Thoughts on Durban

Durban is pretty small. In our five days, Abbie and I were able to see most of the city. Like the rest of South Africa, Durban is a segregated city and most of our interaction with black folks was through the service economy. Granted we spent a majority of our time near the beach front where the only people to be seen were sun-kissed white folks enjoying the surf. I think we all agreed at times when Durban felt more like Australia than Africa. If it wasn't for the safari and the vervet monkeys trying to steal our food we might as well have been in Australia.

Once you leave the beach front, however, Durban transforms into a landscape reminiscent of cities in America. Fortunately or unfortunately, depending on your perspective, the World Cup organizers provided walking trails of the city, marked by different colored footballs, that mostly avoided the unseemly neighborhoods of Durban. But these paths could not hide the stark difference in the complexion of the people living in the city and those along the beach front and Umhlanga, the suburb where we were staying.

It was only when we got off the beaten path and decided to stroll in the Indian section of Durban that there was signs that we were visiting a developing country. Walking along Dr. Yusuf Dadoo street reminded me once again of Karachi. This time, however, it was more than just the sight vendors hawking their wares, but also the sounds of local Indians speaking in an amalgamation of Hindi and English. But even this excursion off the FIFA Fan Map of Durban belied the poverty that probably comes from having a 43% unemployment rate.

It is only on this drive to Drakensberg that we are getting a glimpse of the poverty that exists in South Africa. The sides of the highway are pocked with settlements comprising of mud-brick houses covered with either thatch roofs or corrugated steel. I am not sure who lives in these homes. These could be the homes of agriculture workers or just black settlements outside the cities. This is probably as close as we are going to come to the unmediated lives of black South Africans. Such are the “perils” of tourism.

Now that I have got the depressing stuff out of the way, I can concentrate on the football. In Durban we went to see South Korea vs. Nigeria. What a match! So far every team I am rooting for besides the USA has found a way to lose or draw when they should have won (Note on 7/4/10: this has been a trend that I am unable to shake). For a more detailed description you need to read Abbie's blog post about the match at the Virginia Quarterly Review blog. Unfortunately Abbie has stolen all my blogging ideas about the match and has incorporated them into her post. So there is not much for me to write.

We are all looking forward to the US vs Ghana tonight, which we will be hopefully watch somewhere in Jo'burg. I feel guilty rooting against the last African team in the Cup but the US's cannot be faulted for that. North Korea has to share some the blame because the laid such an egg against Portugal and eliminated all hope for the best African team. Well, we are about to go on a hike in Drakensburg so I have to go. Tomorrow we are off to Cape Town and I will blog when I can.