all that is gold does not glitter

We left Mbabane, Hhohho, Swaziland on Friday afternoon for Johannesburg, Gauteng ("Place of Gold"), South Africa. Sparsely populated with rolling plains and pines -- were it not for left-hand traffic and grassland fires, you could have been driving through Alberta. We arrived in five hours despite moderate border volume, a roadside "cash transfer", and directions to the wrong hotel.

The right hotel was in Sandton, "Africa's richest square mile" in which taxis take on the form of white Mercedes. Bordering on the East is Alexandra, one of the poorest urban areas in the entire country. Subtle. This about captures the essence of my weekend.

Sprawling, shiny, indistinct architecture fed by a circulatory system of freeways -- were it not for completely deserted streets (Why 'ask for it'?) and nice neighbourhoods towering with walls topped with barbed wire, you could have been driving through Dallas. But Jo'burg didn't start out this way.



The surrounding region was inhabited by San tribes, adding Bantu-speaking people by the 13th century, and Dutch-speaking settlers by the 19th. Then there was gold. And with it an exploding hodgepodge of ethnicities and means. Picture European mining magnates, skilled white labour, unskilled black labour, imported Chinese labour, unemployed Afrikaners, South Asian shop owners, African female beer brewers, every shade of gangster and prostitute... all but those few wealthy Europeans lived together in shantytowns. And then there were diamonds. Subsequent warring Britons and Boers introduced 'concentration camps' to the world decades before WWII. After WWII, South Africa institutionalised apartheid.



Within five years, the apartheid state passed dozens of laws to ensure the segregation of reality. The Population Registration Act classified that hodgepodge into White, Native, Coloured, and Asian (and later on Indian, Malay, etc.). The Group Areas Act mandated segregated living areas, leading to forced removals in those longstanding, integrated shantytowns. The Reservation of Separate Amenities Act even segregated 'public' spaces (ie; the only blacks on a white beach would be the family's maids). The Bantu Education Act arbitrarily yet systematically withheld opportunities from certain children. The Immorality Act outlawed interracial relations, and police spied on couples in the act of intercourse.

South Africa's first multi-racial democratic election took place in 199javascript:void(0);4. 20 years next year. If you are reading this (Hi Daddy, it's just you), then you likely lived during apartheid in an alternate reality where your self-worth was not determined solely by your melanocyte activity.



As Nelson Mandela remains in critical condition in a nearby hospital in Pretoria, I spent the weekend indulging my way through Neighbourgoods Market in Braamfontein (Brooklyn, basically), Melville (still Brooklyn), Arts on Main in Maboneng (Hipsters, you are mainstream), and clubs reminiscent of M2 and G+ in Shanghai. I had plenty fun (I mean you're hard pressed to find uncanned fish or non-instant coffee in Swaziland, never mind seared tuna steak, perfect cappuccinos, mango mojitos, and Zara), but... all that is gold does not glitter.