Around the Table Dialogue - Personal impressions

It is nearly 20 years since the democratisation of  South Africa and the euphoria around what was seen as the birth of our rainbow nation: unity and richness in diversity. But increasingly in recent years people have been asking what has happened to those ideals, the hopes, the boundless potential? Are the various cultures and races in our country growing in our interaction and understanding of each other, and drawing energy from it, or is there increasing tension, alienation, distrust?

Against this background and our concern about it, my wife Alida and I jumped at the opportunity to host Sophakama's first social meeting to revive those ideals.And what a hope-giving event it turned out to be!

The guests, a good cross-section of our society, must have decided not to buy into the Africa time thing and started arriving just after the appointed time of six o'clock.The weather played along beautifully and the colourful spread of snacks and drinks on the stoep immediately created a relaxed, convivial atmosphere, giving people the opportunity to try and remember each others names.

Half an hour or so later it was time for the eleven of us to move inside. Everybody had been asked beforehand to bring along a piece of art, a book, a poem or music and to say something about it when introducing yourself. It was during this session that I started realising it was a very, very special bunch of young people who had gathered in our house. As one after the other got up, I was amazed at how well they were able to express themselves, and at the depth of what they were saying. My impression was further strengthened when the evening's topic, stereotyping, was introduced. Taking into account that many of us had only just met each other, the frankness and ease of all conversation was remarkable. For people to really get to know each other and for mutual trust to develop obviously time is needed, but what I saw was that we all felt the space was safe enough to be open and honest. It is possible over time that more critical viewpoints may come to the surface, but I am positive that this group has the capacity to handle such situations gracefully.

We are privileged to have been part of the start of such an exciting initiative. May it grow from strength to strength and, who knows, multiply in Port Elizabeth, the Eastern Cape and the country! There is much to be done.





Stephan Bothma