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Students gain new perspective from South Africa visit

Black History Month, celebrated in February, comes on the heels of the nationwide holiday for Martin Luther King Jr. The month usually conjures images of slavery, Jim Crow, W.E.B. DuBois, Malcolm X and other U.S. leaders and events.

But to University students who traveled to South Africa this past summer, African American history is only a part of a larger celebration, a global celebration for black people internationally.

"There are two histories. The first is African and the second is African American," said political science Prof. Hanes Walton. "The African part is the oldest part. It goes back to the beginning of time."

Black history is a culmination of two distinct political identities, Walton said.

LSA senior Ruquiijah Yearby spent three months in Durban, South Africa, with a group of students, and said she returned to the University with a new outlook.

"When I came back, a lot of things were put in perspective," Yearby said.

Researching lead poisoning in children ages 3 to 5 and 8 to 10, the students learned about environmental problems and got a chance to interact with the South African people.

The students said the poverty they witnessed was shocking beyond their expectations.

"Little kids were running around without shoes, without clothes," Yearby said.

"I learned how blessed we are as African Americans not to live in that kind of poverty," she said.

Emerging from apartheid, the South African people are just beginning to change the old system.

"People are excited for change," said Michelle Everett, an LSA senior who went to Johannesburg. "They are working together."

Yearby said young people in South Africa have not learned African history because of a lack of resources.

"Because of their whole system living as inferior, they don't know a lot about African history in general," she said. "All they know is that they have been fighting so hard for their rights."

Since the fall of apartheid, school curricula have changed to more accurately serve the diverse population, but rural areas still suffer without textbooks, Yearby said.

"The experience reminded me that it is very important to celebrate Black History Month as a global celebration."

Yearby, a biology concentrator, said she plans to become a lawyer and travel to impoverished countries to set up health care sites.

Back at the University, Yearby plans to educate blacks about student activism on campus through her Black Undergraduate Law Association's Law Week.

"I'm trying to get people interested in their rights and the law," she said.

Through her sorority, Tau Kappa Omicron, Yearby also helped organize a symposium for Black History Month focusing on women's health. The event is open to all women, but Yearby said "we thought it would be a good time to do it."

In Johannesburg, other University students studied how rapid urbanization has affected children in a study called "Birth to Ten."

"The kids were like regular kids," LSA senior Greg White said of his experiences in South Africa, "except everyone there speaks three to nine languages."

White, who is black, said, "It was one of the best experiences of my life, because people don't realize what its like to wake up in the morning and have people look like you.

"It was a very warm feeling. People are nicer," he said.

White echoed Yearby and said the poverty in Johannesburg was like nothing he had experienced in the United States.

"No person can imagine being in the condition that some of the people had to live in," he said. "It was like nothing I'd ever seen in my life."

Leaving the country is important for African Americans, according to White.

His experience has motivated him to become more active in the community.

"People at the University have had little if any direct contact with struggle," he said.

"People are complacent," White said. "Everything is here for us."

Civil rights leaders and movements began to disappear in the '70s, and today's university students are out of touch with activism, he said.

White is a sociology concentrator and is busy teaching through the School of Education. He plans to teach high school.

White volunteers for Project SERVE, giving time and energy to the black community.

"When I came back my life was more focused," he said.

Everett, who was on the same program as White, said she also changed after her visit to South Africa.

"I have a different view of black history -- actually seeing and meeting people -- I understand more," she said.

Everett described Johannesburg as a city that retains the physical characteristics of apartheid, like tall walls designed to keep blacks separated from whites.

"If you can imagine North Campus surrounded by high walls and barbed wire," she said. "Security is really tight."

The walls only had two entrances where about five to eight guards made sure women obeyed 1:30 a.m. curfews.

While White and Everett traveled with the same program, Everett said women were restricted much more than men because of curfews and other rules of conduct.

Everett commented on the differences between the United States and South Africa, saying some South Africans were shocked when she spoke with both whites and blacks in the community.

"Groups really didn't intermix," she said. "I caused a bit of a stir; people asked me questions."

Interactions between African Americans and South Africans were awkward at first, White said.

"You're American, not African," he said. "We might not laugh at the same things."

By the end of the trip, both made friends.

"I can't wait to go back and visit," White said.

Everett said she will celebrate Black History Month with a global outlook.

"I see black history tied into history period," she said. "The main thing I realized is different perspectives. When I think of African history there's Zulu history and U.S. history and European history. It's not one dimensional."

Black history with a global feel.