Two Oceans Marathon and Township Life

Township life, Obesity, Diabetes and Jogging

On Easter Saturday morning I did my 8^th Two Oceans Half Marathon here in Cape Town. As always it was a great event, being surrounded by 16 000 other runners and the first half hour in the dark before sunrise; this massive collective urges you on and you feel the lightness of each step. The long uphill parts however will eventually take their toll and you realise that others cannot help you along any more. You and only you have to struggle with your built-in weaknesses and your current condition (almost solely depending on how much you have trained the last few months) shines through with renewed clarity.

Soon after the race, a short spell of time when you are saturated with a sense of wellbeing, I was also struck by something else. Presently living in Athlone, an area parts of which bear the marks of becoming a struggling township, I have discovered in a stark way the everyday conditions of life. Standing on the sports grounds of University of Cape Town, on the eastern slopes of Table Mountain, just over three kilometres from Athlone, I felt I was in a different world.

We have lived here now more than two months and not even once I have seen a jogger in the streets. Moving up to Rondebosch, closer to the mountain, you would see a jogger at almost any time of the day.

Jogging is not the issue but the fact that a particular structure still pervades the life of people and creates a particular life style. It is not just “Mauer im Kopf” (“the wall in your head” how people’s condition was described in Berlin after the fall of the wall in 1989/1990) but worse: it is still on the ground. And the unwillingness or inability to undo what was done (during apartheid) to the majority of the people in South Africa is just conspicuous. Such un-doing comes at a cost (how much did it cost to build apartheid South Africa?) and how many South Africans have been compensated for forced removals, lost properties etc. to date?

A new South Africa is emerging slowly, but that is not in the townships, but in the former white areas that are now slowly changing colour.

The townships (Soweto may be a good exception, as a lot of upgrading has been taking place and will soon enough qualify as a city) seem to backtrack into a condition that is no better than before but worse. They are more and more entrenched and one can hear racist slurs (that is nothing strange to a foreigner or look-alike foreigner in a place like Stockholm) that I never heard before. The day before yesterday a coloured guy swore at me at a street corner for being white (I suppose).

No such behaviour can be condoned in the new South Africa but the backtracking situation out of which it is said makes sense: those coloured or blacks who can afford it, move to greener pastures, to better schools, roads, street lights, security and many other facilities. Some of the violence we have seen and heard about the first few months of this year no doubt has a bearing on these kinds of conditions.

And certain phenomena speak for themselves, like the prevalence of obesity and diabetes for example. The same structural background: you do not take walks in the township nor do you run, as you do not feel safe, and the wrong kind of food is made available. Just go into the supermarket Check Out in Athlone to see what is on offer and you will quickly realise what people eat and drink.

So, what about the Two Oceans Marathon? It is no doubt a wonderful experience for those who are lucky to finish wholesale. But more than that; modern civilisation has proven to have terrible shortcomings and such a shortcoming may be illustrated by any driver on the way home slumped in his or her car. We also have a body to be taken care of, and we need to do it now. It is even a God-given activity. Finally, Two Oceans are not only for those who have an environment conducive to running. Some also come from the townships, some of whom are at the absolute top of the range.

It was equally mind-blowing, with my township perspective, to witness the finish of the Ultra Marathon (the same finishing line later the same day). The first twenty five runners were young black men in a race that is predominantly white; we know this is the case at many marathons worldwide, but seldom talk about it. Those promoting running (not necessarily Two Oceans Marathon itself) have a dilemma. They need the continued interest of whites, as they need their money, but they must also give the blacks their due, for example acknowledge the fact that they win. However, the world sport magazine the Runners’ World, with its own South African version but based in the US, have never put a black person on its front page, which I find outrageous (I speak under correction but during the two years of subscription I had, this was the state of affairs. I wrote to the editor but of course received no reply).

To sum up, being very elated and happy, I yet had this sense of not seeing things falling into place. Where was I, who am I, can I be happy when others are down there in the mud? In all my happiness I also had this sense of the surreal, of not being able to put things together in a meaningful picture.