Ngabelungu....

Ok, point taken. My post titles tend to be slightly weird, and usually indecipherable. But the entire point is that they make perfect sense to me, and through some random acts of association, they also somehow seem appropriate. Agreed that while to me they may seem completely apposite, others will think them obscure. But hey - and I've said this before, but humour me while I say this again - my blog, so my rules! :)

Ngabelungu literally means, "It's all the white man's fault" in a South African language (I believe !Xhosa) and was both a standard expression of dismissal, and also a rallying cry for some parts of the ANC. And even though it might sound terribly racist to say this now, South Africa is the one country where most things that were abhorrently wrong were the white man's fault.

Ok- next question. I can hear people saying, "So he's explained what that ridiculous title means, but of what relevance is it?" The fact is, dear reader (I do love writing those two words in - sounds so totally Jane Austen-ish) that South Africa is looming in my consciousness.

The reason that this intriguing South African country is quite so active in my imagination for the past two weeks is because I am actually moving down there for three months for work. I am due to fly out of London this coming Sunday, and not counting the odd week in London for meetings, will only be back towards the end of July. So that's three months of my life that I shall choose to spend in a different city, different country, different continent.

Many people ask me if I'm concerned, especially given the security concerns in the area. The point is, I've spent most of my life, thanks to my dad's job, being in high security mode, with high threat perceptions. So the idea of being careful isn't unusual; its probably more natural to me than the idea of being casual!

The second most important reason is that going to South Africa is like going back in my past. My closest friends will remember that I spent four years of my life (from 1991 to 1995) in Namibia, and used to travel regularly through South Africa to fly back to India. As such, Johannesburg isn't so much a stranger as a friend from a past long ago. I am actually keen to go back and see how things have changed.

For so long, South Africa had been the country of Alan Paton and Nadine Gordimer - a country with institutionalised inequality, where racism was institutionalised through national law, where it was legal to separate families depending on the slope of one's shoulders or the curl of one's hair. A slighly Orwellian society where bigotry was rationalised and ensconced in deeply legalistic terminology and used to destroy individuals, families, entire communities.

And then 1994 happened - a year when, after decades of struggle, Apartheid finally came to an end. A year when, despite everyone's predictions, a peaceful transition of power took place. A year which saw the white flight - a year which saw limited violence. A year which saw the handover of power from a decayed, ageing hegemony to a new, vibrant and hopeful administration - an administration that had suffered with its supporters and had great visions for the country.

I last went to South Africa in 1995. Back then, everyone was optimistic and everything had a positive slant. Suffering was temporary, poverty was a state of mind, and hope was what everyone projected. I would like to think that the country had the same mindset as a newly independent India had back in 1948 - the only difference being that the New India's optimism was tinged with the poignancy of Partition.

So going back in 2006 will be interesting, both from a personal & from an interesting perspective. What will have changed, what will have developed? I don't know, but I'm keen to find out. And more importantly, I'm keen to go back to having South African wine and biltong...

Of course, there's tons to organise before that, so until next time, adieu..... or as they say in Afrikaans, tot siens!