I spent the summer of 1999 (their winter) in Durban, South Africa as a student at the University of Natal. I traveled there as part of an exchange program sponsored by the University at Albany. Classes were scheduled in the morning, giving us the afternoons to explore the city. On the weekends, we took field trips, both planned and impromptu. At left are some of the places we visited.

The BAT Centre was Durban's cultural center, full of artists, musicians, and good food. We shopped downtown at both glitzy malls and market stands. I never went very far from Durban, as I hoped staying in one place would help me understand it better, rather than experiencing a bit of many different places (plus I didn't have to bribe a Mozambique border guard). One morning I watched the sun rise over the Bay of Natal as the University's crew team practiced. One afternoon, our history professor took us to Phoenix, a settlement started by Gandhi just outside of Durban. Today what remains of his home and the Indian Opinion office are in shambles and surrounded by people living a very meager existence in ramshackle homes. Phoenix, one of our guides remarked, needs to rise again.

In other reminders of South Africa's colonial past (and neo-colonial present), we visited several battlefields from the Anglo-Zulu War, and traveled by jeep around Hluhluwe-Umfolozi Park, hoping to see "the big five." Perhaps one of the most interesting examples of Africa's past and future merging could be seen at the celebration I visited near Inanda. The Nazareth Baptist Church worships by combining traditional African and Christian beliefs and customs (note the goat with money pinned to a cloth on its back, and the women in traditional dress holding umbrellas). I recently heard a wonderful presentation by Philip Jenkins, professor of history and religious studies at Penn State, about the rise in global Christianity. He writes in his book, The Next Christendom: The Coming of Global Christianity that what was once a religion of the global north will soon belong to the south.