Meeting of Cultures

It's summer in Johannesburg, typically Spring was plus minus 4 hours long, and then we were catapulted into summer. On Wednesday afternoon I attended a meeting with a gentleman who lived in Japan for 3 years. And I literary hang onto his every word, and story. How relationships are formed, how business is conducted, how amazing this society functions. He himself a Zulu, loved it, but had a lot of adjustments to do when he returned home to South Africa. Later another gent joined us. He is the son of a Zulu father and a Nigerian Mother, was raised in Dar e Salaam. I was with a colleague who grew up with his German roots, firmly embedded in African Soil. Me - well I AM AN AFRICAN - white, Afrikaans, and although I live in Johannesburg, my "Boere" roots anchors me deep in the Free State.
Soon we started discussing the exodus of people to and from South Africa, politics and this wonderful, amazing, multicultural, diverse county - that is filled with opportunities. Soon stories of the struggle were told, stories I have never heard of, stories of the hero's of our Nation, stories of the 1995 World Cup, stories of Madiba, of Oliver Tambo, of Beyer Naude. AND then, for the first time in my life I heard a concept - being a Son and Daughter of South Africa, vs just being a citizen.

Citizens, I was told, have a ID book, a local address, a passport - but they only live here, almost as if they are just waiting for something better, just passing through. BUT a Son and a Daughter are passionate about their "family" - the land, the people, the culture, the growth, the pains of transition, the joy of seeing how people are transformed, how the country grows up from being a newborn in 1994 to the teenager it is now.

And my heart swelled, and my emotions rose, and I realised that this is the reason why I am not interested the least in leaving my homeland, my African Sky, my heimat, its because I am a daughter of this land, with my heart sold out to the journey we are on.

Late at night, lying in bed, I reveled in the feeling of enrichment that still glowed in my heart. How color, culture, belief, age, gender made no difference. How today we became neighbors just by being able to tell our own stories - with no fear of judgment - and listen to wonderful rich stories - with no preconceived ideas, and how this bound our hearts together.