100 Shades of Black and White

March 1, 2014

This marks my 100th blog post. 100 posts is a lot of posts. So what the heck am I posting about? Great question. 

I've had a few questions lately about the "real" South Africa. Whether what I show on this blog represents all aspects of life in South Africa, or if there is more to it that I haven't yet tapped into.

As my goal for my 100th post, I thought I'd attempt to shed a bit of light on this (or perhaps confuse the issue more…I'll let you be the judge) and attempt to answer both of these questions simultaneously.

I find in some ways Johannesburg could be any city in the world (it has most every amenity you could want, modern buildings, well-maintained parks, decent road structures, etc), but in other ways it is very much Africa and very much a developing country. As an example, I know of two different South Africans that got married this past year at roughly the same time; one was a couple who met at work who had a modern wedding in a hotel, and the other was an arranged marriage and strictly obeyed their tribe’s traditional dowry system. Both were equally openly discussed and celebrated, despite being from very different cultures and living very different lifestyles. I notice on a day to day basis that there are high-end shopping malls with street vendors out front selling oranges and avocados, there are major townships located less than ten minutes from very posh residential areas, and there are newly mandated highway toll fees put in place by a president who openly has at least six wives. The sheer contrast is probably the biggest cultural aspect for me, and I think it is one of the most interesting things about living here. 

Now for the blog. How does one capture so much contrast: so many differences, disparities, and anomalies? My aim is to capture the whole picture on this blog over time, bit by bit, rather than attempting to contain all of the aspects at once in each individual post. 

The diversity of the country comes through when you compare amazing al fresco dinners to townships, unapologetic love to a very troubled history, and even the bush to the beach. The true colours of South Africa's juxtapose comes when you see the stunning scenery, impressive entrepreneurship and incredible ingenuity of the country all alongside appalling administration, scary statistics and enough bad publicity to scare people to their graves before they even set foot in the country. 

As someone who currently calls this crazy astonishing city (and country!) home, I feel a twinge in my heart to stand up for it. I feel as though the rougher side of Jozi and South Africa is already plenty on display that there's no need for me to rub it in. And so, I focus on the sunshine rather than the razor barbed-wire electric fencing. The appreciative gestures rather than the homeless mother with her two babies begging in the middle of the intersection. The blooming jacaranda trees rather than the piles of rubbish on the sidewalk. The interesting places worth visiting rather than a stolen steering wheel or a smashed window.

And, let's not forget the travel. That is also part of the country. South Africa is filthy rich when it comes to places worth seeing, and it has the added bonus of being neighbours with some pretty fantastic countries too. Blogging about these places shows more of Africa, and more of this experience as a whole.

And so, piece by piece, this blog is helping to build the mosaic that is my experience in this amazing part of the world. Here's to another 100 posts and another 100 shades of South Africa...