different parts of Africa several times a year. If you're interested, just google his name: Prexy Nesbitt

This trip, He’s in South Africa with 13 Columbia College students “conducting” a course called: “The Future of History: Memory in Post-Apartheid South Africa". The students were in Cape Town for a week, then Johannesburg for a week, then Durban for a week. Mostly, I think their work revolves around memory and how public spaces such as museums promote certain histories over others. The group is also meeting with very influential activists, scholars and historians from the struggle (most of whom are Prexy’s friends). The meeting I was most excited about for them happened this last Saturday. Ahmed Kathrada led a personal tour for the group around Robben Island. Robben Island is where Mandela was kept prisoner for 18 of the 27 years of his incarceration. Kathrada was also a political prisoner with Mandela on Robben island. 

This is a great course and I wish they had offered something like this when I was at Columbia.These students are very smart and it was good to talk about the South Africa liberation movements with them; it was a good reminder of why I'm here now.

I met with the group on several occasions, but this is a photo from a night out that I unexpectedly ran into them. This is the rooftop at a place called The Waiting Room on Long Street – so far my favorite spot.


These are the friends I was with that night. My friend Hannah from class and her friend that was visiting from Jo'burg.