After our visit to Soweto and Kliptown, we had dinner in Johannesburg, at an Indian restaurant called Bombay Blues. We had been running our guide Musa ragged, so we invited him to join us for dinner. He hesitated a bit, but then agreed.
We all sat down, but Musa seemed pretty nervous. He was looking around and seemed generally uncomfortable. I wound up sitting next to him and starting asking him the standard bunch of questions: where did he live, how long did he live there, family facts, etc.
As I mentioned earlier, Musa was born and raised in Soweto. His wife was also from Soweto and they still live very close to Soweto today. Once I realized Musa, who was 36, lived his whole life in Soweto, I did some quick math. Since Apartheid was dismantled about 1994, Musa was in the unique position of having lived exactly half his life under Apartheid and the other half after Apartheid was abolished.
I felt this was a great opportunity to get some deep eyewitness insights, so I said "Wow, you must have seen so many changes over the last 18 years." To which Musa answered "Oh yes...." and, after a long pause, he said, "...under Apartheid, I couldn't be here in this restaurant with you."
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