Dark Continent: Last Day in Cape Town

Thursday, May 07, 2009

Last Day in Cape Town

Dateline April 26, 2009

This is our last night in Cape Town. It's off to Jozi (Johannesburg) in the morning. I don't think I've been someplace for just under 3 weeks and been so sad to leave. We were so lucky to meet such a warm and political group of women our first full day here at a party hosted by Evelyn Bester. We decided we should throw a party for them last night. We had so much fun laughing and telling stories. The last people didn't leave until 5AM!

Today, Mercia and Shirley picked us up with Aunty Flori, whom we met at the beginning of the trip. Remember, she was first person Ellen interviewed and was deeply involved in the anti-apartheid movement as a labor organizer. She insisted that she wanted to see us one more time to show us Breakwater Prison. We're so glad she did. This prison's notoriety goes back to the 19th century when indigenous people were just rounded up and put in prison to better exploit their labor. This was also where the anti-apartheid activists were placed before Robben's Island.

The weird thing about the prison is that it serves as a hotel and business school today. I think the hotel is some kind of new form of historical tourism. "Stay in the lap of luxury while you tour the infamous treadmills that prisoners were forced to run on for hours at a time". Meanwhile the people who work there try real hard not to know anything about the history. Real weird.

Here's what they say in their literature:

It [the Treadmill] was a cruel invention and was the customary penalty for laziness and petty jail offenses. The prisoners had to keep a steady pace and if the men slackened off, the rotating planks would then lacerate their shins. A man could spend a day from 9AM to 5PM climbing these endless stairs with only 5 minutes rest every half hour. The Treadmill can still be viewed today and is located at the end of the row of isolation cells in the upper parking area.

What a way to advertise a hotel!

But Aunty Flori wanted us to see the prison because her people had been imprisoned there. She wanted us to understand how savage the initial conquest of the people was. I also got to see what a pan-Africanist she was. She kept saying to me quietly that Black Americans must come to South Africa and learn about the struggles. She inscribed a book, "The future belongs to us."

Book of punishments from 1890s. If one had a dirty bed, you lost the "privilege" of having a bed for a month. Taking coffee when not entitled: 2 days solitary confinement. Refusing to take porridge: 3 days solitary confinement.

Misc. photos from Cape Town:

The 2 Eveyln's and Elle at Willie and Evelyn Bester's artistic house

Table Mountain at sunset

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Academic Biography

Professor White's first book, Sierra Leone’s Settler Women Traders: Women on the Afro-European Frontier, was winner of the Letitia Brown Memorial Publication Price in 1987. Her book with Iris Berger, Women in Sub-Saharan Africa: Restoring Women to History, has become a standard reference text and has been translated into Japanese. Her most recent book is Dark Continent of Our Bodies: Black Feminism and the Politics of Respectability. She has been named a Fulbright Senior Research Scholar in Sierra Leone and a Mellon Scholar and has received a Kidder-Peabody Grant for research in The Gambia. Her appointments have included chair of the Five College Black Studies Executive Committee and member of the Graduate Faculty of the University of Massachusetts. She has a B.A. from Wheaton College, an M.A. in African history, and a Ph.D. in history from Boston University.

Along with her teaching and scholarly career, she has had a distinguished career in academic administration. At NYU, she was appointed Vice Provost in 2005. She advised the Provost on faculty appointments, tenure, and promotion. She worked closely with the Faculty Senators Council to enhance work-life conditions for faculty. She also spearheaded the university’s efforts to diversify the faculty and has responsibility for the Office of Academic Appointments, the Center for Teaching Excellence, and the Faculty Resource Network, a faculty development consortium of 52 institutions of higher education.

From 1998 to 2005, Professor White was dean of NYU's Gallatin School of Individualized Study, where she greatly increased the school’s visibility and reputation. From 2001-05, she was chair of NYU’s Deans Council. Prior to coming to NYU, she was a professor of history and Black studies at Hampshire College, where she also served as Dean of the School of Social Science and Dean of Faculty. While completing her Ph.D. at Boston University, she was an instructor at the University of Sierra Leone and a research assistant at the Afro-American Studies Center at Boston University.