Donate
to the Stephen Lewis Foundation
through Victoria Grandmothers for Africa
Today we took a flight from Manzini, Eswatini to Johannesburg, SA, and then from Johannesburg to Cape Town. We arrived in Cape Town and got our first views of Table Mountain right at sunset. It was pretty glorious. What a beautifully situated city, recently awarded the title of Time Out's "Best City in the World to Visit". Tomorrow we have a free day. Most of us are getting on the Hop On Hop Off bus for at least part of the day. Dinner was hilarious with 16 women trying to figure out what to see and what time to leave and so on, each trying to convince the others that their idea was the best. Bonnie and I and one or two others are heading out at 8:30 am and hoping to put in a good long day on the HOHO. We are both keen on taking the cable car up Table Mountain if the weather cooperates, and trying to see the beautiful Kirstenbosch National Botanical Gardens. I also want to spend some time at the beach. :)
We heard some news this morning about Trump presenting the president of South Africa with what he called evidence of white genocide. Shortly after, we met an Afrikaner married couple, about our age, who told us:
When I fact-checked this, this is what I found out: According to the South African Police Service (SAPS), only one farmer was murdered in the third quarter of 2024.
Maybe I shouldn't even be sharing this because I don't know very much about it but it was easy to see that this couple was a) very privileged, and b) very angry. South Africa is indeed a country with many complex challenges and I found this exchange interesting and difficult on the heels of Trump's ambush of President Cyril Ramaphosa.
view of Table Mountain from the bus:
Today the entire group learned about Swaziland Positive Living (SWAPOL). The amazing woman who started it all, Siphewe Hlophe, came to breakfast at our hotel this morning to tell us a little about the group before we headed off on the day’s adventure. She repeated a story that she loves and we know from the book “Powered by Love” about the first time she met Stephen Lewis. Information about her and this story is on the Stories from Africa page of our website: Siphewe Hlophe_Eswatini.
SWAPOL supports and advocates for rural communities affected by HIV, AIDS and TB, with a focus on women and children. Across Eswatini, SWAPOL has 14,500 members in 55 communities. SWAPOL promotes HIV treatment and adherence, addresses stigma and discrimination and runs workshops, including on HIV and aging for grandmothers, vegetable gardening and nutrition. Their approach strengthens health and care by increasing reach, informing policy development and implementation, and overseeing public systems. The SLF has partnered with SWAPOL since 2004.
Women are disproportionately impacted by HIV and often initiate local support groups. Today we visited a remote community where one of the very first support groups started. It was a 2.5-hour drive, in 3 vans, with 1.5 of those hours being on a very bumpy and rutty dirt road through beautiful countryside. On the way we saw many children walking to and from their schools which were few and far between. When we arrived, we were welcomed by the entire community – the chief, a spokesperson for the community, members of three local support groups and pretty much everyone else in the community who wanted to get a look at us and share the lunch they had been preparing for us for 3 days! There were rows of chairs in a big tent and a long program ready for us that was at least half singing and dancing! (And yes, they got us up there too.) We started by breaking into smaller teams and looking at four different income-generating projects from the various groups. One group makes dish detergent, bleach and fabric softener to sell. Another grows beans and nuts and sells them raw and cooked and made into hot sauce and peanut butter. Another grows vegetables for sale and the final one makes beer and sews clothing such as school uniforms and vestments for churches. (The beer tasted strong and very ferment-y and packed a bit of a punch.) They gave each of us a beautiful beaded necklace and a gorgeous SWAPOL kanga. Then there was an MC, and a speech from the chief, then singing and dancing, then a speech from the community spokesperson, then more singing and dancing, then a speech from one of the women who had started the support group in 2001, then more singing and dancing, then a speech from Meg French (executive director of the SLF), then more singing and dancing, then lunch! All of the speeches were translated in one direction or another. Lunch was maize, maize with nuts, rice, beetroot, spinach, coleslaw, grilled chicken, beef and goat, and warm freshly baked cornbread. Everyone in the community was served and there was lots left over. They had takeaway containers ready and the community members eagerly filled up their containers to take home. (The SLF covered all of the expenses for this party.)
The speech by the woman who started the support group back in 2001 was extremely touching. Here is basically what she said, after taking a deep breath and a few minutes to start: “I feel tears burning through my eyes when I think of how far we have come. I think of the struggles we faced when we started way back. It was so difficult. We lost so many of our community members at the beginning. It was on a random day that someone came to us and told us that Siphewe could be the solution to our problems. From that day on I wanted to meet her because she was talking about HIV and AIDS when nobody was talking about it. I remember the day I met her in 2000. She gave me a good lesson about HIV and AIDS and that’s when my eyes opened and I wanted to help others. As a woman who had children and relatives affected by the virus, as well as myself, I wanted to know how best we could fight this epidemic. So I decided to gather a group of women and tell them what I had learned from Siphewe. For a long time people had believed they were dying because of witchcraft. She gave us knowledge about HIV and AIDS but also helped us to survive through income-generating projects. We worked with our support group women and are still working hard. We saw the community change from stigma and discrimination from in-laws and the community at large. The support group has grown to include young people willing to disclose their status in addition to grandmothers. In 2017 I had the privilege of visiting Canada. I felt welcomed and it felt like home. Flying was amazing and I had a very good time. I even got a chance to ride on a train. Thank you to SWAPOL for making this event not just for the support groups but for the community at large.”
The overwhelming feelings from this event were of celebration, gratitude, sisterhood and community. They couldn’t smile enough or tell us thank-you often enough. They were so happy that “this many white people” visited their community and they loved that so many of us were grandmothers. They cheered for us over and over again – when Meg spoke, when we tried to dance, and when we were leaving. It was a glorious day, ending with the reverse 2.5 hour drive that culminated with sunset over the hills and rush hour in the city.
We learned in our debriefing that ARV medication is no longer a big problem. Apparently the US reinstated the provision of medication for treatment, although not for prevention (called PREP). So these wonderful women we met are still accessing the medicine they need daily to stay well and continue helping others.
Eswatini has been significantly affected by the HIV epidemic with the highest prevalence rate in the world. In recent years, the country has been making considerable progress in epidemic control, in no small part thanks to the power of the community-led organizations we visited today. Bonnie visited the Eswatini Nurses Association (ENA) and Laurie visited SWAGAA (Swaziland Action Group Against Abuse).
ENA: The Eswatini Nurses Association offers support for health care workers and their families. The Wellness Centre for Health Care Workers offers a range of services including testing for HIV, tuberculosis and cancer as well as clinical mental health counselling, outreach and home based care. We also went to a rural clinic that serves the surrounding community. There a clinical psychologist gave a presentation about gender-based violence which is on the rise in Eswatini. He feels the reason is because of the economic situation in the country, unemployment is very high even for educated young people.
We also had a home visit where we went to the home of Gogo Louise. She was a gracious and fiercely independent woman of 73 who has lost a lot of her mobility due to a stroke and is also HIV positive. She has home care and the wellness centre visits to deliver medication.
We returned to the Wellness Centre for a lovely lunch. Everyone we encountered today was very appreciative of the support of the Stephen Lewis Foundation. The SLF has been in partnership since 2006 when ENA was founded. They are all working very hard in extremely challenging circumstances and their dedication is clearly evident. The photo is a trailer set up for counselling that was purchased for ENA by the SLF.
SWAGAA (the Swazi name means “haven of hope”)
For over 30 years, SWAGAA has led critical community responses to gender-based violence and violence against children. Widely recognized as an expert organization, they work with government, police, social welfare, health, civil society and the justice system. First thing this morning we had a tour of the SWAGAA head office, not far from our Manzini hotel, and a presentation from the powerhouse executive director, Nonhlanhla Dlamini (she said we could call her Noni). SWAGAA started in October 1990 with volunteers, got its first funding in 1996 and in 1997, started recruiting staff. Noni was a volunteer and then one of the first staff members, motivated as many of them are by having a sexual assault in her family. One of her two adopted sons was sexually abused (sodomized) on the way home from school by a stranger – very badly injured. (He is now a teacher with a drug problem but he has an adorable daughter.) There was lots of denial and resistance when SWAGAA began but it eventually became a household name and people started reporting their assaults. Many many of them are children. In the early days (and maybe still?) this was related to the belief that sex with a virgin would protect you from the HIV virus. The US AID cuts have caused SWAGAA to lose its HR Manager, its Clinical Psychologist and 20 of its 42 counsellors and outreach workers. The remaining staff members are now multi-tasking and working extra hard to keep everything going. SWAGAA has four pillars in its work:
PREVENTION: This is a more recent focus. They get messages and training to communities, churches and schools, have a weekly radio show, and appear on TV and in print media as much as possible. We got to visit one of 42 local Savings and Loan groups started by SWAGAA in the Manzini area (14 unemployed women who meet under a tree just like the photos we’ve looked at so many times). They meet every Tuesday at 11 and each one of them brings 5 lilangeni ($0.40 CAD) to deposit weekly. The money gradually grows and they can take out a loan for purchases or businesses with 10 years to pay it back. (They can only have one unpaid loan at a time though.) They have used these loans to purchase electric kettles, school uniforms for their children, and seeds to start a market garden. They told us they appreciate feeling that they are contributing to their family’s income and they also appreciate the sisterhood of the group members they have come to know and love. They learn skills and take turns chairing the meeting. This initiative is definitely under the PREVENTION pillar.
CARE AND SUPPORT: They have counselling sites in all four regions of the county. One of their initiatives, now run by the government (on a shoestring) is called a One-Stop Centre. We also got to visit one of these, where survivors (no longer called victims) can shower and clean up, make their police report, receive medical treatment and counselling, and help with next steps. This brilliant idea serves to reduce the secondary trauma that comes from dealing with all of these things after an assault. The One-Stop Centre also has a social worker and a prosecutor on staff. The prosecutor makes sure that the cases heading to court are all airtight before they get there. The social worker deals with all of the minors (the majority of assaults), as well as babies that are abandoned at the attached hospital and malnutrition cases which come to the hospital. There is only one social worker and one prosecutor so when they are on leave, there is no-one filling their role.
LOBBYING AND ADVOCACY: SWAGAA staffers work on law reform and train police and other responders. There is a recent case of a high profile government spokesperson who raped two children. Though the children reported and helped police with the investigation, the perpetrator had not been arrested. Noni met with the Director of Public Prosecutions who said they had their case all lined up but there was a delay from the police, claiming the King wouldn’t give them the final stamp of approval. She then met with the chief of police and offered to personally go to the King. Three days later the perpetrator was arrested but he is currently protesting with all he can muster.
SWAGAA helped draft the legislation for the Sexual Offences and Domestic Violence (SODV) Act way back in 2004 but it kept getting put off and delayed and then basically ignored. Noni went to the US for leadership training and was greatly influenced by an elderly woman who told her “The coach never scores goals. If you want to score a goal you have to get on the field.” So she went home and ran for Parliament, against seven men, and won! From her new position of greater power she finally was able to push through the SODV Act.
ACCESS TO JUSTICE: There is now a toll-free line for reporting and an SMS platform, along with a staffed national emergency response (NER) team. There were two officers working in NER but their salaries were paid by US AID. When their jobs ended as a result, one of them continued as a volunteer. Recent SLF flexible funding has now paid for part of a salary for him. Under this pillar, SWAGAA staffers help survivors prepare for court and accompany them. (There is often no-one available for this critical accompanying role since the staff cuts. When a SWAGAA staffer is in the courtroom, it makes a difference.) They also help them access medical services for diseases resulting from their assault. A grandfather recently raped his 2- and 4-year old grandchildren who both ended up with gonorrhea. A neighbour reported this and the grandfather threatened to and then burned down the neighbour’s house. Another 100-year-old grandfather recently raped his grandchildren; there seems to be an upswing in this particular familial assault. 90% of the sexual assault cases now happen at home; the old “don’t trust strangers” warning is very out of date.
When we asked Noni why she thinks the situation of familial assaults is worsening, she said it is a combination of many things. She feels that one of the big reasons is the long-term impact of HIV which includes a decay in moral values. Children raised in child-headed households have grown into adults with no moral values (no-one to teach them) and very angry.
In addition to the head office, the One-Stop Centre and the Savings and Loan meeting, we also visited a shelter, in a very remote and hard-to-reach location, staffed by people with a lot of love and not many resources. They currently have 10 women there, many of them teenagers. A 14-year-old recently had a preemie baby born on May 1st weighing 1.7 kg and the baby is doing well. The young mother goes to school (they finally managed to arrange attendance at a local private school for their teenage clients), pumps breast milk daily, and one of the women at the centre is caring for this adorable tiny baby boy who we were allowed to meet. One of the photos is us climbing back up the hill from this beautiful and remote location.
We stayed last night at another beautiful and unique place in Johannesburg, the Airport Bird and Game Lodge. They had a herd of reindeer (!) which they called "Santa Claus reindeer". The owner said to us "I think they come from Canada"!
This morning we and our luggage were herded onto two busses to the airport and we flew to Manzini Eswatini. We will be here for three nights and will do partner visits for the next two days. Bonnie will visit the Eswatini Nurses Association tomorrow and Laurie will visit SWAGAA.
Before dinner we had a practice with the whole group. The person who choreographed the Powered By Love dance, which VG4A did as a flash mob in 2018 along with many other groups around the country, Ariel Eastman, is with us, so she is trying to teach it to all of us so we can perform it a few times. We are definitely not ready for tomorrow! (This song was written by Stephen Lewis's 17-year-old grandson: Canadian grandmothers dance to raise awareness for World AIDS Day 2018.)
Today after our early morning safari we left Elephant Plains Game Lodge and travelled by bus to Hoedspruit and by plane back to Johannesburg. There we met up with the rest of the group for the next two weeks. We are now 16 Canadian grandmothers and grandothers, five SLF staff members and Evie, the amazingly cheerful and upbeat local woman who will be travelling with us and who has handled most of the logistics on the ground here. We had a welcome meeting with an icebreaker and a short language lesson from Evie. The word for “Hello” in Zulu (and Xhosa and Siswati) is SAWUBONA. Xhosa (the language spoken by author and comedian Trevor Noah’s mother) uses an intricate system of click consonants. We also had a bit of an introduction to that!
Then we had a wonderful outdoor barbecue, representing different southern African countries, that included chicken, lamb, beef and Boerewors (sausage), along with veggie kabobs on rosemary skewers and a scalloped potato bake. It feels pretty good to have gradually got to know the group of 10 women we were with for the last few days before meeting the next 12. And tomorrow we are all off to Manzini, Eswatini with our first partner visit scheduled for the next day (Tuesday). Though it is the beginning of winter here the highs for the last two days were 30 and 31 C. The evenings and mornings before sunup are quite cool.
So we are in the Sabi Sands Game Reserve, apparently the best game reserve in the world, and our experience has certainly verified that. The 10 of us who chose to do this before the SLF meet-up fill up one entire jeep so we have had our own guide, and our own “tracker” for the entire time. We went out for a few hours at 3:30 pm on Friday, and at 6 am today, and at 3:30 today and again at 6 am tomorrow. They cooperate with other safari resorts in the local area to figure out where the interesting animals are hanging out, plus watch for things with their eagle eyes. Today we unexpectedly saw a beautiful pair of zebras, and also a leopard who had killed an impala and was still devouring it, along with wildebeest, wart hogs, elephants, African buffalo, hippos, bush bucks, many herds of impala and beautiful birds. And our guides drive this amazing jeep through the bush trying to get us the best views possible and very up close and personal with these amazing animals. And who knew? An evening safari always includes “sundowners” – beer, wine or cocktails served on the tail of the jeep at sunset – before heading back. And when we arrive back at the lodge, there are three choices of drink waiting for us – a cocktail, a shooter and a mocktail!
The rooms are beautiful, with mosquito netting draped fashionably over our beds, and the meals are gourmet with attention paid to all possible allergies. It will be quite a contrast to the next part of our trip but it feels like we have seen an essential piece of Africa and we feel grateful to be doing it in such style.
No words!!!!
Soweto was created in the 1930s when the white government started separating blacks from whites to create black "townships". It also attracted the working poor, Coloureds and Indians and quickly became a community where mixed races generally intermingled. With the onset of apartheid, there was great concern over this and most of the non-black residents were moved elsewhere. Soweto is now 98.5% black and still very poor.
Until 1976, the "matchbox" houses were provided to black residents with jobs, on lease; they were not allowed to do any renovations or build a fence or even hang curtains because the police had the right to spy on them at any time. Now the houses are owned, many by the families who leased them, but there are strict rules about who and how many can live in them.
We visited Mandala's home on our tour, where he lived both before and after his 27-year imprisonment and where his second wife Winnie lived and was regularly harassed and often arrested while he was in prison. She spent 200 days in solitary. When Mandela got out of prison, he and Winnie divorced. She apparently wanted revenge and he wanted peace and they found that irreconcilable. (He became the first black president of South Africa when he was 76, married his third wife when he was 80 and died at 95.)
Other interesting facts:
While we were biking around Soweto today, here's what I noticed.
Differences from home:
Similarities to home:
us on the bike tour (with Sara from the East Van Gogos) in front of the Soweto Towers (abandoned utility towers re-created as a recreational zone with a bungie jump and many other things, and paid advertisers)
us at the Nelson Mandela house between memorials to Winnie and Nelson
a matchbox house
Hector Pieterson, a 12-year-old who died during the 1976 uprising
Today 5 of us visited the Apartheid Museum, packed with sometimes brutal reminders illustrating apartheid and the complex 20th century history of SA. I generally whisk through museums but this one was very compelling. "Man's inhumanity to man", a common theme in the world's literature, is certainly exemplified by apartheid. Even though I just read all about it, I can't fathom the mindset behind white supremacy. I think it's mostly about fear, and about losing power when you're a minority. I read that one of the main reasons "they" didn't want to give black people the vote is because there were too many of them!
SA's Truth and Reconciliation initiative has lots of parallels to Canada's. But there is still a long way to go (in both countries). SA continues to be rife with crime, poverty and inequality. 32% of South Africans are unemployed and 56% live below the poverty line.
"To be free is not merely to cast off one's chains, but to live in a way that respects and enhances the freedom of others." Nelson Mandela
So we had 3 long flights with a total travelling time of 28 hours. Bonnie and I each finished a book and we watched 5 movies between us! We arrived underslept and overfed but we are here, on the African continent, in the huge (10 million people) city of Johannesburg. We are staying in a very beautiful guest house for the next 3 nights, as different members of our party arrive gradually.
Everything we have learned about Johannesburg so far we learned from our taxi driver, who was talking a mile a minute and driving very fast and skillfully through heavy traffic. He told us that it costs 10000 Rand ($800) for school fees for every child who wants to attend school and that the cost prevents many poor children from attending. (All four of his children attend school but his brother died two years ago and in order to be able to put his brother's two kids in school, he took two of his own out.) One of Nelson Mandela's big dreams was for free education but it has not happened. We were driving with him in the mid-afternoon and he pointed out to us many kids of various ages walking along the sides of the roads home from school. Some of them walk as far as 10K each way, he said, and until he pointed it out to us, I hadn't noticed they were all black. "The white kids don't have to walk" he said. They all get driven. He also told us there are white compounds with a private school and shopping and parks and recreation so that the people who live there hardly ever have to leave. There are LOTS of differences between white and black opportunities, despite the official ending of apartheid.
VG4A actively seeks ways to learn, reconcile and connect with local First Nations.
Territorial Acknowledgement
Reconciliation Stories
