A visit to the rainbow nation: Zouth Africa

 I’ve just got back from South Africa where I presented a paper on a conference about my research in Korea and I still had a week to discover... I mainly stayed in Capetown.  Surrounded by the table mountain and an impressive coastal scenery it’s indeed one of the most beautiful cities I’ve seen so far. But also, it’s one of the most exhausting cities as it full of contrasts between rich and poor, black and white and colored people. We went out at the famous Long Street where we found numerous clubs of all different types of music playing.  What we felt was that segregation is still in the air of this street. In the first club we entered, only blacks were hanging out, in the other club, where a  very nice Jazzband was playing,  it was mainly crowded people from the Cape Malay community which is an ethnic group with partly South-African and South-East-Asian routes. In another club where we hoped to find Hard Rock and Metal music, mostly Whites where hanging out. Well they played only Indie-Music…anyway, it’s quiet shocking to have on one hand a world in Capetown that reminds you on the luxury world of Ibiza with having kilometers of slums (they call it “informal settlements”) right beside it. Of course, in many countries you find that phenomena, for example in Latin American countries, but in South Africa this contrast between different worlds is enormously extreme and I wonder if I could live there, although the nature and the vibe is awesome…

Well, Capetown is known for its vibrant Jazz-Scene and is often called the New Orleans of Africa and you find such beautiful venues, small bars where you can listen some really delicious Jazz Music.

… And my musical experience was the other side of my South African trip which again showed me the intense power of music: As you can see in the (well, not very nice) video a white grandma is playing together with blacks and colored people…In music the ridiculous distinctions of  colors of the skin doesn’t matter  and this is where I could find the spirit of Nelson Mandela so present Capetown: Viva la musica :)