Zaskia Delgado adds a rider to Stratford’s celebrations of the end of apartheid.
‘It’s like apartheid never existed.’
Stratford Circus has been hosting the Afro-Vibes festival, marking 20 years since the end of apartheid in South Africa.
Temporarily transformed into the Township Café, the Circus eaterie offered African Peanut Soup, Chakalaka, Jollof Rice and Boerewors. From Soweto, acappella group The Soil sang of the ‘joy, joy, joy, joy in my heart’ prompted by the end of outright, white domination and the election of President Nelson Mandela in 1994.
The atmosphere planted by The Soil was truly infectious. ‘It’s been so good,’ reported the Stratford Circus bartender, ‘people from outside just walk in and join in.’
In Stratford, white and black people sang in unison to celebrate the struggle for freedom. Back in South Africa, however, it’s like some aspects of apartheid have never gone away.
‘I’m only free to sit next to a white person on the bus,’ said one man interviewed for BBC Three’s Extreme South Africa. ‘But I got no income, no money and my children just watch life going by.’ In 2012-13 South African cities were reported to be the most unequal cities in the world.
Formally equal rights are definitely worth celebrating. But while dancing at the demise of apartheid, let’s not forget that gross economic disparity is nowhere near disposed of.