South Africa - The Lions on the Road: Cycling London to Cape Town - page 278

Chapter 20: South Africa
TheprocessofenteringSouthAfricawasrelativelyquickandfriendlyexceptforone
immigration officer who gave me a hard time for being Canadian. Perhaps it was because
Canada was the nation that spearheaded sanctions against South Africa during the apartheid
regime. Many argued that Canada led this international campaign simply because it could
afford to. There were no investments of consequence in the country that would affect Cana-
dian companies. With nothing to lose, Canada led the charge guised as a human rights cam-
paign. How noble. The British were equally deceiving. Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher
was the most vocal against sanctions. She argued that sanctions would hurt the marginal-
ized people in South Africa and urged the international community not to support Canada's
drive. The realty was that the UK was heavily invested in South Africa's banking, insurance
and mining sectors and sanctions would have hurt the UK's economy. How noble for her to
think of the marginalized South Africans.
This immigration officer must have been a Canadian history major at university be-
cause for the next 20 minutes he lectured me on Canada's hypocrisy. He cited examples that
included Canada's treatment of the First Nations people before and since confederation and
the treatment of the Japanese in the internment camps during WWII. He ended with, “Who
gives Canada the right to tell South Africa how to treat its people?” I told him he was cor-
rect, that Canada's history was not as rosy as we are led to believe. But hey man, I'm just
cycling through your country “so fuck off and stamp my passport,” I said (on the inside.)
With his rant completed, he stamped my passport and allowed me to enter.
For the first 15 kilometres, I felt exceptionally giddy knowing that I was in my
final African country. I laughed to myself continuously, smiled like a buffoon and waved at
everyone I passed. I soon arrived in my first South African town, Messina, and was simply
amazed. The layout of the town and its cleanliness were unparalleled to anything that I have
ever seen in Africa.
As I cycled to my first 'robot' (traffic light), I slammed on my brakes and stared at
a building on my left side for I simply could not believe what I was looking at. In fact, it
took a few seconds to register that I was staring at a Kentucky Fried Chicken. I made eye
contact with the plastic Colonel Sanders and was flooded with childhood memories of life
in Toronto for there was a KFC five minutes from my parents' home. I shook my head and
started to laugh. “Welcome home!” I thought.
I visited the Catholic Church in Messina to say a quick prayer and since it was still
early in the day, I decided to move on. I left Messina and headed south eventually taking a
break at a highway rest area. About 15 minutes into my break, a cyclist approached me with