I kind of skipped the week end because I didn't want to mix happy and less happy stories.
On the same Friday as when the United-staters arrived, violences arrived in Cape Town, and I spent a few days that I will never forget.
At the beginnings of May, on the 11th if I'm right, some violences started in Alexandra a township in Johannesburg. Fro several weeks the situation has been really tense because of "xenophobic attacks". The targets were the immigrants from the neighbour countries of SA, such as Mozambique, Zimbabwe but also Malawi, Congo, Somalia... because these people are accused of stealing the jobs from the "real" South Africans, of being responsible for the stage of violence in the country, etc...
There were huge riots in the townships of Jo'burg, burning people alive, stealing everything from their houses and shops, chasing and threatening them, which gave birth to the fleeing of thousands of people to the police stations, the churches, looking for safe places to stay before they go back to their mother country. These violences rapidly spread all over the country's big cities townships, and arrived in Cape Town on the 22nd.
At 10 pm, a friend of one of our flatmates Eva called her because they needed help at the Observatory Church to welcome more than 200 people. Once there, another woman asked who could go to another church to welcome other people there. Pauline, Eva and I chose to go.
When we arrived at this church, in the suburbs of CT, the priest was alone, thinking we were the girls in charge of welcoming the refugees (40 women and their children) and about to leave.
We had no blankets, no food, no mattresses, nothing.
We then waited until 2 am to have food and human support (some friends came to join us) and at 3 am no refugee was there. They were stuck into the central train station of CT, nobody wanted to go into the buses because one of them got attacked by people who wanted to burn it. There was a huge panic in the station and nobody wanted to move.
Finally, at 4 am, two buses arrived at our church, carrying 70 (instead of 40) men (instead of women and children).
Fortunately they had blankets (we hadn't received them yet) and we could give them tea and food quite quick and let them sleep.
That was my first contact with refugees, and I was surprised we were so relaxed. Maybe because we were really tired, or maybe because we just switched off the "emotions" button in our brain. It was still really breath-taking to see how far hatred can go out of something that seems so obsolete.
The day after we were a bit more organized and worked with our organization on buying food and making peanut butter sandwiches for the churches sheltering the refugees.
On Monday the refugees were to be moved to tents outside the city, what we call "refugee camps"... but apparently they were moved to the several military caserns.Today, some of them are actually living in refugee camps in Cape Town.
On Tuesday we went to a rally against xenophobia, where some important people (I will not go into details) criticized the violences and the government for being so silent.
This story is still not ended today (16th of June) although the situation seems to be 'stable'. That means that hundreds of the refugees are still in refugee camps, and the givernment is now trying to reinsert them progressively and bring them closer to their job, schools, businesses...
What I concluded of this experience is that this country is full of violence. We don't have such a grade of violence in France, so intense and common. This country is eaten by hatred and the highest level of violence. People do not just steal your bag, they do it pointing a gun on your head, they do not just kill their enemy, they burn him alive. Don't misunderstand me when I say "people", I’m not talking about the majority of the South Africans, and I cannot even blame or judge those who are responsible for these crimes. I will just finish my sad thoughts by a resumed quote of Antony Altbeker "maybe you know that crimes are bad, but when your brothers and friends are committing them, bad doesn't seem that bad".
On the same Friday as when the United-staters arrived, violences arrived in Cape Town, and I spent a few days that I will never forget.
At the beginnings of May, on the 11th if I'm right, some violences started in Alexandra a township in Johannesburg. Fro several weeks the situation has been really tense because of "xenophobic attacks". The targets were the immigrants from the neighbour countries of SA, such as Mozambique, Zimbabwe but also Malawi, Congo, Somalia... because these people are accused of stealing the jobs from the "real" South Africans, of being responsible for the stage of violence in the country, etc...
There were huge riots in the townships of Jo'burg, burning people alive, stealing everything from their houses and shops, chasing and threatening them, which gave birth to the fleeing of thousands of people to the police stations, the churches, looking for safe places to stay before they go back to their mother country. These violences rapidly spread all over the country's big cities townships, and arrived in Cape Town on the 22nd.
At 10 pm, a friend of one of our flatmates Eva called her because they needed help at the Observatory Church to welcome more than 200 people. Once there, another woman asked who could go to another church to welcome other people there. Pauline, Eva and I chose to go.
When we arrived at this church, in the suburbs of CT, the priest was alone, thinking we were the girls in charge of welcoming the refugees (40 women and their children) and about to leave.
We had no blankets, no food, no mattresses, nothing.
We then waited until 2 am to have food and human support (some friends came to join us) and at 3 am no refugee was there. They were stuck into the central train station of CT, nobody wanted to go into the buses because one of them got attacked by people who wanted to burn it. There was a huge panic in the station and nobody wanted to move.
Finally, at 4 am, two buses arrived at our church, carrying 70 (instead of 40) men (instead of women and children).
Fortunately they had blankets (we hadn't received them yet) and we could give them tea and food quite quick and let them sleep.
That was my first contact with refugees, and I was surprised we were so relaxed. Maybe because we were really tired, or maybe because we just switched off the "emotions" button in our brain. It was still really breath-taking to see how far hatred can go out of something that seems so obsolete.
The day after we were a bit more organized and worked with our organization on buying food and making peanut butter sandwiches for the churches sheltering the refugees.
On Monday the refugees were to be moved to tents outside the city, what we call "refugee camps"... but apparently they were moved to the several military caserns.Today, some of them are actually living in refugee camps in Cape Town.
On Tuesday we went to a rally against xenophobia, where some important people (I will not go into details) criticized the violences and the government for being so silent.
This story is still not ended today (16th of June) although the situation seems to be 'stable'. That means that hundreds of the refugees are still in refugee camps, and the givernment is now trying to reinsert them progressively and bring them closer to their job, schools, businesses...
What I concluded of this experience is that this country is full of violence. We don't have such a grade of violence in France, so intense and common. This country is eaten by hatred and the highest level of violence. People do not just steal your bag, they do it pointing a gun on your head, they do not just kill their enemy, they burn him alive. Don't misunderstand me when I say "people", I’m not talking about the majority of the South Africans, and I cannot even blame or judge those who are responsible for these crimes. I will just finish my sad thoughts by a resumed quote of Antony Altbeker "maybe you know that crimes are bad, but when your brothers and friends are committing them, bad doesn't seem that bad".
I promise next time the post will be happier!
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