I had the most surreal airport experience you can imagine... in Charles de Gaulle Paris, there were about 40 young black people from Canada and from all over Southern Africa. They were doing some sort of voluntary work- having been in Canada they were off for three months to South Africa.
I was aware of this beautiful group of people as soon as I arrived in Paris ... they were talking in French, in English and in a number of languages I did not recognise.
But then they started singing, quite quietly at first,
and more and more joined in .... I have never been amongst such an emotion provoking 'happening' like that. They sang a whole range of African songs and danced as they sang. I wish I could have taped it.
But of course, the police came and stopped them.
They attracted quite a crowd, all enjoying it, apart from 4 white men from Liverpool - they sported stereotypical skinhead haircuts, tattoos and plenty of metal work round their hands and neck. I did not photograph them...
The young people told me they were working with a Canadian charity called, I think, Canada World Youth. The ones I spoke to were from Cape Town, Namibia, Mazambiqu and Zimbabwe. Very exciting for them to do this project and very exciting for me to meet them and hear music that was so powerful it made me want to cry.. (but I suppose I had by then been travelling for around 15 hours!)
I loved the way these young people were blending the many types of culture that make up their lives - with their baseball caps and their walkmans, their African selves and their western interests. I loved the way theu whiled away their time - some sleeping, some talking and some singing. Their companiability felt infectious and I was glad to have rubbed shoulders with them in Terminal 2.
5 comments:
You are such a wonderful global person Dr Joolz.
I feel a little tearful too.
But I have only travelled to the South Bank and you went to America and back.
Your travels sound much more interesting and joyous than mine, though I think it took me about the same period of time to get back home to Laramie, Wyoming.
I hope, too, that you'll remember to shoot me a copy of your paper.
Feel free to check out my blog as well...
Hey Leslie, nice to see you hear. Have found your blog and loved the bad ass story!! Will send you the paper very happily ... in a cople of hours when I am reunited with your e maill address and a copy of the paper on one computer...
This is great! Thanks for sharing... What a wonderful experience! I had such a great time meeting you at NRC and really enjoyed your session. Not sure if you remember, but I work with Jennifer at Rutgers. I joined all of you for dinner at Mendoza. Hope to see you again soon. I've now added your blog to my list of RSS feeds on Bloglines! -Erica
Hi Erica... great to hear from you and yes of course I remember. You must send me the link to your blog so that we can keep in touch ...
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