We went to UKZN Westville Campus this morning to listen to a lecture on Indian Identity in South Africa. The lecture was held in a mini-museum/historical society at the college. Our lecturer, Vina, was a graceful Indian woman with a cute gray bob and a confident stature. She started off the lecture in typical form: she discussed the history of Indian migration into the Durban area. Indians were brought to South Africa as indentured servants to work in the sugar cane fields. She talked of Ghandi's time in South Africa and spoke highly of what he did in South Africa. The historical portion of the lecture progressed to the 1970s, the height of student protests in South Africa. Vina passed out photos from a student protest. She described the protest in vivid detail, talking about the dogs the police released upon the crowd and the terror the crowd felt. She then revealed that she had been a part of the protest: her 22 year old self was at the forefront of the crowd and she appeared in all of the photos wearing Jackie O shades. Vina described the horrors of being arrested and the devastation of 12 days of solitary confinement. She talked about being personal friends with Winnie Mandela and her first meeting with Nelson while he was imprisoned at Robbin Island. Her message of being passionate and standing up for human rights was moving and poignant. I left her lecture feeling so empowered to make a difference in the world.
and then I had my Zulu exam... what a downer. The written part was first, not too bad! The oral part was definitely challenging, but I stumbled through it as gracefully as possible.
This weekend is a Cato Weekend with a beach trip on Saturday. Sunday we're planning on going to a soccer game at Moses Mabhida stadium. Monday I leave for Impendle! I'm there Monday and Tuesday. It should be quite the experience. Apparently there are rats the size Bandit. Oh boy.
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