Why Germans get mugged in RSA

Quite late the other night, around midnight if not a bit later, I left an impromptu work social gathering and took the Metro tram home. For some odd reason even though it was the correct number, and therefore the correct tram in my opinion, it didn’t go where I expected it to. It ended quite a bit short of home and slightly off the usual path. In all fairness at this point I had only been in the city for a week so it could have been the correct number but incorrect destination since I don’t remember checking that when getting on. Needless to say though I found myself in a bit of an unknown neighbourhood. Doing the obvious thing and knowing that I should recognise some of the stops along the way I started walking back in the direction we had come. Finally, I found a stop and main road I recognised, I had run past it the day before, and slowly made my way back home.

It was on my way home that I realised why Germans, and I assume the rest of the Europeans, generally tend to get mugged in South Africa. Walking along a dimly lit road, graffiti littering the walls, there were some seriously dodgy looking characters. Of course, they weren’t dodgy at all, or at least not in the going-to-stab-you sense that we’re used to, just party goers in hoodies or hip hop clothing. Most probably really interesting and great people if you take the time to get to know them. I always joke with the Germans telling them that when you’re in South Africa and you see graffiti on the walls you should back away slowly and go back the way you came. Obviously you took a wrong turn and ended up in a dangerous part of town. In Berlin that is not true. Graffiti is seen here as an art form, and some of it is really beautiful, some not so much. If the owner of a building decides to have his walls cleaned then the chances are really good that he’ll wake up, if not the next morning, within the next week with fresh new graffiti. There is however an unspoken street rule that no graffiti artist will paint over another artists art. What this means, much to my delight, is that some of these owners have hired some really gifted graffiti artists to do some beautiful artwork on their walls. So instead of you having “Johnny woz ‘ere” or “J4J” with a big heart around it you now have some stunning flowers, or academic scholars, or rockets blasting off to who knows where. It does add some colour and beauty to the city. Naturally, the street I was walking that evening was not full of street or building art but graffiti. Not too pretty at all.

Some random street art along a main road

The other thing that added to the feeling of being in the wrong area that evening was that drinking in the street is allowed in Germany. So not only do you have a bunch of gentlemen and ladies dressed very smartly in their hoodies and other hip hop wear, they’re also carrying at least one bottle. I must add that even though my South African senses were tingling, I knew I could ignore the inherit fear. This area, like the rest of Berlin, is quite safe. It is the equivalent of walking through Hatfield Square back in the day as a student. So to get back to the reason why Germans get mugged in South Africa, they have no sense of danger or even recognise when they’re in an unsafe area. Dark alleys? Not a problem here. In South Africa, not so much. Graffiti sprayed all over the walls of a dimly lit street? Also not a problem here. In South Africa you might have a bit of a problem and should get out of there.