The Xhosa People UPDATED (Cool Youtube Link)

The Xhosa people are speakers of Bantu languages living throughout the southern parts of the South Africa. Xhosa is the country's second most common first language, after Zulu, to which Xhosa is closely related. The pre-1994 apartheid  denied Xhosas South African citizenship and attempted to confine them to the nominally self-governing "homelands" of Transkei and Ciskei, now both a part of the Eastern Cape Province where most Xhosa remain and where our CSC project is situated. One of our team members, Marco, grew up in communist Germany and many people here are very interested in parallels between the German reunification and the reintegration of the Transkei and Ciskei homelands.

Toto is our local coordinator assisting with the CSC projects here in the Eastern Cape. He has a wealth of knowledge on many subjects and has himself traveled much of the world. Xhosa is his first language and he explained the clicking sound made when speaking by using the tip of the tongue against the roof of the mouth ... very strange to my ears and difficult to incorporate the click sound into a word.

From Wikipedia:: Xhosa is a tonal language, that is, the same sequence of consonants and vowels can have different meanings when said with a rising or falling or high or low intonation. One of the most distinctive features of the language is the prominence of click consonants; the word "Xhosa" begins with a click.
Xhosa is written using a Latin alphabet. Three letters are used to indicate the basic clicks: c for dental clicks, x for lateral clicks, and q for palatal clicks. Tones are not indicated in the written form.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KZlp-croVYw

Further insights from Toto that have been very helpful in our interaction with people of the region:

• handshakes are firm and consist of three grips in succession: handshake, interlocked thumbs, followed by another handshake
• using two hands when shaking is a sign of respect
• eye-to-eye contact may be interpreted as disrespectful - it is better to look in the general area of the face or at the person as a whole
• when you get to know someone well an "A-hug" is common ... interlocking hands and touching shoulders - but not Western-style embraces and no back patting
• Most Africans in this region have English as a second language and need to translate in their minds from Xhosa. Most have both  English and African given names.

We have found in dealing with our client that in an informal setting they may address each other with a first name, such as "Navy" for the acting CEO, but in a business meeting it is more formal and he is addressed as Mr. Simukonda. The most senior person in a business meeting sits at the head of the table.

If all this seems to make for rigid encounters, it really does not. The people are very warm and engaging, and do not stand on protocol ... they make as much much effort to adapt and make us comfortable as we try to do with them.

IBM Corporate Services Corps (CSC)

The CSC program is quite unique in that it delivers a triple benefit: high quality problem solving for communities, one of a kind leadership development for participants and enhanced reputation and brand image and market knowledge for IBM. Our team in South Africa is comprised of 14 members who are among 500 participants chosen last year from 7000 global applicants. Originally we were slated for projects in Abuja, Nigeria but security precautions resulted in our re-assignment to the Eastern Cape, a relatively poor province of South Africa. We have been preparing for more than three months with weekly assignments covering such topics as cultural awareness, media training, and consulting methods. Weekly conference calls helped us to get to know our team-mates, coming from nine different countries before finally meeting face-to-face in Jo'burg. Global teaming, working closely with people from many cultures and backgrounds and getting to know them well on both a personal and professional level are important parts of the experience.

Ours is the first CSC team to travel to the Eastern Cape and we are stationed in East London, about 2/3 of the way down the coast of the Indian Ocean toward the Cape of Good Hope at the southern tip of the country. The largest cities are Port Elizabeth and East London which between them host five automobile manufacturers, the dominant industry.

Our IBM contingent has been assigned to four different projects ... two with the Department of Education to  work on an IT strategy and to enhance the Kidsmart program, one to work on leadership development with Fort Hare, the oldest black university in South Africa, and another (to which I have been assigned) with the Eastern Cape Rural Finance Corporation (ECRFA).

Each of us on my project team have different skills although none of us knows the ECRFC core business of providing micro finance loans to the poorest of the rural unemployed. For the first few days we will be sponges, absorbing as much as we can about the client's business and the many challenges they face - even as we build our own team and start really getting to know one another.

The ECRFA team is comprised of Anna (Brazil), Marco (Germany), Jason (Australia) and me (Canada) - so we come from four different continents and are converging to help a client in a fifth continent ... how cool is that?

                                         CSC team with Clients at kickoff dinner, East London

Apartheid

I began reading Nelson Mandela's autobiography, Long Walk to Freedom, as I left Toronto for South Africa. In it he says that in his language there is a saying that translates as "I have crossed famous rivers". It means that one has traveled a great distance, that one has had wide experiences and gained some wisdom from it - which is how I am already starting to feel about this CSC experience.

Apartheid literally means "apart ness". It was a system of racial segregation enforced by the governments of South Africa between 1948 and 1994, under which the rights of the majority non-white inhabitants of South Africa were curtailed and white supremacy and Afrikaner minority rule was maintained. That apartheid was still in effect as recently as 20 years ago means that its influence continue to have a monumental impact on the South Africa of today. On coming here from an entirely different culture, one needs to gain at least a sense of what this country has been through and how the past continues to shape the future.

On the afternoon of our day in Johannesburg we went as a team to the Apartheid Museum on the outskirts of Soweto. Even the admission tickets create an effect, being randomly stamped "white" and "non-white" to indicate which entrance to use. Photos are not allowed inside but the visit was a sobering, unsettling and a moving experience. Such oppression and so many atrocities over so many years, such euphoria when it ended with such hope for freedom and for the future - and yet so recent that everyone in South Africa has been powerfully affected, even the children who were not alive at the time. Apartheid was the harsh reality for all adults with whom we will interact during our time in this country. As the African proverb goes, "until the hunting stories have been told by the lions they will always glorify the hunter" ... the Apartheid Museum gives voice to the lion.

Ironically, just after leaving the museum we heard reports that 93-year old Nelson Mandela was hospitalized although later reports indicated that his ailments are not serious. Mandela's story is incredible and the freedom fighter turned elected president is an living icon in South Africa and around the world.

Jo'burg, South Africa

Arrived in Johannesburg, South Africa on Feb 24th for the first leg of what promises to be a unique and intriguing Corporate Services Corps experience. Fourteen IBMers from nine different countries converged in Jo'burg for a day ... before most of us continue on to our project location in the Eastern Cape Region (in the south part of the country on the coast of the Indian Ocean). The adventure started with an incredibly insightful set of presentations from IBM South Africa execs, some highlights of which included:

- advice that you will benefit the people of the Eastern Cape but do not deprive yourself of letting the opportunity also change you
- the people are proudly South African and we need to avoid being viewed as there to take their jobs
-  the government is the largest procurer in all of Africa
- BEE = Black Economic Empowerment ... key to the country's development and obtaining business
- black South Africans make up 95% of the population but own only 5% of the market cap
- IBM had a presence in SA in the early 1950's but left and did not return until 1994, post-apartheid.
- there are now huge expectations on the government to deliver economically and the pressure is building. It has been less than 20 years since the first free elections and greater than 30 million South Africans live on welfare.
- there is a small pool of experienced, talented South Africans following years of repression.
- Government has a ranking system of companies that greatly affects their ability to do business in SA, with a 50% weighting on value, 30% on skills development, and 20% on BEE.
- conditions for success in South Africa may be at odds with certain company principles, policies or guidelines.

                                         Part of our team speaking with disadvantaged Grade
                                         11 and 12 girls in an IBM Johannesburg classroom
                                         on Saturday morning ... taught by an IBM volunteer
                                         to help with their regular school studies.