Disillusion had settled upon Bradley like the potbelly that had gradually expanded his waistline. At first, he barely noticed it. It was the twitch of the nose when the content of the evening news displeased him. Or the soft sigh that escaped when he read about a minister who earned millions of rand from a government tender.
Imperceptibly, his displeasure became an increasing presence in his life. His family explained his occasional dark moods as the result of work stress or financial worries. But at a subconscious level, he knew the source of the simmering anger that was never far from the surface: This bloody country. South Africa.
Life had not turned out as he had expected. On a chilly spring morning, Bradley reflected upon all this while he sat looking out over the vlei,1 holding a cup of lukewarm Ricoffy.2 He was on a rare weekend away with his wife and two children, taking advantage of the long Heritage Day weekend (24 September).
At one level, he surveyed the landscape with a sense of gratitude. As a child, Bradley could not have dreamed of going camping on a game farm. The laws of apartheid made it illegal for a coloured man3 to enjoy leisure time at a traditionally white establishment. Now, the only thing that prevented him from doing this more often was money. He was thankful that his children, still asleep in the tent in the quiet morning hours, would never feel rejected for the colour of their skin.
But he wasn’t sure they had a future here either.
Bradley could feel the warm belly of cholera begin to rise in him again. Heritage Day. He laughed cynically to himself. Originally a political holiday meant to celebrate South Africa’s diverse melting pot of cultures and its almost bloodless transition into democracy 29 years ago, Heritage Day is now mostly known as Braai Day.
South Africans cannot agree on much. Politics still runs along colour and tribal lines. In some communities there is fear and suspicion among the races. Political murders are commonplace in Kwazulu Natal, where different factions of the ruling ANC solve their differences by gunning down their adversaries. At times, shocking racial incidents reveal that South Africans have never openly discussed the woundedness created by racial division.
But there is one thing that all South Africans can agree on – a lekker braai.4 Braais bring families and friends together. You braai if you’re gathering to watch the rugby. You braai to celebrate a birthday. You braai on Christmas Day. You braai somer, just because you want to.
On this particular morning, as Bradley watched the sky slowly change from pink to blue and felt a gradual warmth begin to catch the edges of the koppie5 on the other side of the vlei, he thought about what the last 29 years of living in the so-called democratic South Africa had been like for him and his family.
He was part of the generation that grew up during the transition. He remembered segregated schooling, but he also remembered the first time kids of different races sat in the same classroom. He remembered the 1995 Rugby World Cup, when Nelson Mandela and the Springbok captain Francois Pienaar used sport to bring all South Africans together. He remembered his college years, filled with the hope that his generation would build the new South Africa.
That heady optimism lasted for about a decade. The Mandela years were wonderful. It felt as if everyone wanted to work to make sure that the country did not descend into civil war. It worked. The Mbeki years were a time of economic growth and some dubious policies, together with a little denialism from a president who did not believe HIV caused AIDS. But things were still great. Investors loved South Africa. We were an international good news story.
And then, the cancer that threatened to derail the progress began to put down its ramifications into the heart of the nation. In 2005, Zuma became president despite being accused of rape. The raping continued in a different way. Government tenders being awarded to friends. Rampant corruption. Blatant lawbreaking by those in public office. Dodgy dealings with rogue countries.
At first, none of this had affected Bradley and his life. He’d been lucky. He had good marks in school and had managed to get a scholarship to study after Matric.6 When he finished his studies, new laws forced companies to hire black and coloured people to reverse the injustice of apartheid labour inequalities. Bradley had studied accountancy and easily found a job as a bookkeeper at a medium-sized steel factory in Cape Town, not far his gang-ridden neighbourhood of Manenberg.
(…to be continued…)
Footnotes
1. An inland lake or large marsh
2. A brand of cheap instant coffee
3. The designation for a mixed race people in South Africa
4. Afrikaans or tasty barbecue
5. A small hill
Transadaptation Volume 5 – Of Flowing Vicissitudes
January: The Night the Stars Stopped Shining – Sarah-Leah Pimentel (South Africa)
February: Three Sides to Every Story – Krisztina Janosi (Hungary)
March: Rain Trap – Adriana Uribe (Columbia)
April: Priorities – Narantsogt Baatarkhuu (Mongolia)
May: The Night in Heaven – Armine Asryan (Armenia)
June: Witches Don’t Burn – Alejandra Baccino (Uruguay)
July: At One and The End of Misery – Angelika Friedrich (America)
August: Many Happy Returns – Svetlana Molchanova (Russia)
September: To be announced
October: (To be announced) – Gennady Bondarenko (Ukraine)
November: You Are Her, Aren’t You? – Seyit Ali Dastan (Turkey)
December: To be announced
Background – Context
Transadaptation Volume 4: Material Dissent – Adulthood Transadapted, (eds.) Angelika Friedrich, Yuri Smirnov and Henry Whittlesey (2023)
Transadaptation Volume 3: Evanescent – Young Adulthood Transadapted, (eds.) Angelika Friedrich, Yuri Smirnov and Henry Whittlesey (2022)
Transadaptation Volume 2: Conceived – Childhood Transadapted, (eds.) Angelika Friedrich, Yuri Smirnov and Henry Whittlesey (2021)
Transadaptation Volume 1: In the Middle – Prelude to a Contemporary Transadaptation, (eds.) Angelika Friedrich, Yuri Smirnov and Henry Whittlesey (2020)
Peripatetic Alterity: A Philosophical Treatise on the Spectrum of Being – Romantics and Pragmatists by Angelika Friedrich, Yuri Smirnov and Henry Whittlesey (2019)
La Syncrétion of Polarization and Extremes Transposée, (eds.) Angelika Friedrich, Yuri Smirnov and Henry Whittlesey (2019)
The Codex of Uncertainty Transposed, (eds.) Angelika Friedrich, Yuri Smirnov and Henry Whittlesey (2018)
L’anthologie of Global Instability Transpuesta, (eds.) Angelika Friedrich, Yuri Smirnov and Henry Whittlesey (2017)
From Wahnsinnig to the Loony Bin: German and Russian Stories Transposed to Modern-day America, (eds.) Angelika Friedrich, Yuri Smirnov and Henry Whittlesey (2013)
Emblems and stories on the international community
Perception by country – Transposing emblems, articles, short stories and reports from around the world
Credits
1. Top row (left to right): South Africa – The End of the World – Lina Loos (Unsplash); Mpumalanga, South Africa – The Mountains – Nadine Venter (Unsplash); Bottom row (left to right): Johannesburg, South Africa – Goodhope Supermarket – Rich T Photo (Shutterstock); Johannesburg, South Africa – Emerging – Clodagh Da Paixao (Unsplash); South Africa – Reflecting – Leo Moko (Unsplash)
Source: The Codex of Uncertainty Transposed