Pride

Most of us are, in some way, proud of the community and country we live in, and find regular occasion to express or re-affirm this pride – a local Community Day, our Fourth of July, various charitable events.  Our experience in South Africa, and especially here in Cape Town, has exposed us to a seemingly relentless procession of affirming and celebratory expressions of pride in South Africa and Cape Town by all walks of life here.  There are few conversations that do not include a version of the following:  “How are you liking South Africa/Cape Town?”  … response … “I am so happy you love our beautiful country/city; we are blessed to be part of this glorious country with its beauty and shining future.”

 Concert at Kirtstenbosch,  Cape Town's Public Garden

It is striking really, the pride we’ve witnessed in this country’s geography and emerging “rainbow” political and social climate.  While everyone – black, white, so-called colored – acknowledges the continuing uphill battle for a society of legal, political, economic, and social equality, the overwhelming majority are optimistic and unafraid to be vocal celebrants of this “new South Africa.”  Recently, we went to an outdoor concert, where there were frequent exclamations from the stage to “stand up and celebrate Cape Town and beautiful South Africa!”  The crowd, otherwise rather sedate, responded enthusiastically.  Not 20 years after the end of apartheid, and despite genuine concerns about the ANC’s ability to transform itself from its role as revolutionary party to being a part of a multi-party political landscape, nearly everyone we’ve spoken to is optimistic about the future.  They love South Africa, what it’s becoming, where it’s come from, and they aren’t afraid to express it.

Of course, my sample might be biased. Many white South Africans who were not happy with the end of apartheid or were pessimistic about its democratic and economic future have emigrated, finding creative ways to take their wealth out of the country, often leaving behind unpaid mortgages and racked up credit card bills.  Some are still keeping their emigration options open, but for the most part, those who are still here are here because they absolutely adore their homeland, and we saw a billboard the other day proclaiming that more “former” South Africans were returning than “current” South Africans are leaving.  The real challenge is to keep the newly-educated class in the country.

It’s a beautiful country – we’ve been to many of the coastal cities, with only Johannesburg and Pretoria on our “to-be-visited” list.  Jen and I spent a few days touring the Cape Peninsula, south of Cape Town, and were again astounded at the natural beauty available to Capetonians, beauty just an hours drive away – beaches, mountains, hiking, surfing, fishing.  Other attractions – sports, theater, concerts, walking and hiking trails – are also all around Cape Town, at reasonable prices; with just a few exceptions, I don’t think we’ve paid more than $15 US for any professional sports, headline concert, or tourist attraction. 

Ironically, at the several sporting events I’ve been to – a cricket match and a rugby match – I did not hear the South African national anthem.  That these are “colonialist” sports may be one explanation, but I don’t think the football (soccer) matches, traditionally the province of the non-elites, lead off with an anthem either.  At US sporting events, we all stand and acknowledge our national anthem, but, compared with what we’ve experienced here, I've rarely sensed the degree of palpable optimism and pride in the US ... not since the 1980s at least, when politics and public relations spawned a surge of “I love America” slogans and commercials. The immediate post-9/11 period also springs to mind, but that seemed to me to be more a sense of solidarity than national pride.

The Cape Peninsula's Atlantic coastline

Of course, George Carlin may have put his finger on this matter of national pride, and why it rings so true to a visitor to this country … “I could never understand national or ethnic pride, because to me pride should be reserved for something you achieve on your own.  Being Irish isn’t a skill, it’s a genetic accident.”

There aren’t many slogans and commercials here in South Africa – just a deep, widespread and vocal grassroots optimism about this country, a pride at what they have achieved in ending the policies of apartheid and setting the nation on a new course.  It’s refreshing, invigorating, and fills the visitor with a sense of possibility about the country’s and mankind’s future. 

As I scan the news back home, I hope my sense of possibility survives our return to the US political season, which, by the time we return this summer, may well be filling our airwaves and public discourse with rancor, frustration, anger, and resentment, all seemingly couched in pious pride in a country many of us seem to take for granted. Let's hope it's not so, and that we can take a lesson from South Africa, who, despite the long path ahead, are filled with pride at what they have achieved, having chosen to rise above the anger and injustices of their past.