Jo'burg: the second field visit

Last weekend was our second field band visit: to Jo'burg, where the National Gathering and Competition would take place off all of the field bands in South Africa (25 in total). I must admit I wasn't looking forward to going to Jo'burg, with the reputation it has and the robbery that took place there last time I was there. This happened 5 years ago, in 2002, when I had stayed in South Africa for three months or so and arrived in Jo'burg as well. Obviously ignoring all advice and heeds of warning, I was walking the streets, and trying to get to Park station to take a train to Pretoria. Everybody had told me not to got downtown, but I just had to try and see for myself, didn't I? So, 50m away from the railway station, in a street black with market stands and street vendors, a guy walked up to me and asked for money. When I refuse, he pulled out a knife and suddenly four people were all around me and grab me. Felt like a hundred hands were going through all my pockets. I remained sort of paralysed, out of good sens (don't want to give the impression I am going to make a run for it or reach for a weapon) and out of fear. I just looked about, eyes pleading for help I suppose, but people were just looking on, without lifting a finger (perfectly understandable of course). Anyway, they wanted to take away the money belt that I am wearing, and since they couldn't find the buckle, the first guy was trying to get the knife underneath it to cut it and winded up hurting me of course. Just a scratch, but enough to get me startled and out of paralysation. "I'll get it, I'll get it", I shouted, and slowly undid the buckle. The minute it came loose, they all shot away and disappeared in all directions, leaving me standing there.
It is funny, I just wanted to explain very briefly what had happened, but details just seem to keep coming back. I can even still smell them. Maybe because it was the first time I ever got threatened... Sadly enough, since I have had more than my fair share of being mugged or held at gunpoint (thanks Haiti and the DR) but that one made me feel insecure for a long time, maybe because it happened in the middle of a busy street... Anyway, you can understand I felt a bit stressed going back, but also thought it might be good to face old demons. Reactions from other South Africans didn't help. Jo'burg seems to inspire images of violence, Gangsta's Paradise, drugs and poverty.

But on to the weekend itself. I arrived by myself on the Thursday (the two others from Plett coming the day after), and got into the Ritz Backpackers, where my first image was the telephone I had cried on when calling my dad five years ago. Coincidentally, my backpackers was the same one I had stayed in all that time ago. I had to get straight out to a southern part of Jo'burg for the celebration of 10 years of the National Field Band Foundation and the launching of a cd, and for once didn't even bother to check whether I could get there by public transportation, but asked for a cab to come and pick me up. Turned out to be the right choice to get there in time (though it still took over an hour to drive through the rain) but a rather pricey one: 200R (20€). It was quite fancy and I felt a bit uncomfortable, not knowing anybody until I decided to fuck it and just mingle. Met a couple of nice people, many Norwegians who were there (they support the FBF), Marleen, a woman who sits in the board of directors for the Cape Town Field Band, and Nicky, who did the feasibility study ten years ago for the creation of the field band. She gently drove out of her way to drop me off at the hostel and I was quite exhausted, what with the hitch-hiking to the airport in George, the stress of arriving in Jo'burg, hurrying to get to the event, and the effort of chatting, so it was straight to bed for me.
The day after, I gathered up my courage, and decided to try the public transportation to get the Turffontein Racecourse where the "new" bands would be rehearsing. It took me straight past the spot where the mugging had happened, and I had to stand an uncomfortable half an hour to swop buses, but afterwards I did feel better. Got to the event, and loved the fact off being recognised and chatted to ;-) .The baby bands (as the new bands are called) were amazing and I was blown away by how quickly they had managed to make great performances. In five, six months time... Next were the individual and specific contests, with solo dancing and instruments playing per band, which allowed to focus on just one aspect of the bands (while you're always missing out on things if you see the entire performance, cause there is just too much going on).
The afternoon, we went with Nicky and the international supporters to the Constitutional court which used to be a prison under apartheid. Fascinating.

In the evening we managed to get invited to a fancy dinner at Bertie Lubner's place. Great food, all of the important players, and they have had the 16th best choir in the world performing! We took a moment of Rheta's time, the national coordinator of the Field band Foundation, who explained in a very straightforward way the setting up of a new field band. Turned out I (or we) had gotten it all wrong, cause we were focusing on trying to get the community involved, and set up the structure for the rehearsals, getting all the local stakeholders motivated. Rheta said we just needed to get the money together for the first year (about 1,2M R for buying the instruments and the salaries for the five hired people in charge) and then they would come in and do it all, take it from there. I felt a bit devastated cause it meant I didn't have much else to do. Fundraising was what needed to be focused on now, and that was Tony's department. I hardly see myself moving in his circle of Polo friends... But then I wondered where the empowerment was, the involvement of the community if we just play out the blue print that they use nationally. Of course it allows for less mistakes, but isn't each community entitled to making its own mistakes and learning from them. Seems to me like we have very little input or autonomy...

Saturday was the big day for the bands presentations, and all the senior bands showed the best of what they had. Heartwarming and I did feel a bit like the project was really worth it again. After kissing everybody goodbye, Tony and the Lubner clan gave us a ride back to the hostel and we decided to meet up later again for a jazz festival that was taking place down town, in a recently renovated area called Newtown. At the hostel we met James, a guy from Brooklyn who has just spent 7 years in Sierra Leone working with a bee-honey project. After supper in a local mall and efforts to try and see the Lion King (didn't come through though), we left for the Jazz Festival where a lot of West-African and Brazilian band were performing. It was amazing to spend a night out in Jo'burg Central and have it be so nice and secure.

Sunday morning we'd booked a bicycling tour through Soweto with Lebo Backpackers. Soweto is the main tourist attraction of Jo'burg and where I feared to spend a morning behind the glasses of a van looking at total misery, it turned out to be the complete opposite.


Friendly faces, children greeting us, hardly any pleas for money. Intense places such as where 600 students were shot by the police in 1976, the only street in the world with 2 Nobel Peace prize winner (Desmond Tutu and Nelson Mandela), a lot of innovative and original community projects... .

Then it was time for us to say goodbye to Jo'burg, after a weekend that had turned out far more pleasant than I thought but a bit disappointing for me personally on the Field band level, since I now doubt to be able to contribute much more in the near future.

Famous photograph of the Soweto riots
showing a student carrying the body of Hector Pieterson,
a 13 year old boy who was one of the first casualties.