When I moved with my young family to South Africa in 2006, the country was famous for three things – violent crime, AIDS and Nelson Mandela – and the chances of encountering the first two seemed larger than meeting the third. We took a house on the outskirts of Cape Town protected by infrared beams, bars in the windoWhen I moved with my young family to South Africa in 2006, the country was famous for three things – violent crime, AIDS and Nelson Mandela – and the chances of encountering the first two seemed larger than meeting the third. We took a house on the outskirts of Cape Town protected by infrared beams, bars in the windows, metal “rape gates” in the doors and, in the street outside, an armed private security patrol. After six months we were burgled; a year later it happened again.
我在2006年全家移民到南非時，這個國家以三件事著名：暴力犯罪、愛滋病和曼德拉，而你遇到前兩件事的機率很明顯地大於第三項。我們住在開普敦郊外的一間房子，有門禁森嚴的紅外線、窗閂、金屬柵門等保護，街上更有配戴武器的私人保鑣。但六個月之後，我們家被闖空門了，過了一年，同樣的事情又再度發生。
But by then, reality was overtaking preconceptions. There was crime; a lingering, sometimes lethal racial intolerance; and an excruciating inequality between town and township. But that was offset by growing integration in the cities; rising affluence in places like Soweto, the huge African township on the edge of Johannesburg; and a new broad-mindedness that saw, for instance, the villagers of Limpopo accept as their champion the runner Caster Semenya, whose gender had been challenged after she won the world 800-m championship last year. The beauty of the place – the Cape sea, as cold and clear as ice, the stillness of the Karoo desert – lent the nation a serenity for which we were wholly unprepared.
但後來，現實的改變漸漸取代既有的成見。過去時常出現的犯罪、時而揮之不去有時又帶有致命性的種族問題，以及長期令人苦惱的城鄉差距，在這些日益融合的城市裡，已漸漸地不見蹤影：日漸富裕，位於南非約翰尼斯堡近郊的索韋托；具有開闊胸襟，見證去年打破800公尺紀錄但性別遭受質疑的Caster Semenya，並原諒主辦單位有此不禮貌舉動的林波波省鄉民；令人讚嘆的開普海，有如冰山般地冷冽純淨；沉著寧靜的卡魯沙漠，帶給這個國家讓人無法想像的無限靜謐。
Meanwhile, South Africa’s preparations for the soccer World Cup, such as the building of new trains, rapid bus systems and airports, spoke of a country on the move. Even the country’s struggles gave it a vibrancy. Friends in England would talk property prices. Friends in South Africa would debate the country’s future. After a year, we bought a house with a thatched roof and thick white-washed walls and, thinking we’d never find a better place to raise a family, decided to have another child, a third daughter born last month. When a friend used the Afrikaans phrase vrek plek, meaning “place to die in,” to describe our new house, we understood that she was talking not about violent crime but a home.
於此同時，南非正如火如荼地籌備著四年一度的世界杯足球賽，舉凡新的火車建設、大眾運輸工具與新機場的落成，在在說明了這個地方正在成長茁壯中。而這個努力奮鬥中的城市，也帶給它自己一個新的悸動。英國的朋友討論著南非土地是如何地增值；南非的朋友爭論著南非的未來是如何地寬廣。一年之後，我們買了一間屋頂由茅草堆成、刷以白色油漆厚牆的房子，並且認為我們不會再找到一個更好的地方來扶養我們的小孩，因此我們的第三個女兒，在上個月誕生了。當一個朋友用南非的方言說“vrek plek”，表示「你將死於此地」，我知道他不是在說死於非命，而是說：我們將於此老死。
If our ideas of the country were changing, so were my impressions of the continent. I’d read of an Africa trapped in a monotony of war, famine, genocide and death. And the grim stories were there. But Somalia, Darfur and Congo turned out to be the exceptions in a place where the norm was increasingly diverse, galloping opportunity. On my reporting trips, I was meeting coffee moguls in Rwanda, biofuel entrepreneurs in Liberia, offshore bankers in Mauritius and jazz impresarios in Ethiopia. Moreover, if you were backing China, I realized, you were backing Africa, because China was backing Africa with billions a year. African growth was averaging 5% to 7%. Africa’s middle class was bigger than India’s.
我們對這裡的概念有所改變的同時，我對非洲大陸的印象也漸漸起了變化。我讀過很多關於非洲常年累月的戰爭、飢荒、種族滅絕與死亡的報導，而這些悲慘的故事也確實在此發生過。但索馬利亞、達佛與剛果已經從此一宿命逐漸跳脫，邁入另一個飛黃騰達、充滿機會的世界。我在編寫此篇報導的過程，遇到了盧安達的咖啡大亨、賴比瑞亞的生質燃料企業家、摩里西斯的海外銀行家以及位於衣索比亞的爵士樂經紀人。甚者，我發現如果你有在金緩中國，那麼你等於在金緩非洲，因為中國與非洲有金緩關係。而非洲的經濟以每年平均5%到7%的速度成長，這裡的中產階級甚至比印度還多。
But knowing, strangely, is not always believing. Archbishop Emeritus Desmond Tutu tells a story about visiting Nigeria from apartheid South Africa in the 1970s and the pride he felt at spotting two black pilots manning an internal flight – only to panic when the plane hit turbulence that “those blacks” would crash. Many South Africans were aware of the new reality but still imprisoned by their old perceptions. I knew Africa was changing, but making the continent’s case in print was not the same as banishing the ingrained doubt from my mind.
但是很奇怪地，「知道」，並不代表「相信」。南非圖圖主教有一次分享了他1970年代，參訪採南非取種族隔離的奈及利亞的故事：他登上了一台飛機，而他因為該飛機的兩名駕駛員都是黑人而感到自豪；但當他們遇到強烈的亂流時，「這兩個黑人一定會讓我們墜機」的念頭油然而生。許多南非的當地人都意識到這個新的事實正在產生，但他們卻被禁錮在自己陳年的成見裡無法逃脫。我知道非洲正在改變，但要讓這塊大陸的人們相信，並不像剔除我個人心中長年的懷疑一樣簡單。
It took an opening whistle to do that. If the big idea behind staging the World Cup in Africa was to change outside perceptions of the continent, the surprise bonus is that it has allowed Africans to believe in themselves. The arrival of hundreds of thousands of fans was sudden, giant, cacophonous confirmation. And just as our faith caught up with our facts, it got better. South Africa scored a beautiful first tournament goal. Ghana beat the U.S. to reach the quarterfinals. Hardly a crime was reported.
就像足球賽一樣，讓人們心中開始接納這個事實，也需要一個開哨聲。如果主辦世足賽背後的真正意義是想讓世人看到非洲的改變，那麼它讓人意想不到的附加價值，就是讓南非的當地人相信自己。來自各國、各種族成千上萬湧入的球迷就是一個實證。正如我們心中的信念與我們看到的現實一樣，南非正在進步當中。它也在迦納以2比1打敗美國隊進入八強有了一個美好的開始。而比賽時也幾乎沒有什麼犯罪事件發生。
Perhaps the most remarkable sight of the tournament came on its second day, outside the stadium in tiny, rural Phokeng. In the hours before the England-U.S. game, 44,000 fans in face paint and fluorescent wigs stepped off their coached into a dusty African village, asking if there was anywhere they could have a beer. After a few moments of hesitation, the owners of 10 houses and a local shop threw open their doors, set up giant braais (barbecues) of chicken in their yards and started handing out quarts of cold beer. It was perhaps the most peaceful and gently inebriated meeting of two worlds in history.
令人印象最深刻的莫過於世足開賽次日，美國隊與英格蘭隊在南非西北小城佛肯的體育場對決。體育場外，四萬四千名臉上畫滿色彩與頭戴螢光假髮的球迷們，風塵僕僕的來到這個小鎮，一步下遊覽車，就四處詢問哪裡有啤酒可以買。擁有10間房子與一間當地小舖的老闆，在遲疑了幾分鐘後，敞開大門開始燒烤雞肉串，並拿出一瓶又一瓶的啤酒招待他們。這或許是歷史上兩個不同世界的人，最和平也最令人陶醉的見面方式了！
Years of agonizing challenges no doubt lie ahead for Africa. But for a month, we’ve been living something wondrously different. At a rock concert in Soweto the night before the opening game, Tutu tried to put it into words. “Can you feel it?” he exclaimed. “You can touch it! It’s unbelievable! I am in a dream!” He was – I think – talking about Africa’s future. It is here.
無疑地，南非面前還有更大的挑戰等著他們。但在這一個月來，我們體驗到了截然不同的南非生活。在開幕戰前一晚於索韋托舉辦的搖滾演唱會裡，圖圖主教試圖把這感覺付諸文字：「你感覺到了嗎？」他興奮地大喊：「你可以碰觸到它！真是太不可思議了！我就像在作夢一樣！」我認為，他想表達的是南非的未來－就在眼前。
我在2006年全家移民到南非時，這個國家以三件事著名：暴力犯罪、愛滋病和曼德拉，而你遇到前兩件事的機率很明顯地大於第三項。我們住在開普敦郊外的一間房子，有門禁森嚴的紅外線、窗閂、金屬柵門等保護，街上更有配戴武器的私人保鑣。但六個月之後，我們家被闖空門了，過了一年，同樣的事情又再度發生。
But by then, reality was overtaking preconceptions. There was crime; a lingering, sometimes lethal racial intolerance; and an excruciating inequality between town and township. But that was offset by growing integration in the cities; rising affluence in places like Soweto, the huge African township on the edge of Johannesburg; and a new broad-mindedness that saw, for instance, the villagers of Limpopo accept as their champion the runner Caster Semenya, whose gender had been challenged after she won the world 800-m championship last year. The beauty of the place – the Cape sea, as cold and clear as ice, the stillness of the Karoo desert – lent the nation a serenity for which we were wholly unprepared.
但後來，現實的改變漸漸取代既有的成見。過去時常出現的犯罪、時而揮之不去有時又帶有致命性的種族問題，以及長期令人苦惱的城鄉差距，在這些日益融合的城市裡，已漸漸地不見蹤影：日漸富裕，位於南非約翰尼斯堡近郊的索韋托；具有開闊胸襟，見證去年打破800公尺紀錄但性別遭受質疑的Caster Semenya，並原諒主辦單位有此不禮貌舉動的林波波省鄉民；令人讚嘆的開普海，有如冰山般地冷冽純淨；沉著寧靜的卡魯沙漠，帶給這個國家讓人無法想像的無限靜謐。
Meanwhile, South Africa’s preparations for the soccer World Cup, such as the building of new trains, rapid bus systems and airports, spoke of a country on the move. Even the country’s struggles gave it a vibrancy. Friends in England would talk property prices. Friends in South Africa would debate the country’s future. After a year, we bought a house with a thatched roof and thick white-washed walls and, thinking we’d never find a better place to raise a family, decided to have another child, a third daughter born last month. When a friend used the Afrikaans phrase vrek plek, meaning “place to die in,” to describe our new house, we understood that she was talking not about violent crime but a home.
於此同時，南非正如火如荼地籌備著四年一度的世界杯足球賽，舉凡新的火車建設、大眾運輸工具與新機場的落成，在在說明了這個地方正在成長茁壯中。而這個努力奮鬥中的城市，也帶給它自己一個新的悸動。英國的朋友討論著南非土地是如何地增值；南非的朋友爭論著南非的未來是如何地寬廣。一年之後，我們買了一間屋頂由茅草堆成、刷以白色油漆厚牆的房子，並且認為我們不會再找到一個更好的地方來扶養我們的小孩，因此我們的第三個女兒，在上個月誕生了。當一個朋友用南非的方言說“vrek plek”，表示「你將死於此地」，我知道他不是在說死於非命，而是說：我們將於此老死。
If our ideas of the country were changing, so were my impressions of the continent. I’d read of an Africa trapped in a monotony of war, famine, genocide and death. And the grim stories were there. But Somalia, Darfur and Congo turned out to be the exceptions in a place where the norm was increasingly diverse, galloping opportunity. On my reporting trips, I was meeting coffee moguls in Rwanda, biofuel entrepreneurs in Liberia, offshore bankers in Mauritius and jazz impresarios in Ethiopia. Moreover, if you were backing China, I realized, you were backing Africa, because China was backing Africa with billions a year. African growth was averaging 5% to 7%. Africa’s middle class was bigger than India’s.
我們對這裡的概念有所改變的同時，我對非洲大陸的印象也漸漸起了變化。我讀過很多關於非洲常年累月的戰爭、飢荒、種族滅絕與死亡的報導，而這些悲慘的故事也確實在此發生過。但索馬利亞、達佛與剛果已經從此一宿命逐漸跳脫，邁入另一個飛黃騰達、充滿機會的世界。我在編寫此篇報導的過程，遇到了盧安達的咖啡大亨、賴比瑞亞的生質燃料企業家、摩里西斯的海外銀行家以及位於衣索比亞的爵士樂經紀人。甚者，我發現如果你有在金緩中國，那麼你等於在金緩非洲，因為中國與非洲有金緩關係。而非洲的經濟以每年平均5%到7%的速度成長，這裡的中產階級甚至比印度還多。
But knowing, strangely, is not always believing. Archbishop Emeritus Desmond Tutu tells a story about visiting Nigeria from apartheid South Africa in the 1970s and the pride he felt at spotting two black pilots manning an internal flight – only to panic when the plane hit turbulence that “those blacks” would crash. Many South Africans were aware of the new reality but still imprisoned by their old perceptions. I knew Africa was changing, but making the continent’s case in print was not the same as banishing the ingrained doubt from my mind.
但是很奇怪地，「知道」，並不代表「相信」。南非圖圖主教有一次分享了他1970年代，參訪採南非取種族隔離的奈及利亞的故事：他登上了一台飛機，而他因為該飛機的兩名駕駛員都是黑人而感到自豪；但當他們遇到強烈的亂流時，「這兩個黑人一定會讓我們墜機」的念頭油然而生。許多南非的當地人都意識到這個新的事實正在產生，但他們卻被禁錮在自己陳年的成見裡無法逃脫。我知道非洲正在改變，但要讓這塊大陸的人們相信，並不像剔除我個人心中長年的懷疑一樣簡單。
It took an opening whistle to do that. If the big idea behind staging the World Cup in Africa was to change outside perceptions of the continent, the surprise bonus is that it has allowed Africans to believe in themselves. The arrival of hundreds of thousands of fans was sudden, giant, cacophonous confirmation. And just as our faith caught up with our facts, it got better. South Africa scored a beautiful first tournament goal. Ghana beat the U.S. to reach the quarterfinals. Hardly a crime was reported.
就像足球賽一樣，讓人們心中開始接納這個事實，也需要一個開哨聲。如果主辦世足賽背後的真正意義是想讓世人看到非洲的改變，那麼它讓人意想不到的附加價值，就是讓南非的當地人相信自己。來自各國、各種族成千上萬湧入的球迷就是一個實證。正如我們心中的信念與我們看到的現實一樣，南非正在進步當中。它也在迦納以2比1打敗美國隊進入八強有了一個美好的開始。而比賽時也幾乎沒有什麼犯罪事件發生。
Perhaps the most remarkable sight of the tournament came on its second day, outside the stadium in tiny, rural Phokeng. In the hours before the England-U.S. game, 44,000 fans in face paint and fluorescent wigs stepped off their coached into a dusty African village, asking if there was anywhere they could have a beer. After a few moments of hesitation, the owners of 10 houses and a local shop threw open their doors, set up giant braais (barbecues) of chicken in their yards and started handing out quarts of cold beer. It was perhaps the most peaceful and gently inebriated meeting of two worlds in history.
令人印象最深刻的莫過於世足開賽次日，美國隊與英格蘭隊在南非西北小城佛肯的體育場對決。體育場外，四萬四千名臉上畫滿色彩與頭戴螢光假髮的球迷們，風塵僕僕的來到這個小鎮，一步下遊覽車，就四處詢問哪裡有啤酒可以買。擁有10間房子與一間當地小舖的老闆，在遲疑了幾分鐘後，敞開大門開始燒烤雞肉串，並拿出一瓶又一瓶的啤酒招待他們。這或許是歷史上兩個不同世界的人，最和平也最令人陶醉的見面方式了！
Years of agonizing challenges no doubt lie ahead for Africa. But for a month, we’ve been living something wondrously different. At a rock concert in Soweto the night before the opening game, Tutu tried to put it into words. “Can you feel it?” he exclaimed. “You can touch it! It’s unbelievable! I am in a dream!” He was – I think – talking about Africa’s future. It is here.
無疑地，南非面前還有更大的挑戰等著他們。但在這一個月來，我們體驗到了截然不同的南非生活。在開幕戰前一晚於索韋托舉辦的搖滾演唱會裡，圖圖主教試圖把這感覺付諸文字：「你感覺到了嗎？」他興奮地大喊：「你可以碰觸到它！真是太不可思議了！我就像在作夢一樣！」我認為，他想表達的是南非的未來－就在眼前。
