Rainbow Nation

I was struggling to make small-talk, waiting to hear F W de Klerk speak about the legacy of the 2010 World Cup.  I'm interested in this because of all the work I've done over the years with SMEs in London, helping them to prepare for the Olympics.   I wasn't sure that FW would mention this specifically, but I was hopeful. And I was there as Dutiful Wife. Not my easiest role.

I got chatting to Peter Hain, one of my early heroes, and thought about how odd the whole occasion would seem to my 1985-self.  Fiercely involved in anti-apartheid campaigns, I don't think I'd have been able to believe any of it. There I was, sitting in a room waiting to hear FW speak (without cooking up a plan to assassinate him), and Peter Hain in the same room (not attempting to disrupt a sporting event). South Africa, a one-person, one-vote democracy (without an appalling bloody revolution or war) and hosting the World Cup. FW himself having won the Nobel Peace Prize for, amongst other things, freeing Nelson Mandela.  Really, how bizarre.

My 1985-self would also have been amazed to hear about my job, my unlikely marriage to a man brought up in colonial Africa and 15 years older than me, my lack of post-graduate qualifications, the absence of published creative writing, the children......I feel another diary-reading session coming on.

I had to wait until the very end of to find someone who might be able to answer my burning question about the event.  Eventually, I got chatting to a bloke who represents the ANC in London. We thought we knew each other already: he thought he might have been to one of my workshops for the African Business Network.

"Tell me," I said. "Where are all the black people?"

It was dinner of 200. I counted 8 brown faces. Not much of a rainbow.