Molly seeing protests through a different lens

Many people in the United States know very little about how our political systems work or who is currently in power, and I’ve heard that our collective political knowledge and involvement is shameful when compared to involvement in other countries, such as South Africa. I think that the one-sidedness of the media we receive and our own willful ignorance may explain part our lack of awareness about United States politics, but after traveling to Parliament for South Africa’s 2016 State of the Nation address, I can also conclude that politics in the United States are just a lot less stimulating, both aurally and visually, then South African politics. To be fair, much of the excitement was fueled by the anger created by corruption, wasteful spending and lack of progress in Jacob Zuma’s presidency. Usually, the excitement was created by members of the Economic Freedom Fighters party. On our train ride to downtown Cape Town on Thursday afternoon, we were accompanied by EFF supporters who dressed in white and red and jumped, danced, sang and screamed around the train car. As we lined up along the red carpet outside of Parliament to smile and wave flags as part of the Civil Guard of Honor, members of the EFF followed the other straight-laced, well dressed politicians by dancing and singing in red overalls, boots and hard hats. During the address, they essentially trolled President Jacob Zuma and disrupted his address in any way possible with points of order. Those who were eventually removed on grounds of disruption chanted on their way out. All of this excitement doesn’t really indicate anything positive, but it does get people talking and paying attention. I guess the same could be said for Donald Trump in the United States; it’s a shame and I think it reflects poorly on our country that he’s been able to rise to the level of prominence he’s risen to, but his presence in the political field has made more people pay attention. But back to South Africa - the amounts of protest welcomed during the address were also reflective of the freedom of speech allowed here. Because I’m interning at a refugee center, I get to interact with refugees and asylum-seekers on a fairly regular basis, and I’ve heard that South Africa is the only country in the continent with human rights. Yes, Zuma may not be a great president, but at least people are allowed to loudly and colorfully express their disdain for him here.

I have always thought that human rights fulfillment relies more on the fulfillment of economic and social rights like shelter, food and medical care rather than civil and political rights like freedom of assembly, religion, and speech. It seems like the latter are much more prominent in South Africa than the former - last week, this was demonstrated to me through the protests at parliament, and this week through protests at the University of Cape Town. The Rhodes Must Fall student group had built a shack-like structure at the foot of the steps in the center of upper campus to protest housing fees as well as overall white dominance at UCT. When asked to move yesterday, they responded not only by chanting and dancing in a way that’s visually exciting for a tourist-student like myself, but also by setting a few small fires and vandalizing some statues. I was mostly amazed by how calm everybody was, and how the security guards present seemed more interested in keeping both protestors and onlookers safe rather than trying to assert their own dominance and further escalate the situation. Some of the students and older employees I ran into in the library and the union asked if this sort of thing happens on American campuses, and I would respond by saying that whenever student groups try to protest on my campus, there’s usually an embarrassingly small turnout and nothing really happens. I probably also should have said that our non-protesting students (myself included) are part of the problem because we either don’t believe in the power of protests, or because we align ourselves too closely with older generations and accuse our fellow students of overreacting and being immature. I appreciate the fact that South Africa is making me see protests through a different lens.