Linn’s Year Ablog

Or, Liqueur, Incense and Bongos: A Case Study in American Ex-Pat Status Identification and Post-Colonial Guilt
Or, Stuff White People Like

• A radio tuned to the BBC World Service on short wave
• Two Nalgenes
• A Mac laptop


An Afrikaans reggae band--probably the only one on earth--in which a good friend of mine plays pennywhistle and clarinet. (Click on the cover for samples.)

• A pair of Birkenstocks
• A back brush
• A stack of seven books on South African history–two by black South Africans, three by white liberals, one by a NY Times journalist and one by a Yale professor
• Five reggae CDs, of which three are obscure
• Four plaid shirts
• A $100-something backpacking pack, with ice-ax Velcros and secret pockets
• On the wall: postcards of mountain streams, photos of friends in collegiate scenes and a newspaper article by a white columnist on why white readers should confront their friends’ racism
• Wooden Oregon handicrafts, for gifts
• Four bags of plastic bags, separated by size and saved for reuse
• Overpriced health food (almonds, cashews, gingerbread cookies, baked gourmet potato chips) and underpriced street food (peaches, oranges, bananas, more cashews)
• Fifteen bottles of vitamin supplements
• A sufficient amount of “Bohemian” clutter
• Hand sanitizer

I keep finding myself making comparisons between South Africa and the only other African country in which I’ve lived, Senegal. So instead of explaining them to uninterested hostel-mates, I thought I would convert these comparisons into analogies, and write them up as…

A list of wild, semi-truthful generalizations!

• …As Europe Is to America.
  Row houses on narrow streets with bread stands and butchers at the corner, versus single-story stucco houses with grassy backyards, a fifteen-minute SUV ride from the mall.
• …As My German Peasant Ancestors Might Have Been to the Carnival in Rio.
  Hospitable to obsession but stoney-faced at even the most joyous public occasions, versus smiley, uninhibited and often unconditionally optimistic. My Senegalese host brother once gave me a talking-to about laughing and smiling too much in public. People will think I’m a con-man or a thief, he said. At the tip of the continent, however, a smile, a chuckle and a thumbs-up go a long, long way toward friendship.
• …As Hometown Buffet Is to Black Angus.
  A mixture of delicious, albeit less-than-healthy, dishes floating in oil, versus lots of delicious, albeit less-than-healthy, red meat with some iceberg lettuce for garnish.
• …As Chinatown Is to Mid-Town.
  In city-centers: cheap eats, versus budget-busting hot-dogs.
• …As Central Florida Is to South Central.
  Criminals who would try to rob a store with a palm frond, versus criminals who would kill an elderly woman for her cell phone.
• …As Bob Jones University Is to Hampshire College.
  Social conservatism, versus social liberalism, at least on some legal issues. In Senegal, for example, it would be tough to find people who admit that homosexuality exists in their country. SA’s 1994 constitution, meanwhile, was the first to explicitly outlaw sexual orientation discrimination, and the country became the world’s fifth to legalize gay marriage three years ago.