"Unquestionable beauty..." a Cape Town Travel Page by Kid-A

First, some history from the kind folks at Wikipedia:

Little is known of the history of the region's first residents, since there is no written history from the area before it was first mentioned by Portuguese explorer Bartolomeu Dias in 1486. Vasco da Gama recorded a sighting of the Cape of Good Hope in 1497, and the area did not have regular contact with Europeans until 1652, when the Netherlands' Jan van Riebeeck and other employees of the Dutch East India Company were sent to the Cape to establish a way-station for ships travelling to the Dutch East Indies. The city grew slowly during this period, as it was hard to find adequate labour. This labour shortage prompted the city to import slaves from Indonesia and Madagascar. Many of these became ancestors of the first Cape Coloured communities.

During the French Revolutionary and Napoleonic wars, the Netherlands was repeatedly occupied by France, and Great Britain moved to take control of Dutch colonies. Britain captured Cape Town in 1795, but the Cape was returned to the Netherlands by treaty in 1803. British forces occupied the Cape again in 1806. In the Anglo-Dutch Treaty of 1814, Cape Town was permanently ceded to Britain. It became the capital of the newly formed Cape Colony, whose territory expanded very substantially through the 1800s.

The discovery of diamonds in Griqualand West in 1869, and the Witwatersrand Gold Rush in 1886, prompted a flood of immigrants to South Africa. Conflicts between the Boer republics in the interior and the British colonial government resulted in the Second Boer War of 1899-1901. Britain won the war. In 1910, Britain established the Union of South Africa, which unified the Cape Colony with the two defeated Boer Republics and the British colony of Natal. Cape Town became the legislative capital of the Union, and later of the Republic of South Africa.

In the 1948 elections, the National Party won on a platform of apartheid (racial segregation). This led to the Group Areas Act, which classified all areas according to race. Formerly multi-racial suburbs of Cape Town were either purged of unlawful residents or demolished.

Cape Town was home to many leaders of the anti-apartheid movement. On Robben Island, a penitentiary island 10 kilometres out to sea from the city, many famous political prisoners were held for years. In one of the most famous moments marking the end of apartheid, Nelson Mandela made his first public speech in decades on February 11, 1990 from the balcony of Cape Town City Hall hours after being released. His speech heralded the beginning of a new era for the country, and the first democratic election was held four years later, on April 27, 1994. Since 1994, the city has struggled with problems such as HIV/AIDS, tuberculosis, and a surge in violent drug-related crime. At the same time, the economy has surged to unprecedented levels due to the boom in the tourism and the real estate industries.

According to the South African National Census of 2001, the population of Cape Town is 2,893,251 people.

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With all that in mind, let me say that beyond the initial awe I felt being surrounded by all the physical beauty of that city, there was a mass of negativity due to the real problems people are facing -- not just in Cape Town, but all over South Africa, I guess.

I've always found a good barometer as to how a city is doing socially is taxi drivers. What I heard from them did not paint such a nice picture.

One middle-aged taxi driver I met has lived in Cape Town his whole life. In fact, his grandfather moved to Cape Town from Scotland and worked as a train driver. In talking lightly about the beauty of Table Mountain as we drove into town from Blouberg, he changed the subject to his former profession. He said he previously worked in communications, but that he was laid off in what he calls a reverse apartheid. This surprised me quite a bit and I was hesitant to continue on that subject (you never know how a person's point of view can be skewed by prejudice or education level or even just the loss of their job). But like everyone I talked to in Cape Town, these feelings of inequality and injustice seemed to be boiling inside. And once they began talking about it, you could hear the passion in their voices. This was more than just unburdening themselves -- this is deep-seated. He went on to explain how the government and a lot of corporations in South Africa are failing because they are placing under-skilled black people in jobs formerly held by qualified white people, like himself. He says it all with an air of lost hope. He also added that he has nothing against the black Africans. It's the government at fault.

Another taxi driver -- a late 20-something from near Johannesburg -- started to become highly animated when talking about how much prices are rising. He specifically mentioned bread and petrol. Again I heard it was the government at fault. I tried to bring the conversation back to a more light discussion of the city. So as we passed the construction site for a football stadium being constructed for the 2010 World Cup, I asked him what he thought of the World Cup coming to South Africa. He seemed to think that the construction wouldn't be finished on time. On the way out to Blouberg, we passed a building he pointed out specifically to say that was where the wife of the former white president of the South Africa had been murdered. He went on to talk about how much crime the city is witnessing these days. Let's just say that all in all he didn't paint a great picture of his city!

A lady I met at a store in a mall in Blouberg kept me occupied for 15 minutes, bombarding me with questions about the U.S. She specifically wanted to know how the job market is, as she's contemplating leaving South Africa behind. She was vague when I asked her what the problem is here that is driving people to leave (there is an ominous saying in South Africa, "Will the last white person to leave please turn off the lights," or something to that effect.

--continued--

So again I was amazed that all this beauty I was surrounded by could be punctuated by all the negativity of the people I met. I thought then, and I still think, maybe I just met a bad cross-section of the population. But I really did feel as though I was on shaky ground. That there are a lot of issues that bother a lot of people! I could even see it in the newspapers I read in the morning. A glance at the editorial section and one can see all the latest issues being battled out by concerned citizens. The issue I read about most while there was power (the kind that keep the lights on). Many parts of South Africa are experiencing power outages lately, and a lot of people blame an inept government for not having the foresight to upgrade in time.

So there's the frustration and hatred. But I guess if you can't afford a loaf of bread, you can't feel lucky at living in a country at the forefront of a harmonious African continent. People traveling to Africa are told that if you're going to South Africa, that's more like Africa Light, because it is modern and westernized. Like a lot of people, I see so much potential in Africa, but mixing the western culture into Africa is a problem, with frustrations for both sides. I feel so fortunate I was able to see a little bit of Africa, and I'll definitely be back to see more, but until then, I'll continue to follow the issues.

From the time I was a child looking at the globe and seeing these far away cities, Cape Town was always on my list of places to visit. I'm so glad I went. And I'd recommend it for anyone. There's so much to see and do, and so much we can all learn from, as we watch South Africa and it's citizens meet their challenges.

--A note on Afrikaans--

Afrikaans originated from the Dutch language.

My girlfriend is Dutch, I understand the language. And Afrikaans sounds like Dutch.

The first time I heard it, it was on a radio station in a taxi I was in. I stupidly asked why they had Dutch radio stations and was finally educated on what exactly is Afrikaans.

Basically, half the population of Cape Town speaks Afrikaans. I heard it a lot when I was there. I found a lot of people communicated with each other in Afrikaans.

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