So here’s a heads up: this blog post won’t be about sunny beaches, culinary delights or anything particularly quirky or funny. That’s not to say my time at the University of Cape Town hasn’t contained a countless number of those but right now, I am writing this from my house in the Cape Town suburbs whilst there are students on my campus faced with water cannons, armed security and possible jail time for protesting the potential increase in university fees. Not everything on a year abroad is sunshine and flowers and not every challenge you meet will have a clear solution but everything during your year abroad can be a learning experience and you’ve just caught me in the middle of one hell of a learning experience.
It’s Black History Month in the UK right now, so these protests in Cape Town have relevance in the UK context too, as they speak to the long history of protesting which has won the rights of black people the world over. But the basic situation in South Africa is that (just like at home in the UK!) university fees keep rising, increasingly excluding people from disadvantaged backgrounds from attaining a university education and alleviating the financial struggle they and their families find themselves in. The people targeted by this economic exclusion in South Africa are disproportionately black Africans and the consequences of this are, on the whole, far more severe than in the UK because poverty levels are so much higher and state resources are more limited. Tensions over the release of fees statements have been rising throughout this semester and have finally reached breaking point, heralding the beginning of #FeesMustFall2017. In a desperate effort to get the university executive and government to listen, students have been shutting down lecture halls, libraries and entrances to campus, as well as staging a march to the parliament in Cape Town. The university’s response has been to bring in private security and suspend lessons and tests for the time being, whilst the police have clashed with students in the city centre. So, the question you might be asking yourself now is: if studying abroad is all about immersing yourself in the experiences of local people, how come you’re not out there protesting such a worthy cause? I don’t know how adequate my response will be but here is my attempt to explain why…
Whilst living in a foreign country is a fascinating experience, the time I’ve spent in South Africa so far has shown me that there is a fine line between appreciating a different culture and viewing it voyeuristically. The impression you get of the culture you’re living in is always mediated by the perspective you have as an international student. In South Africa it is especially the case that navigating this line requires you to be very aware of your position as a foreigner. Whilst I support the struggle of my fellow students here at UCT, I am also aware that, as a white international student, an increase in fees is unlikely to affect me anywhere near as much as it would affect black South Africans. Despite my curiosity and willingness to understand the events unfolding on campus, my physical presence at protests could be seen as hypocritical and even as threatening. For this reason, I’ve decided it would be more appropriate to put my efforts into trying to understand where the protesting students are coming from and lending my support by pressuring the administration in other ways. I won’t bore you with details because the point I am trying to make in this post is this: studying abroad means far more than just studying in a city with more sunny days and fewer Greggs. If you want to get the most out of your year abroad, it means engaging with another culture on a level that goes beyond comparing the price of a pint to your local at home (although I wholeheartedly encourage you to sample all the alcohol your host country has to offer). It means understanding your position in that society and to what extent that allows you to immerse yourself into it or not. Studying in the UK brings with it a wealth of privileges, many of which you won’t even be aware that you have until you begin studying in a different context. Studying abroad cultivates a sensitivity for other cultures that enables you to navigate the world with an awareness of and respect for other perspectives.
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