The West Bloomfield Eccentric recently featured my trip in an article on June 15, 2008. It's always a little unsettling to read about yourself in the paper - even when it's good news. For the most part, the reporter captured the big ideas. What wasn't clear or not mentioned is that while Nelson Mandela's trip to the U.S. after his release from prison kindled my intrigue about SA, it was developing a unit around the theme of Conflict and Resolution for my 9th grade English class (1998) in which I used Cry, The Beloved Country as the central literature that I became immersed in the history and culture of the country. The novel was ripe with all of the hopes and fears of a nation embroiled in racial conflict - all too similar to the United States. As my students and I read and discussed the novel and researched the historical backdrop of the country, I vividly recalled the stories my parents and grandparents shared of their frightful experiences growing-up in Baltimore, MD during Jim Crow and all of their hopes during the Civil Rights Movement and their participation in the great migration north for better opportunities. At the time, I only wondered what SA is like now, only 14 years after apartheid. Are they further along their journey for equity, access, and opportunity at their 14 year mark, then we were 14 years post-Civil Rights? Are their schools successfully educating all of their children or are the vestiges of racism still palpable in their education system? Do they still live in fear of one another based solely on their race?
