In July of 2018, I travelled with my choir on a tour to South Africa and Namibia. This was a trip where borders played a significant role. A major journey we embarked on included driving about 17 hours from Cape Town, South Africa, to Swakopmund, Namibia. Below is a photo of the river that separates the two countries, and that we passed over just before arriving at the Namibian border. Our assistant conductor had a passport from the Philippines and one of our singers had a passport from Trinidad and Tobago. Both individuals were told that they would not need VISA’s to cross this border. Our team spoke with the border staff, and after hours of waiting, they were denied entry and we heartbreakingly left behind at the border. The waiting experience felt powerless, confusing, sometimes hopeful (as rumours of good news spread around our group from those directly involved in communication with the authorities), and in the end, left us all in low spirits. What I learnt about borders from this experience is that they can be bureaucratic, although sometimes unpredictable and arbitrary.
