South Africa Update

I’m writing this from the library because I find that when I get back from the library the last thing I feel like doing is writing about my day…prefer to forget it!!

I’ve been terribly about writing into the blog, so perhaps writing it in advance will help. As in Portugal I spend much of my time in the archives, but that is even more schiphrenic here. The papers I am looking at are from the Department of Foreign Affairs and are housed in the Union Buildings in Pretoria. The are the main, beautiful, government buildings that lie on a hill overlooking the city. The building was designed by Sir Herbert Baker and built in the early 20th century. Needless to say, it’s gorgeous. It is the main seat of government, and doing research there is much like doing research in the White House. The archives are in the basement of the DFA, the same building that houses the offices of the president. It’s also the building in front of which Nelson Mandela was inaugurated. Getting into the building is a bit of an ordeal…two security check points with xrays and metal detectors (and a document I have to sign saying I don’t have a firearm—which, by the way, they don’t actually CHECK for!)

Once in the building, I’m in the most un-sexy of places—the basement! The archive is run by a lovely man who sleeps most of the time and his co-worker, that checks her email all day and plays 1960s R and B (Marvin Gay etc)—actually listening to “Sexual Healing” right now. So here I am with piles of documents in front of me, in this weird basement, listening to Marvin Gay, at a wood table with mix-matched chairs. But what is great about it is that because it’s informal, anything goes. The Union Buildings hold the documents of the DFA from 1961 to the present—with papers open until 1986 (20 year rule). My understanding is that the National Archives are much more formal, request documents, librarians etc. But since it’s just one man running the show here, I can photograph the pictures, get all the photocopies I need. It’s VERY user friendly, if a bit weird.

I’m staying at a youth hostel in a neighborhood in Pretoria called Hatfield. Much of Pretoria is like Washington DC and full of embassies and consulates—the American Embassy is a HUGH monstrosity of a building the resembles a gi-normous bunker more than a place of work. It also apparently goes 10 floors underground, something from which the South African government was left in the dark throughout the Cold War. My current backpacker, from which I will be moving next week, houses a number of internationals that are doing internships at NGOs and embassies in Pretoria but need short term housing. So it’s a funny scene. Everyone gets up early in the morning and is out by 9am. Then we all return in the evening for dinner—it’s a bit more like a commune than anything else. Everyone knows is aware of each others work and the problems at the work etc. It’s an interesting dynamic.

My next backpacker is a closer walk to the archives and a bit nicer…we’ll see what the people are like!

That’s it for now. I’ll keep killing time in the archives with these updates!!