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Sci-fi blockbuster District 9 is all about aliens and spaceships. But its fiction is rooted in the facts about South Africa's troubled history of housing and immigration.
This summer, I spent six weeks in Cape Town teaching human rights to a multiracial group of South Africans and Americans—many of whom wanted to party on Long Street more than they wanted to study human rights. Still, I managed to get their attention long enough for us to focus on two recurring issues—housing and immigration. Shortly after I got back, I found myself sitting in a movie theater in Silver Spring, Md., confronting these same issues masquerading as entertainment in the major summer sci-fi blockbuster, District 9.
District 9 begins in 1990 when an alien spaceship stalls in the skies above Johannesburg. After three months with no contact, the South Africans decide to board the ship, only to find 1 million aliens who appear to be in need of rescuing. The South Africans move the aliens from the ship to District 9, which is a cross between a township and a refugee camp. Jump forward 20 years: It’s 2010. The alien population has grown; their living conditions are horrific, and the South Africans’ extraterrestrial goodwill has waned. (The aliens are now called “prawns,” a derisive term that brings to mind apartheid’s “kaffir” and “bantu.”) The solution: an intergovernmental effort to forcibly remove the aliens from District 9 to District 10, some 240 kilometers away.
The conditions under which District 9’s aliens lived, as well as their forced removal, brought to mind a case decided by the South African Constitutional Court on June 10. Residents of Joe Slovo Community Western Cape v. Thubelisha Homes and Others concerns a group of poor people who are not lucky enough to lawfully occupy the permanent, but austere houses found in South Africa’s townships. Instead, the residents of Joe Slovo occupy dwellings that are little more than amalgams of plastic tarps and corrugated tin pitched between the edges of Langa township and the N2 highway. As described by Constitutional Court Judge Zac Yacoob, the conditions in Joe Slovo are “unhygienic,” “unsafe” and “unfit for reasonable human habitation.” In South Africa, the press to reach equilibrium in the affordable housing market is intensified by constitutional mandates regarding housing-related rights. Building new houses on sites occupied by informal settlements, such as Joe Slovo, makes the “immeasurable … human price to be paid for this relocation and reconstruction” unavoidable. According to the court, removal is a reasonable means to ensure the progressive realization of the right of access to housing as recognized in Section 26(2) of the South African Constitution.
The fate of the Joe Slovo residents is only the most recent massive removal in a city infamously known for having used the law to force tens of thousands of people from their homes. Case in point: Its destruction of District 6, a thriving multiracial community, the mere existence of which challenged the fundamental assumptions on which apartheid was based. Despite the obvious parallels between real and fictional forced removals, District 9’s aliens are not stand-ins for the displaced residents of either District 6 or Joe Slovo. Rather, District 9’s aliens bring to mind the Somali, Zimbabwean and other African immigrants who have sought refuge in South Africa. Some come to South Africa for the chance at a better life in a democratic country based on principles of non-racialism. Others come because of expectations: The expectation that a country led by the ANC, a political party nee liberation movement that relied heavily on the willingness of others to open their borders to South African exiles fighting against apartheid. Surely such a country, the reasoning goes, would not deny them a safe place to rebuild lives free from whatever particular atrocities forced them to leave home.
If only it were so. Whatever their motivations, immigrants are routinely targeted by those South Africans who see these other Africans as direct competitors vying for post-apartheid South Africa’s limited spoils. At its worst, this nativism erupts into the kind of xenophobic violence that, in 2008, forced many African immigrants to flee their township homes and seek refuge in temporary encampments. Townships with extraordinarily high rates of unemployment were the fecund ground in which the frustrations of those disgusted with the slowness of post-apartheid progress took root. Most recently, less than two weeks after the constitutional court handed down its opinion in the Joe Slovo case, tensions in townships including Langa, Gugulethu and Samora Machel forced Somali shopkeepers to shutter their businesses until they could broker agreements under which competing businesses might peacefully and profitably co-exist.
It is unlikely that this agreement will end anti-immigrant violence and antipathy (especially that reserved for Nigerians who are routinely blamed for all things violent and criminal both in real life and in the movie). It demonstrates, however, the benefits of meaningful consultation with all stakeholders in matters that implicate the dignity at the core of human rights. While South Africa has come a long way in the relatively short period since apartheid’s official end, it has a long way to go before the consciousness and actions of the government and its citizens comport with the country’s constitutional aspirations.
Lisa A. Crooms is a professor at Howard University’s School of Law.
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I think Mugabe in Zimbabwe is doing a bang up job huh?
When you poke a hole in the earth and put a couple of corn or tomatoe seeds in it, then yall can eat in 3 months......
Some people just can't grasp the obvious....
Every kid learns that in 1st grade, somebody should tell the black farmers in Zimbabwe.
Blacks even got to watch how the white man did it when Zimbabwe was the bread basket of Africa.
Now, they still can't scratch a hole in the ground and put a seed in it.
They can play sports, dance and rap though....
Viva La Revolucion
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This is carrying political correctness a little to far. The PC advice given here is endangering a young woman. SA is statistically one of the most violent crime ridden parts of the world. In addition, as someone who has traveled widely in the world I can tell that a young Western woman traveling by herself in many parts of Africa and moslem areas of the Middle east is viewed as fair game for any male in the vicinity. Student teacher should keep this in mind at all times when so as not to wind up a victim of a violent crime.
I admit I giggled a little when I saw your comment about Austin, it's so TRUE! My hubby and I just moved back to Texas after spending several years in Los Angeles and we've both been depressed and feeling like we're hitting our heads against a wall. It's frustrating after having grown up in Texas to come back here as an adult and see how bad some things really are, and unfortunately Katrina made some things MUCH worse, especially in Houston which is where we're from. We both have a lot of friends from high school still here, but my husband is starting to say he doesn't want to even see them any more because he just gets so angry having to listen to some of their crap.
I personally am fairly non-confrontational and I just worried that if I saw something in SA that upset me and spoke out about it that I might get in to some serious heat. Not that it would stop me from saying something, but I prefer to keep things civil if I can. And the truth is that I don't live there and don't know the culture or the context so I don't want to stick my foot in my mouth over something that really ISN'T an issue, just because I don't understand the local context. There are some things that are WRONG no matter where you are and then there are some things that only LOOK wrong if you don't know the circumstances.
Anyways, thanks for your comments, I'll definitely be buffing up on my Mandela before I go, although I don't know how much time I'll have for sight seeing if the great whites are keeping us too buisy!
We took Our last big family trip in 1996 to Suid Afrika...n' We'll admit dat @ 1st, b/4 We got there, We weren't really jazzed 'bout tha idea a' goin'...other than tha fact dat We have an abidin' interest in Nelson Mandela, a' course.
So prior 2 leavin' We read up on ev'rythang We could about SA'z history, both positive and negative, includin' Mandela'z autobiography "Long Walk To Freedom".
http://www.amazon.com/Long-Walk-Freedom-Nelson-Mandela/dp/B000OU5TOS/ref...
We took a fairly whirlwind 2-week tour through Cape Town, Johannesburg, Soweto, Pretoria, n' Durban. Each place had it own charm n' drawbacks, but definitely mo' good (or @ least tha hint a' mo' hope = ) than not.
Mos' a' the negative comments We heard came from white South Afrikaners, true, but nuthin' like the nonsense you've seen on this site or probably have had 2 deal w/ there in texas...We got People there, 2...n' We'd take Cape Town OVER ANY place in texas, save 4 Austin. = )
The ONLY real ugliness We witnessed wuz a coupla young 20-somethin' white South Afikaners pickin' on some young (presumably homeless) street urchins in Durban who look'd 2 be 'bout b/t 8-11. Hard 2 tell 4 sure because they look'd rather malnourish'd.
We stepped in n' IMMEDIATELY put a STOP 2 dat nonsense n' made those white boys leave or face tha Wrath of a "yank", az they referred 2 Us. Theze 2 Black boys look'd @ Us like NO ONE had EVER defended them...their eyez got SOOO BIG afterwardz, but they were filled w/ gratitude. We fed them, ask'd about their lives, n' if they'd be ok. They displayed an AMAZIN' RESILIENCY 4 kidz so young n' tiny.
Dat'z how We ended up feelin' 'bout tha country in gerenal:
There were definitely issuez yet to be fully address'd and resolved..but w/ the Truth and Reconciliation hearings going on @ the time...which We, a' course, actually sat in on a session a'...they were @ least takin' fairly honest stepz towardz peaceful resolution a' their sordid apartheid past--MUCH MO' SO than ANYthing We've seen here in the good ol' boy u.s.a.!
The topography a' tha country iz different from mos' placez in tha states, yet STILL very stunnin'...even in tha mo' griity urban areaz.
Cape Town wuz Our fave...if We ever make it back there...We'd start there.
Have FUN (next summer = ).
http://theblackwhole.wordpress.com
--TBW
I'll take that bet, seeing as how I won't be leaving until NEXT summer.
What's wrong Gay, missing Viva?
Thank you for your comments. I am sure I will have a wonderful time in SA. I will be careful and concientious (as I always am when I travel) and am truly excited about getting to spend time in this wonderful country. If you have any other suggestions or know of any good reading material to get me ready for my trip please let me know!