In Zulu culture ‘White is the colour of the ancestors, diviners and protection against lightning. As a result of this significance any white calf born in the byre of a commoner was automatically given to the king’.
In Napier, South Africa, recently a virtually white Nguni calf was born. Unfortunately (fortunately for the owner) Shaka Zulu does not live anymore.
After the rain with a glimpse of the sun: 1; Boophone haemanthoides 2; Boophone haemanthoides (detail) 3; Cotyledon sp. 4; Ferocactus sp. 5; mesembranthaceae sp. 5; white flowering Iris. The Boophone haemanthoides (“Kwaslelie’) originates from Namaqualand and is fairly rare compared to the more common Boophone disticha.
Humanity begins in your own environment was my first thought when I read about it in the Weekly Photo Challenge in the Daily Post.
20 Odd years after ‘apartheid’ there are still some barriers to overcome in South Africa. I live in Stanford, Western Cape, South Africa. This village is not an exception although the relations between people of different walks of life are relatively good and more on equal base than we experienced in some other places in the ‘Rainbow Nation’. There is still a division between ‘White’ and ‘Non-White’ people and there is also a division between ‘Black’ and ‘Coloured’ people; leaving the tribal/clan divisions of ‘Afro-Africans for what it is for now.
There is a natural barrier between ‘White’ and ‘Non White’ communities and that is the Willem Appel Dam which also borders our street. Sometimes I have a doggy walk into ‘The Scheme’ at the other side. The difference with our side is that there is real street life contrary to sitting behind closed doors and fenced properties. Co-incidentally a post scheduled for 26 September is also partly dedicated to The Scheme (‘coloured’) and ‘Hopland’ (Africans) and I also added some pics from that blog post. Some pictures I published in the past, others are not published or scheduled at all.
Moving your cursor over the pictures will reveal some captions that provide some more background.
Education is extremely important; always has been. Active knowledge of 1 or two extra languages eases you to travel and experience the bigger world. Unfortunately not all people are able to get the education they deserve; partly by a lack of a good and broad accessible education system (= politics) and partly children/students are not really motivated within their own environment (= culture) such as the case in the country I live in (South Africa). Many parents (most of them but not all privileged) decided to take education in their own hands and home schooling is taking of in this country. But the majority of the people seemingly don’t see the importance of education and keep their children on the ‘side line’ partly also that parents can’t afford the school fees.
There is still ‘apartheid’ in the South African education system with fairly good education in the ‘White’ schools (nowadays also accessible for ‘non-white children’ but very costly) and there is still ‘Bantu education’ with relatively low school fees but not always the desired quality (= understatement). Knowledge is power and power-without-knowledge results in a ‘phenomenon’ like Julius Malema and his new political party Economic Freedom fighters; merely consisting of members without much education.
Some refreshment is needed ….
Could not resist. Wrote yesterday that I’ll be back on this blog next Friday. Well … love this photo soooooo much …. etc., etc., And now I’m out!!! 😉
… but Black & White is also beautiful.
… but Black & White is also beautiful.
If people (especially the ones from outside the African Continent) are talking about South Africa the conversation is ‘Black’ and ‘White’. But what about the in-between South Africans? These are, with one foot in ancient tradition and the other in contemporary (white) society; the ‘Lost People’.
The ‘Coloreds’ have their own world embedded between vague tradition and misty modern world. Distrusted by both ‘Black’ and ‘White’ they have to find their own way in a ‘dark forest’.
It’s a dangerous world out there or is it here?
Herman van Bon Photography 