Cape Town, SOUTH AFRICA – While on the opposite side of the world, Cape Town has many similarities to the United States.
I always knew this would be so.
Values, traditions, cultures, food and people seem to transcend any physical boundaries. With America being a melting pot influenced by a variety of cultures, I figured that I’d see familiarities in a city almost 8,000 miles away from home.
But the similar histories of oppression, resistance, forced displacement and fragmented institutions of the African diaspora is what resonated with me the most.
In seventh grade, my social studies teacher Clarence Humes taught about apartheid in South Africa.
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I learned about Nelson Mandela, a champion for equality and just treatment of Black South Africans, who became the country’s first Black president.
I learned about Archbishop Desmond Tutu and the shantytowns where Black South Africans were forced to live.
When I was learning about these parts of South Africa’s history, seventh grade me hadn’t drawn the connection between South Africa’s “Whites Only” establishments and America’s segregation laws that barred non-whites from accessing the same spaces as white people.
Or the shantytowns to the U.S housing projects where I grew up.
Or, as I learned in Cape Town, District Six to gentrification.
As I explored heritage sites like the District Six Museum and the Nelson Mandela Legacy Exhibition at Cape Town City Hall, I kept thinking about America.
You’re probably thinking: how typical – an American bulldozing themselves into a conversation.
But the more I explored, the more I felt mirrored, like I was walking through a funhouse.
In Cape Town, I witnessed resistance, remembrance and reconciliation, which is extremely important for the advancement of nations.
Before I got to Cape Town, I was disheartened and distraught about the future of the United States.
But my time in Cape Town reinforced that reflecting and recognizing past and present injustices leads to the progression of the people and the nation.
Dorothy Quanteh is a Reporter with Youth Journalism International from the United States. She wrote this commentary and made the audio recording.
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