Reflections on Changes in Southern Africa . . .from Andy
Reflections on Changes in Southern Africa
Like everywhere else, rural Swaziland (and South Africa) has changed in the last thirty years. In spite of the reports that make it sound as though poverty and hopelessness are endemic and the permanent state of affairs, to someone returning after years of absence, the changes are striking.
While mud brick and reed huts are still dotted around the countryside, they have largely been replaced by cement block dwellings, or relegated to secondary storage purposes. Because Swaziland is still a poor country, cement blocks are made a few at a time as sand and cement can be afforded. Thus there are piles of cement blocks stacked in people’s backyards throughout the countryside, almost like bank savings accounts, waiting to become the next course on someone’s new home. Half-finished buildings litter the landscape, frequently built up to the eaves, and looking as though they have had their roofs ripped off, and their windows blown out, by some recent devastation. But, in fact, they are merely mute testimony to the determination of the local people to better their lives, and they await the accumulation of sufficient resources to purchase the final most expensive items: the roof , the windows and the doors.
Bur this is another place where the AIDS epidemic breaks through to public view: many of the homesteads are in fact deserted, because the wage-earner(s) have died, and the kids have been farmed out to relatives (if they are lucky). The property will eventually revert to the local chief to redistribute (if there is anyone to redistribute it to!). Also, like elsewhere, the youth are migrating to the cities, so that the countryside is being depopulated.
Another obvious change is the power lines that now criss-cross the countryside (often on drunken wooden pylons). Power and, with it, electric lights have come to rural southern Africa, with all its implications for life not ending when the sun goes down.
The most obvious change is in the traffic. The roads in Swaziland are excellent, often dual carriageway, well contoured and planned. Traffic, on the other hand, is not. There are far fewer bicycles than 30 years ago, but everywhere a swarm of small cars and pick-up trucks. These are frequently a major road hazard, since when fully (over)loaded, (their normal status), their top speed is about 30 MPH, and less on the many hills. Thus traffic backs up behind them and the overloaded and underpowered heavy over-the-road trucks, and the kombis (taxi vans – Toyota HiAces) also fully overloaded, attempt frantic overtaking maneuvers also at 30 MPH on blind curves and hills, where both grind up together, side by side, taking both lanes, and neither willing to concede defeat.
On the other hand, because rural Swazis do not live in compact villages, but rather in homesteads (kraals) scattered over the hillsides, off the main roads the roads are essentially cattle tracks, and cars and tires take a beating, because every homestead needs its own track to the paved road. All in all, it can be a lethal mix that requires constant vigilance.
Like everywhere else, rural Swaziland (and South Africa) has changed in the last thirty years. In spite of the reports that make it sound as though poverty and hopelessness are endemic and the permanent state of affairs, to someone returning after years of absence, the changes are striking.
While mud brick and reed huts are still dotted around the countryside, they have largely been replaced by cement block dwellings, or relegated to secondary storage purposes. Because Swaziland is still a poor country, cement blocks are made a few at a time as sand and cement can be afforded. Thus there are piles of cement blocks stacked in people’s backyards throughout the countryside, almost like bank savings accounts, waiting to become the next course on someone’s new home. Half-finished buildings litter the landscape, frequently built up to the eaves, and looking as though they have had their roofs ripped off, and their windows blown out, by some recent devastation. But, in fact, they are merely mute testimony to the determination of the local people to better their lives, and they await the accumulation of sufficient resources to purchase the final most expensive items: the roof , the windows and the doors.
Bur this is another place where the AIDS epidemic breaks through to public view: many of the homesteads are in fact deserted, because the wage-earner(s) have died, and the kids have been farmed out to relatives (if they are lucky). The property will eventually revert to the local chief to redistribute (if there is anyone to redistribute it to!). Also, like elsewhere, the youth are migrating to the cities, so that the countryside is being depopulated.
Another obvious change is the power lines that now criss-cross the countryside (often on drunken wooden pylons). Power and, with it, electric lights have come to rural southern Africa, with all its implications for life not ending when the sun goes down.
The most obvious change is in the traffic. The roads in Swaziland are excellent, often dual carriageway, well contoured and planned. Traffic, on the other hand, is not. There are far fewer bicycles than 30 years ago, but everywhere a swarm of small cars and pick-up trucks. These are frequently a major road hazard, since when fully (over)loaded, (their normal status), their top speed is about 30 MPH, and less on the many hills. Thus traffic backs up behind them and the overloaded and underpowered heavy over-the-road trucks, and the kombis (taxi vans – Toyota HiAces) also fully overloaded, attempt frantic overtaking maneuvers also at 30 MPH on blind curves and hills, where both grind up together, side by side, taking both lanes, and neither willing to concede defeat.
On the other hand, because rural Swazis do not live in compact villages, but rather in homesteads (kraals) scattered over the hillsides, off the main roads the roads are essentially cattle tracks, and cars and tires take a beating, because every homestead needs its own track to the paved road. All in all, it can be a lethal mix that requires constant vigilance.
posted by Mission Team ~ Iowa at
4:10 AM
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home