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From Cairo to Cape: On Racial and Social Inequality Across the Continent

October 17, 2018
Locals protest as two white farmers threatened to kill a South African man in 2017. Photo credit: Siphiwe Sibeko/Reuters

Towards the end of the 19th century, the idea of a Cape to Cairo railway was born — a project that, at the time, was set to connect British possessions across the continent through a continuous line. To this day, however, the project remains a hopeful dream. But instead of a railway, the continent is connected by rampant inequality. A Post-Apartheid Black-White Divide One thing I knew prior to my arrival to South Africa is that apartheid ended in 1994, which is why I expected to see a harmonious society living in co-existence. As I was on a bus on my first day, I still vividly remember seeing six black men crammed in the back of a pickup truck and a white couple in front; the man driving. I instantly felt uncomfortable and at unease, not exactly sure how to fully take in an image that instantly drew parallels to slavery. On my second day, I was on-board a guided bus tour, the biggest part of which consisted of driving around exclusively white neighborhoods with schools resembling English boarding schools and houses with facades like those of affluent European homes;…


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