Passport No. II

Pools of gold & rust tinged grape vines fill the valleys of Franschhoek. Autumn's spectacle, today the vineyards were glowing red while platforms of jubilant farm laborers trailed behind tractors singing loudly for Zuma. They echoed the excitement filling me just hours after visiting the Department of Home Affairs in Paarl.

Successes from my South African citizenship application seem to fall in line with other great markings of democracy. On November 4th when Obama claimed his election victory I finally obtained my birth certificate after 3 years of waiting. Today, on May 9th, I have in my hand my new South African passport concurrent with the presidential inauguration for ZA’s president elect, Jakob Zuma.

As I was standing in line, shifting from hip to hip, I had a couple of hours to weigh in on all this. Dirty floors with large cockroaches making their public debut and small toddlers crawling about, the environment was quite hushed. Standing in line for close to two hours, I mused that lines are rarely this long in America. I thought about the endless hours black, coloured, and Indian South Africans stood in line in previous eras, waiting for their infamous Pass Books.

Nobody is angry or agitated for waiting so long, except perhaps for a few white folk cynical about this government. Most black and coloured people here waited their turns in line for decades and obviously no one sees just cause for getting their feathers in a ruffle. I find this quite astonishing and rather relaxing. I’m taking a course on positive thinking and it’s helping me understand how infectious the relaxed-spirit of Africa truly is.

I often feel challenged in these situations (be it waiting to get supplies, for packages to arrive, the internet to work, etc.) to be more patient. Now suddenly, I cannot imagine the hustle and bustle of New York City or Chicago, the impatience over delayed trains and aggravated people waiting in line. Perhaps I have turned a corner, I see how spoilt we are in the 1st world. Everything is instant and on demand. From having mail delivered right to your front door to decent public education to services that run smoothly most of the time. Direct deposit, self check-out counters, reliable public transit, iTunes, free parking, unlimited cell minutes, free local calls, year round avocados, multitudes of convenience food,… All these things and more, save affordable healthcare - but let’s leave that for another topic!


My new passport designates my nationality as South African - what a step. It is a proud day for me, even as the majority of the Western Cape sits uneasy with Zuma’s arrival. It’s an entirely different citizenship than that I feel and know for the United States. I didn’t grow up here. ALL of my historical attachments have been distantly received via reading, my political perspective is weak; however, my mother breathed it as a child, her parents turned its soil and protected its name in WWII, their parents sweated through depression, their parents fought in civil wars, and on, and on. Today I am here, working through the problems created by past generations - much like in America. Compared to most immigrants, I’ve had it easy in my application for citizenship; but somehow, having had to apply I feel I’ve worked towards it rather than been given it as a hand out. And that is especially rewarding.