23 Things I Heart About South Africa

South Africa, how do I heart thee? Let me count some of the ways.

1) The Constitution

Because you need a strong constitution to get by in this country.

2) Table Mountain

You rock.

3) Joburg

The gold below, the sky above, the forest in-between. But more than all of that, people make this city.

4) The Karoo

It’s not the middle of nowhere. It’s the middle of everywhere. In a desert that was once a sea, the silence sings. The echo is the beating of your own heart.

5) The bushveld

Every South African has two homes. The place that they live in, and the bushveld.

6) The Cradle of Humankind

Time travel is possible, but only to the past. Journey here, meet your ancient self, and go back to the future, wiser, humbler, and more human.

7) The Free State

The land is flat and golden, the heavens deep and vast. To travel here is to put yourself in a free state of mind.

8) The Pier, Umhlanga

It’s just a short walk on mosaic tiles to see the raging waves, but in its architecture of whale rib-bones or elephant tusks, it is a pier without peer in all the world.

9) “Mannenberg”, by Abdullah Ibrahim

This bittersweet suite, salty as the sea-breeze, with its infinite, hypnotic loop of joy and pain, is the other national anthem of South Africa.

10) The vuvuzela

In a stadium or on a protest march, a massed bank of plastic trumpets in the ever-so-slightly off-key of B flat can make the walls come tumbling down.

11) Scarabaeus viettei. The dung beetle

Always on a roll, this tough-shelled, elegantly-limbed backwards-walking recycler is an inspiration to us all.

12) The Union Buildings

The sweep of Nelson Mandela’s hands, spanning the perfect symmetry of those slender domes, in a beautiful, well-kept garden, makes this the most gracious government building in the world.

13) Moerkoffie

Strong, bitter, campfire-hot. “Moer”, in this context, means “to grind”, so it’s okay to say it out loud in polite company.

14) Moses Mabhida Stadium

The most spectacular aesthetic legacy of the 2010 World Cup, a vision of grace and fluidity that brings the double-helix of DNA to mind.

15) Seffrican. The language. 

A spicy potjiekos of all 11 official tongues, with some hand gestures thrown in for good measure. Skorokoro, babelaas, sharp-sharp, heita, ja no well fine. Eish.

16) The bosberaad

Also known as the Indaba and the Lekgotla. A gathering of people in the bush, to discuss strategic matters, resolve pressing problems, build team spirit, and attempt to recover from the hangover of last night’s braai.

17) The hadeda ibis

The great grey vuvuzela of the Joburg skies. A raucous, squawking reminder to wake up, get out of bed, and find something to throw at the hadeda.

18) The Eastern Cape. Frontier land.

The light here shines with the quality of benediction. A province of wild, intense beauty that stirs the soul.

19) T-Shirt Fridays

The tradition of wearing a national team T-shirt to work on the Friday before a big game, earning you the right to complain about the terrible performance of the ref on the Monday after.

20) The Protea

Our national flower. Famously, when under fire, it burns to the ground and then returns, stronger and more resilient than before. A useful metaphor for our national cricket team.

21) The pronk

The sight of a springbok pronking, back arched, all four limbs in the air, bounding exuberantly, is one of the most breathtaking spectacles in the wild and on the rugby pitch.

22) The Canis Africanis

A canis so nice they named it twice, the Africanis is a noble, hardy breed with a lineage of loyal companionship that dates back thousands of years. Please, humans, stop calling it a cross-German Shepherd. It’s actually a very happy Africanis, a breed all of its own.

23) The Southern Cross

Strictly speaking, the signature constellation of the southern skies doesn’t belong to us alone. The Kiwis and Aussies even have the brazen gall to emblazon it on their flag. But the crux of the matter is, we see the Crux more clearly, because it reminds us where the heart and the home is. Here, South, in Africa.