 Students Get Insider’s View of South Africa
It would be almost impossible for an ordinary tourist to experience South Africa the way a group of 20 University of San Francisco undergraduates are experiencing the country this summer.
Sure, any tourist can take a tour of Robben Island, where the country’s political prisoners were once held. But they probably wouldn’t get a private meeting with Eddie Daniels, who spent years in the same Robben Island jail where Nelson Mandela also was imprisoned.
And any tourist can go to museums to learn about the history of the anti-apartheid struggle. But they probably wouldn’t hear first-hand accounts from the living leaders of the movement.
The USF students, led by Professor Karen Bouwer and student Tom Hewitt, who are both from South Africa, are meeting with some of the most influential leaders in the anti-apartheid movement, as well as dedicated local unsung heroes. They will spend time with the wife of slain Black Consciousness leader Steve Biko, who was one of the foremost figures in South Africa’s struggle for liberation from the apartheid regime. They also will meet with Franklin Sonn, a civil rights activist and former South African ambassador to the United States.
“We also have them meeting the mayor of Buffalo City and the provincial secretary general of the ANC (African National Congress), and many other prominent activists in South Africa,” Hewitt said.
The College of Arts and Sciences program, South Africa Today, is the first USF program of its kind in Africa. The university hopes it will be an annual event. The students, who left May 18 and return June 30, will earn between four and six credits for the course.
Students are taking a variety of classes at the University of Cape Town, including courses that emphasize the history of apartheid and the transition to the new South Africa. They will then spend two weeks traveling throughout the country and another two weeks living and working at a shelter for street children in Durban. (The 30-year-old Hewitt spent the 1990s working with street children in Durban and created The Street Team, a support group that provides children with food, shelter, clothes, and scholarships.) They also will visit historical sights, including the town where Nelson Mandela was born and raised.
“It’s going to be an amazing trip, and probably very transforming,” Bouwer said. “Many students have not been exposed to poverty and social problems that they will see there. They will also see the incredible dignity in the people who have managed to overcome obstacles in the fight against apartheid.”
Hewitt said the students will see the striking contrasts of South Africa—its history of injustice and oppression, as well as its struggle for liberation and the building of the new South Africa.
“In the United States, Africa is seen almost as a disaster continent,” Hewitt said. “News from Africa typically does not reflect the positive things going on there. We have to look at Africa as a place that can teach us. There is an incredible history. The idea of this trip is to put people in touch with the people of South Africa and their struggles.”
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