Going to ... South Africa PART VII

Thursday, February 8, 2007

We flew into Cape Town and checked into Waterkant Village, a new, Greenwich Village-like section of the city where we had rented an apartment that would be home for the rest of our trip. Cape Town was the first city established by Europeans when they began their colonization in the 1600's. The Dutch East India Company, a trading monopoly, used it as a stopover for their ships that were plying new routes to the East Indies in search of spices. Sailors suffering from scurvy on the long trip around Africa needed a place to resupply and stock up on fresh food and vegetables. The company permitted some of the sailors to nullify their contracts so they could farm the land to supply the company's ships. These were the so-called free burghers who eventually went on to settle and colonize the country.

Cape Town is fabulously beautiful. It's clean, neat, and nestled under a massive geological formation - Table Mountain, a gigantic piece of rock, which is visible almost wherever you are in the city. In some regards, this city by a bay is reminiscent of San Francisco: hilly streets, a laid back feel and streets lined with lovely old buildings.

A side note: The map below shows our South African itinerary for those of you who might not be familiar with the geography of the country. We flew from New York to Dakar (Senegal on the west coast of Africa) and then on to Johannesberg. Number 1 is our drive from Johannesberg to Kruger Park in the northeast corner of the country, sharing a border with Namibia and Mozambique. On route number 2, we drove back to Jo'berg and then, on number 3, flew for two hours to Cape Town.

The map showing our route.

It was on Robben Island, a few miles off Cape Town's shore, that Nelson Mandela (along with many other freedom fighters) was imprisoned for 27 years in the notorious prisons of apartheid. Apartheid, a pernicious evil that descended on South Africa after World War II was finally dismantled in 1994. Mandela was released from prison in 1990. And it was in Cape Town on that historic occasion , the result of unending protests throughout South Africa and, indeed, the world, that Mandela made his now-famous speech in front of the town hall:

"Our march to freedom is irreversible. We must not allow fear to stand in our way. Universal suffrage on a common voters' role in a united democratic and non-racial South Africa is the only way to peace and racial harmony.

In conclusion I wish to quote my own words during my trial in 1964. They are true today as they were then:

'I have fought against white domination and I have fought against black domination. I have cherished the ideal of a democratic and free society in which all persons live together in harmony and with equal opportunities. It is an ideal which I hope to live for and to achieve. But if needs be, it is an ideal for which I am prepared to die.' "

So it's interesting to note just how much or how little progress has been made since those days. Formal democracy was established in 1994, some three years after Mandela was freed. He was elected President in the first election in which all races were allowed to vote and won 62% of the vote. But South Africa today is still a very separated society with an entrenched white financial power stucture and a vast amount of impoverished people of color. It's obvious that, twelve years on, there's still a very long way to go to build a country whose wealth and opportunity is more evenly distributed. On the way in to Cape Town, speeding in our car on the highway from the airport, we passed miles and miles of unimagineably poor shanty towns - the slums of Cape Town's surroundings - witness to the long road ahead on Mandela's "march to freedom."


Our sweet neighborhood of Waterkant Village, a new "tourist village" on the west side of town.


Stacey stands in front of our apartment at 86 Waterkant Street. The neighborhood has pretty houses, lots of shops and restaurants and is one of the new gentrified neighborhoods springing up around town.


Table Mountain can be seen from all parts of the city ... except when the clouds linger on its top,which seems to be quite often. A thin layer of clouds lying on top of the flat rock is called the "tablecloth."


Where have all the Beetles gone? To South Africa, of course. There are many, many VW's here...but the steering wheel is on the wrong side, which is the right side not the left side. Oh, you know what I mean.

One of the many clubs that dot the area in our neighborhood. Catch the name -- Manhattan!


A rather colorful shop on Waterkant Street.

We arrived in Cape Town late in the day, had dinner at local restaurant and planned out the next day. We would take a walking tour of one of the city's main thoroughfares, Long Street, known for its old buildings and interesting shops.


A poster for Adelaide Tambo who died in January. She was a hero of the anti-apartheid struggle, a leader of the African National Congress (ANC) and wife of the former late president, Oliver Tambo.


Old meets new on Long Street.


Table Mountain is the backdrop for the city. You can take a rotating cable car to the top for the most incredible view of the city below.


Bringing home some shopping, South African style. People often carry packages on their head.

We had lunch at a little cafe at the southern end of Long Street (which was now Kloof Street - the name changes as you head up toward the mountain). We wondered out loud whether residents ever get used to the awesome beauty of the mountain standing over their city. The clouds float above it, sometimes touching it, sometimes obscuring it altogether. It's quite a sight to behold.

Tomorrow, we'll walk through the old Cape Malay neighborhood of Bo Kaap, home to many of the descendants of slaves brought to Cape Town from Malaysia. Because of that it is also the city's Muslim neighborhood. After that we'll visit the District 6 Museum, which documents one of the atrocities of the apartheid era: the forced removal and demolition of an entire neighborhood to make the city a white bastion and send people of color into the shanty towns that still exist on the outskirts of the city to this very day.


Table Mountain, from the upper part of Kloof Street. The clouds are lying on the top like a table cloth.