Race & Reconciliation: Cat Piper
Cat Piper is a sophomore studying architecture. She and other students and faculty from Virginia Tech just returned from South Africa on a trip entitled "Race and Reconciliation: An Immersive Case Study of South Africa and Apartheid."
The purpose of the trip was to participate in a culturally immersive case study in South Africa and to become acquainted with its history and potential, including challenges associated with racial injustice, economic development, governance, and education.
Though the team has returned to Blacksburg, read on to hear about Cat's experiences in South Africa!
iPhone alarm goes off, it can’t be, it’s too early; I swear we just got to South Africa, weren’t we just in the airport stepping off the plane and inhaling our first breath of South African air? Our last day in South Africa began with a drive to Soweto, which is right outside Johannesburg; it’s a township that is notorious for being an impoverished locality. However, once arriving in Soweto I saw it for what it truly was, a vibrant, growing and developing city. The people were in the streets talking to neighbors while children laughed as they walked back from school.
When traveling in and through Soweto we saw every type of living situation, from the temporary housing to the government housing to the fully developed housing. Some of the people in Soweto were living in a “shanty house”, which is a house made of corrugated metal and other scraps found around; while other lived in the area called the “Hollywood of Soweto,” which were houses that the famous people in Soweto would reside. The different types of housing initially shocked me but then I began to realize we see this in every city, maybe not at this capacity; but every city, town or locality has experienced the same issues of poverty in some scale or capacity. It reminded me a lot of my home state, Hawaii; where the people living in poverty is pretty significant as well. There are peoples, locals to the island making a home out of any materials they could find, much like the locals in Soweto making houses out of recycled tin and other materials. However, just like Hawaii it’s the people and their energy that make the area home.
Before this trip I was very ignorant about what it means to live in Africa, we are all fed this line “think of the poor kids in Africa,” and so our perception becomes construed to believe that ALL Africans are poor. This isn’t the truth, and Soweto as well as many other places in South Africa have come to prove it daily. Soweto has it’s strengths and weaknesses but the one thing that remains constant is the love the people have for their home. We visited a restaurant in Soweto which not only had amazing food, but the entertainment; a duo singing we’re so proud to be from Soweto.
They sang different songs and “edu-tained” us; such as the African song “The Lion Sleeps Tonight,” which was made famous in the US when it debuted in “The Lion King.” However, way before the song had even arrived in the US it was known as “Wimoweh”, which was written and recorded by Solomon Linda, in 1961. I feel that this trip has enlightened me on all the things that Africa has to offer and I can’t wait to learn more when I get back.