Spain and (South) Africa – some surprising similarities!

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This is my first published travel piece of 2009, it appeared in edition 72, February 20th 2009 of the Makana Moon in Grahamstown! Enjoy!  “Spain is only fourteen kilometres from Africa”, a Spaniard once told me, referring to the narrow stretch of Mediterranean Sea between southern Spain and Morocco. This tiny gap is called the Straits of Gibraltar and is swum every year by a few people, which shows just how small the distance separating Africa from Europe really is. And, after a year living in Madrid, I realized that the proximity to Africa is not just physical, that there are many cultural and social similarities as well.

Spaniards seem to be conscious of parallels with Africa on some level and they are proud of the fact that they are quite literally, kissed by Africa. If you go back a few generations you will see that a considerable number of Spanish people have Arabic ancestry, after all, Spain was ruled by the Muslims for over seven centuries. This means they are not completely European – not encajonados, rigid and formal like the Germans, nor reserved and boring like the English. Plus, it helps to explain the nightmare of Iberian bureaucracy, which is particularly renowned in Europe. As South Africans, it’s likely that we have dealt with the Home Affairs or Traffic Departments and their Spanish counterparts (with similar glazed – over eyes and the movements of aged sloths) are just as bad. They are the nightmare of every foreigner who has to get an identification number.  I spent weeks running backwards and forwards, to get my identification number, social security number, municipal registration and health card. This entailed hours in queues, miming to people who could not understand me, although I speak near-fluent Spanish.

However the amazing weather made up for the many hours spent dealing with vacant civil servants. It’s quite strange because often Spain, especially the southern parts, feels like a province of North Africa. There are many obvious parallels between them. Imagine North Africa and you think infernal heat, the Sahara desert, year round sunshine and dark, swarthy Arabic speaking people. Well, the south of Spain is similar: 45 degree Celsius summers, the only desert in Europe, more sunshine than anywhere else on the Continent, road signs in Spanish and Arabic, and hundreds of mosques, a legacy of Muslim rule. Then of course you have the Arab tint in the hair, olive skin and dark eyes of people from the cities of Córdoba, Cadiz and Seville.

Spain is a hot country so its no real surprise that people like to take things easy. A prime example of this is the siesta, which hints at the South African pastime of an afternoon snooze on the grass in the shade. But the Spanish have taken what is for us ‘informal’ nap-time, institutionalized it and raised it to an art.  From two until five every afternoon, two-thirds of shops and businesses close and Madrid, a bustling metropolis, becomes like a ghost town.

Despite the siesta there are more people than ever before wandering the streets at all times now, due to unemployment – Spain has the second highest rate in Western Europe at 11 percent. Generally we don’t think of unemployment as a First-World problem, as its something that we are more than familiar with in Africa. However, now, it is a growing concern throughout Spain.

In Mzanszi we have immigrants from all parts of Southern Africa and Spain is the favourite destination of their Northern African counterparts. Hundreds of them arrive daily on Spanish shores, many of them malnourished and dehydrated, some dead. Most come from Senegal, Côte d’Ivoire and the Gambia – one of the two former Spanish colonies in Africa – and eke out an existence selling fake sunglasses and pirated DVD’s.

After my year in Madrid, I wouldn’t even be surprised to see a crammed taxi whizzing past the traffic on the yellow line!

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Tags: arabic culture spain, north africa, South Africa, spain, spain culture