The native people of Africa are truly amazing. Maybe I've said that before, but to think that they have only known real equality in South Africa for 15 years, boggles the mind. South Africa is now the model of democracy for this continent and as such has become the destination point for immigrants from neighboring Zimbabwe, Malawi and Mozambique, where the political climate is either oppressive or very unstable. Unemployment in some of these countries is as high as 80%, so South Africa is their 'land of opportunity'. The news in Johannesburg reports that people are flowing into SA at a rate of 105,000 per month, and considering that, this country is dealing with things relatively well.
Again, when one considers that it was only in 1994 that things legally changed to allow equal rights and opportunity to all South Africans, (maybe we in the states forgot, since all we heard at that time was about the Clinton White House and Monica Lewinsky, etc.) it is great to see how well it has all been implemented ...remember that it took the USA from the Emancipation Proclamation in 1865 until 1964 to get integrated schools, restaurants, hospitals and a Civil Rights Bill passed. In South Africa, the 'over 30' population group here has suffered through the years of Apartheid and has a different set of memories than the folks in their teens and twenties do, and the young children of Africans will grow up in a far better set of circumstances that the prior generations had to deal with. Below I have tried to capture a variety of the people we see and meet on a daily basis. It will be up to you to put captions to the photos.
These are the 'faces of Africa"
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A difficult past...a transitional present and a hope filled future.
Freedom, Opportunity and Gospel centered lives will make all the difference.
"Let us therefore follow the things which make for peace,
and things wherewith one may edify another."
-Romans 14:19
Stay well!
