The Jazz in Sophiatown

My wandering days are over (at least for the time being).

I've settled down in the very fine fully-furnished house of Mark and Carol Grieve: I work under Mark on the UJ Kingsway campus. Mark is Australian and Carol is South African, and they're back in Australia for six months. (If you're attending the CMS Summer School in January, you'll meet them-and me-there.)

So it's quite nice. I'm living in Sophiatown (say: So-fy-a-town), a predominantly white Afrikaans working class suburb with a bad reputation and a serious history. It's only just been renamed Sophiatown in the last few years.

It was famous in the early twentieth century as a centre of black culture in Johannesburg - kind of a Jo'burg Harlem. There was jazz, gangsterism, and black Africans could own land freehold. And it was a mixed-race area.

In the 50s, however, mixed-race residential areas were on the political hit-list, so the apartheid government forcibly removed all the township's black residents to what is now Soweto, and bulldozed basically every building in the place.

I think there's only something like five original Sophiatown buildings left standing - one of them the Anglican Church that sits on the hill.

Then they renamed the suburb Triomf. Triumph.

The place does have a bit of a dodgy reputation, but I'm increasingly convinced that a lot of that is just borne of class-based prejudice. The walls are only one-and-a-half metres high here instead of three, and razor wire and electric fences are few and far between.

I only have to unlock one gate and one door to get to my room - in Auckland Park it was an electric gate, two cast-iron grilles, a wooden door and an alarm system. It's a three minute walk to the shops and milk costs R3 ($A0.60) less! I love it here!

Rubber bullets and outreach

Ministry on campus is winding up: there's only a week of classes left. It's been a bit of a chaotic term on Bunting Rd campus - the university increased the registration fees, and the students have been striking. There's a bit of life to South African protests - there's a lot of singing and dancing - but things got violent as well.

At Doornfontein campus in town the student residences were raided, and at Bunting Rd the police fired rubber bullets when things got a bit out of hand. And one student politician - who's been an occasional Biblestudy attender made it into the Star (Jo'burg's SMH). The protests fell in our mission week, however, so most of our plans for big campus events came to very little.

Instead, our Friday main meeting was replaced by a debate on Romans 13 - what should protest look like for Christian students? Pretty interesting, especially as many white churches justified their non-involvement with the struggle in the apartheid era on the basis of 'submitting to the authorities.' Pretty hot issues.

Next weekend we'll be having the annual "Man's Camp" - a time of roughing it in the bush with the lads. It should be interesting - last year they slaughtered their own chickens. And people eat the whole chicken. But the year has been a good one - there's been a great deal of growth in numbers and Christian maturity.

Thembalethu

Ministry among the homeless continues. We're finding more and more guys attending - our Sunday service now boasts some 30 homeless guys each week. Our programs are diversifying - one of the guys actually landed a job at SABC down the road on a soapie (South African television has loads of soapies) which has sparked a real interest in drama among the lads. Next year, we plan to develop a proper production - perhaps a musical.

I hope things are all well back in Australia - I was half-watching the Afrikaans news one night and there was John Howard announcing the election. So I'm sorry to be missing all the drama of the campaign - but at least I get to do an overseas absentee vote!

I'll be leaving for Australia on December 6, so I'm looking forward to seeing as many of you as possible.

But the plan is to return to South Africa next year.

This year has been an incredible one of growth and training on a pretty steep learning curve. I'm mad to give it up now, and I'd love the opportunity to continue working here for another year. I'm convinced that God has a lot more to teach me here, and there's a lot of work to do.

But I'll continue to keep you all posted about that.

One funny story

And one other thing: I thought I'd let you know that amongst my other achievements here, I've got myself banned from the Westgate Shopping Mall. Actually, James Brennan, a Queenslander who's just joined us here, got me banned.

It happened like this: it had been a long day and James and I thought we'd unwind at the movies - if you go to Westgate on a Tuesday a movie only costs R8 ($A1.60), but it's a bit of a drive to get there.

So we went: we watched, we enjoyed, and were about to go home when James went to the bathroom. He was a bit crook, poor bloke, and he spent a while in there. He finally emerged, but with a cheeky grin on his face: he had something hidden underneath his jacket. I gave him a quizzical look, and he sneakily revealed his booty: a roll of toilet paper (just-in-case) for the trip home.

Unfortunately, the security guards also spotted James' surreptitious behaviour. "Oi," they said, and they approached. From there, it was all over: they accused James of stealing the toilet paper (which I guess he had) and carted him off to the security office. I tagged listlessly along, hoping to try and keep him out of trouble.

The head of security was a very angry man, and it was at this point that things became a bit racially charged.

"People are always saying it's we blacks that are stealing this toilet paper," he spat at us. "But now I know it's you whites!" He was furious - and I had no doubt that this kind of sentiment was probably what he received from his superiors when they pulled him up about high rates of toilet paper theft. But he had had enough: it was time to throw the book. So he called the police.

Ask anyone and they'll tell you that the South African Police Service is stretched: some police stations are actually protected by Chubb Armed Response Security, which is a bit weird. So, it took a while for them to come. A long while. When they finally did, they were pretty annoyed.

"A roll of toilet paper?" one cop asked incredulously, in a strong Afrikaans accent. "How much does that cost: R2.50?"

The cops were pretty frustrated with both the security people and us - they even suggested better ways for James to get emergency toilet paper. But in the end, the convinced the security chief not to press charges against James.

"But they are going to ban you from the mall," one of the cops explained. I smirked to myself - it seemed a funny end to a long night - by this time it was 2 am. And then it happened.

"And you too, mate." And the policeman pointed to me.

"What?" I was shocked. "I didn't even do anything! Why am I banned?"

"Well," he replied. "They've deemed your friend here 'undesirable', and if you're friends with him, you're 'undesirable' too. So if you set foot inside the mall again, they can arrest you for trespassing."

Shame. Now we have to go all the way to Northgate for R8 movies.

Many blessings,

Andrew