Khayalitsha is home to oppressive looking townships, but
also the Harry Gwala School. It was there were I saw and
was incredibly impressed by some of the most spirited,
vibrant children I have ever met. Their faces were brown
and beautiful with large, infectious smiles. They danced
and sang traditional songs for us and Marble’s Choir
performed selections for them in a loud and crowded
gymnasium. Together there was real communion that my
words here can not effectively convey. Their colorful spirit
in the midst of poverty was both disarming and wonderfully
exhilarating. These children are illuminating lights with
incredible beauty and resilience. That day I realized firmly
what I had known only in theory, that true happiness has
little to do with my surroundings.

There were visits to Marble’s three sister churches in
Soweto where we were well fed and welcomed openly. The
music always connected us, brought us warmly into a new
fold. Even when we didn’t understand the words, we felt the
life behind them, the essence drawing us in and closer to
the people. We made friends and email buddies. We stayed
at the homes of church-goers. I understood then the social
responsibility we have to help implement necessary changes
in developing countries like South Africa, places where
poverty, classism and racism still exist in large ways. We
are all neighbors. Perhaps oceans and mountains separate
us, but we are communities all the same with important
connections and responsibility.

There were trips to the Apartheid Museum, the Voortrekker
Monument and the Hector Peterson Museum, real corner-
stones for understanding the racial history of South Africa.
We had a tour of some of Cape Town’s black townships
given by an actual soldier from the African National Congress.
There was so much to capture and digest. We even shared
a meal and conversation with members of the Truth &
Reconciliation Committee, which existed for six years post
Apartheid. It was created to bring justice and closure for
families and people who were victimized during Apartheid’s
violent and bloody reign in South Africa.

This was a brief trip to South Africa, yet it was life changing
and impacting all the same. I came home a woman
recommitted and reinvigorated to share the lessons I’d
learned and the stories I’d heard to as wide an audience as
possible. We all live in a global village where the residents
are our brothers, our sisters and together we share social
responsibility for quality of life, decent housing, spiritual
wellness, proper healthcare, political freedoms…all the
things that lift our humanity to its right level.

Marcia Fingal
*Marcia is a documentary filmmaker, living in New York City.
Her film UMOJA, shot in South Africa will be available
in April 2008.

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