Interracial relationships are still taboo in the Republic of South Africa, especially between White women and men of other colors but I honestly don't give a crap. I'm living my life and loving who I want, no matter whose pride it may hurt. My name is Lara Weidenreich and I'm a young woman living in the City of Johannesburg, in the Gauteng region of South Africa. Got one hell of a story to share with you today, folks.
I'm a nerd through and true, a numbers gal, and definitely not the romantic type. My parents Leonard and Mariam Weidenreich died in a plane accident when I was little and I was raised by my aunt Gertrude, who passed away last year. I'm only twenty years old and life has thrown much tragedy my way, not that I'm complaining or anything. I'm an Orthodox Jewish gal, we're supposed to be both smart and tough.
I'm tougher than I look, or so I've often been told. Five-foot-ten, decidedly on the voluptuous side, with reddish blonde hair, alabaster skin and green eyes, that's yours truly in a nutshell. I'm studying civil engineering at the University of Johannesburg, and much to my amazement, I've fallen in love with Amos Dikotsi, a handsome young Black man from the Kingdom of Lesotho.
I was born and raised in Gauteng, so let me tell you, even though South Africa calls itself a racially diverse and democratic country, a rainbow nation, it is anything but. The first time I went to the Sandton City Mall, the Republic of South Africa's richest square mile, with my boyfriend Amos Dikotsi, people definitely stared. Look, in this day and age, interracial couples aren't exactly rare in South Africa's largest metropolitan areas.
I've seen White men with Chinese women, White men with Indian women, White men with Black women, and at times, Chinese men and Black women. The Black male is always missing from the equation when it comes to interracial dating in the Republic of South Africa. Why is that? Even though South Africa has moved beyond the politics of Apartheid, certain things remain absolutely taboo. For a woman who isn't Black to be with a Black man, it's not exactly unheard of but it's still taboo.
Well, I crossed the racial line because of Amos Dikotsi, the handsome Black youth who changed my life. The day we met is one that I shall never forget. I was visiting the slums of Soweto, a world as different from the glittering towers of Johannesburg proper as night is from day. You see, I was still in the naΓ―ve, blissfully unaware ( or willfully so ) of many Europeans living in South Africa. I went to Soweto to help the poor people, like the benevolent White savior I once saw myself as. And I ended up with a knife against my throat in a dark alley one night.
A crazed old man, Zulu by the looks of him, had followed me and cornered me. I stood there, hapless. I mumbled, and offered him money, but that's not what he wanted. I saw lust and madness in his eyes, along with the promise of hell. Like so many women in South Africa, I feared rape, for we have the highest rape epidemic in the world, but I never thought it might happen to me. I am the daughter of Jewish German immigrants who came to South Africa in the late 1930s, shortly before Nazi madness gripped Germany and shocked the western world.
I looked at my aggressor, for what else could I do. With his knife against my throat, I knew it was pointless to struggle. For the old Zulu meant to rape then kill me. You came to the wrong place bitch, he said, in heavily accented English, and I closed my eyes, hard. Let death come for me swiftly, I prayed silently. I heard a gasp, and a thud, and opened my eyes to see my aggressor fallen at my feet, and a large, dark-skinned young man standing over him.
You should leave this place lady, the young man said, and his voice carried an accent that I could not place. I looked at my fallen aggressor, then at my apparent savior. Looking into his dark eyes, taking in his youthful visage, I smiled. Thank you, I said, and nodded, grateful beyond belief. The young man nodded, and then turned to leave. From his accent to his attire, which was stylish though understated, I could tell that he was definitely not local. My savior disappeared into the night, and I thought I'd never see him again.
September 2014 came, and I began my second year in the civil engineering programme at the University of Johannesburg. I put that incident behind me, although it continued to haunt my dreams. It had only been a month since that incident in Soweto, and I never told anyone about it. I just vowed never to set foot in that forsaken place ever again. The last thing I wanted was to come face to face with a reminder of one of my darkest moments.
So you can imagine my surprise when I saw a certain vaguely familiar tall, handsome and well-dressed young Black man walk into the University of Johannesburg library, where I work part-time. I did a double take, and gasped. Indeed, it had to be him....the guy from that night. I discretely followed him around the campus library, and watched as he sat at a computer and logged onto his Facebook.