Finally, Africa
Saturday, July 7th, 2007My last stop on the magical realism tour of the world is South Africa. Andre Brink’s Imaginings of Sand is an epic tale of several generations of white women living in rural South Africa. As in most of the Latin American tales, the political climate plays like a soundtrack to the magic that happens throughout the characters’ lives.
In Latin America, we see the disparity between the haves and the have nots, and like South Africa, the distinctions are often drawn on racial lines. But in Latin America those lines have blurred as blood lines commingle. In Africa things seem a little more black and white.
When I think of South Africa, I think of racism. It’s just something the media has drilled into me. And in my own prejudice, if I meet a big white man with a South African accent, I assume instantly that he doesn’t care for people of color. Of course, my own southern US accent could afford me the same assumptions in someone else’s ears.
But regardless of politics and racial intolerance, there is real life happening in Imaginings of Sand. The “real” lives. The individuals hidden behind the stereotype. The details. That’s where the magic happens.