Wandering thru Southern Africa, 1986-87

22 April 1986, 3:45 PM, Hillcrest Community, Halfway House     I am staying with the Hillcrest Community (north of Johannesburg) which I contacted through a networking organization in Denver.   Joan and Tony MacGreggor, two of the adults living here, invited me to spend a few days.   The MacGreggors both have professional jobs in Johannesburg and are probably in their mid-40s.   They have two kids:   Sara, 10, and Chris who is about 15.   Chris attends St. Barnabas College, a private secondary school in Jo’burg which is affiliated with the Anglican Church.   St. Barnabas, founded in 1963, was the first multiracial school in South Africa.   It’s located in Bosmont, a coloured (mixed-race) neighborhood west of downtown.   The student body is predominantly black with a smattering of coloureds, Asian Indians, and whites.   Chris lives on campus and was home last weekend.   Tony and Joan invited me to come along with them this pas...

Note (20 May 2022):    During the Apartheid era, South Africa’s pass laws regulated the movement of black people within the country.    Although a succession of these laws dated back to the 18 th  Century, the Natives Act of 1952 set up a national system requiring Black South Africans to carry a passbook, similar to a passport, but also including employment and criminal records.    Blacks needed a stamp in their passbook (similar to a visa) in order to work, travel through, or be present in a particular white area.    A black person caught without a passbook with the correct stamps was subject to arrest and jail time.     19 April 1986, 8:20 AM, home of Mavis and Bill Urmson, Lombardy East, Johannesburg News flash!    Bill Urmson just told me of the announcement that South Africa’s pass laws have been abolished!    The government had planned to scrap them in July but they moved up the date to yesterday.  ...

Monday, 21 April 1986, 6:30 PM, Hillcrest Community, Halfway House (Approximately 30 km north of Johannesburg)     This past Saturday, April 19, Tony MacGreggor picked me up at the Urmson home and drove me up to this semi-rural commune on a hill overlooking Johannesburg.   There are currently five members of the community here plus several kids, several maids and workers, and a menagerie of cats, dogs, chickens, geese, and goats.   I made contact with Hillcrest through the Denver Open Network, the same organization that helped me get in touch with Mavis Urmson.   More about the Hillcrest group after I’ve been here for a while.   I’ve still some catching up to do on the events of last week.   During my trip last week to the Magaliesburg Range with university geography students, we visited two Afrikaner farms in the area.   For those that haven’t read all my letters and are not familiar with South African history, I should clarify that the Afrik...

18 April 1986, Home of Mavis and Bill Urmson, Lombardy East, Johannesburg   I just returned from 3½ days with a group of university geography students from the University of the Witwatersrand in Johannesburg.   “Wits” is one of the two or three most liberal “U’s” in South Africa.   There are black students who attend there although none were on this trip.   We went to a camp about 75 km northwest of Jo’burg to do various field studies and exercises.   And I was able to gain some insight into the attitudes and lifestyles of white English-speaking middle class university students.   This was a group of 21 to 25-year-olds who were about to finish their degrees and start teaching in secondary schools next year.   Although I’ve talked about these students in other recent letters, there is one conversation I’d like to relate. Map shows location of the Magliesburg Range, the destination of our geography student field trip.  The Magliesburg is a relativ...

Editorial note (19 May 2022):  One of the best “toys” I took with me to South Africa was an Aiwa tape recorder with a multidirectional mike.  It was great for interviews even with several people speaking.  And, it wasn’t much bigger than my hand. The following discussion with white South African geography students from the University of the Witwatersrand was recorded with my little Aiwa recorder one evening during a field trip.   It might seem irrelevant 36 years later (and eight years before Nelson Mandela’s election as President brought about major changes in South African society).   However, I feel that the topics addressed still have significance today.   First of all, these students discuss the morality of being a tourist in a country with a repressive government and tremendous inequality.  Should people go on tours, wildlife safaris, etc. in such a country while ignoring its societal ills?  Is it right for them to spend their tourist d...