SOUTH AFRICA
Wow! This country has history, it has issues and it has a lot of energy. There is no doubt that South Africa is very unique, thankfully.
Most know a lot about apartheid in South Africa, which was pulled down in the early 1990s by President F.W. de Klerk who realised that it was doomed to failure. Given widespread knowledge, I won't write a lot about this so don't fret! Nevertheless, the history of apartheid is still dominating the way this country works. I will mention race in places in writing about South Africa. This is not because I am so shallow that when I see a person, I see their colour first. In South Africa, race is everything. In places, I will mention the race to give you an idea of history (where races settled etc) and so on. Behavioural practices ( e.g. carrying of weapons, living in townships etc) tend to depend on race as well. Where I seem to be making generalisations, please challenge me if you are unsure if I am being just.
First impressions
We crossed into South Africa from Namibia via a busy border crossing. It was fortunately busy with (mainly white) South African tourists crossing north into Namibia for their winter holidays. School children were on holiday, hence the mass exodus. Guns were all being checked by the police to ensure they are legal in Namibia. It is a common belief that all white South Africans carry guns on their person or in their car to protect themselves from the massive crime problem the country is faced with. Clearly, some like to take them on holiday too. We were rejoicing in the fact that the border was busy because South African customs officers occasionally makes very detailed searches of vehicles crossing into their country. Once, Andi and Grant's Oasis truck was thoroughly searched to the extent that smelly socks were being turned inside out and hair brushes were being dismantled in the search for drugs. Oh, and South Africa has a major drugs problem too.
First stop was Springbok, a town named after one of the country's national symbols. Given the lovely name for the town, I was quite optimistic about this place. Oh, how horrid it was. We were there on a Saturday lunchtime. It is a provincial town with a horrible atmosphere. Normally, I am keen to spend time walking around towns but just a short time in this one was more than enough for me. The general atmosphere of the place was unpleasant. It's hard to put my finger on why I (and I think everyone actually) didn't like this place but I would say that this arises from unfriendliness, drunkenness, some begging and a fairly depressed economy.
Before I came to South Africa, I had heard how Afrikaans, one of the country's 11 official languages, was despised by non-whites because it was seen as the language of white oppression. Here in Springbok, I thought I would be looked on in a slightly better light when I say to people who speak to me in Afrikaans "Sorry, I don't speak Afrikaans", prompting them to speak English. But no, Springbok has one very dominant race: coloured. Coloured means mixed race in South Africa (and it's politically correct to use the term to mean mixed race). Coloured people are descendants of Dutch settlers who came in the 17th Century and bred with the native Khoikhoi people. Coloured people are the dominant race along the Western coast of South Africa and in Cape Town apparently, although I didn't notice that in Cape Town. Coloureds, like Indians, were seen as superior to blacks but inferior to whites under the apartheid regime. Coloureds were given better education and so started speaking Afrikaans long before the government tried to force it upon the black population. I guess Springbok people thought that they would be pleasing me if they spoke in Afrikaans and so were more likely to do business. But no.
From Springbok, we drove south via some pretty mountainous scenery with winelands to the town of Clanwilliam, a small town with some pretty Cape Dutch architecture in the centre. The reason we came here was to stay in the camp site alongside the pretty Olifants river and be undistracted (not much to see or do in the town) so that we could clean up the truck. We wondered around town on the night of the England vs Ecuador(?) looking for a place we could watch it. No luck at all. This is a quiet town where most of the population of coloured and white people are not interested in football - rugby is the game most popular within these racial communities.
Next day, everything, without exception, was cleaned on one day of scrubbing tents back to white, the tent bags back to a colour I never remember them; attempting to beat out all of the dirt from the seats collected in 8 months; scrubbing off the black soot around the pots and pans and getting rid of the maggots that we discovered were living under our kitchen etc etc. We were rewarded with pizza, probably taking more money out of the company's pocket (I think we overspent a lot as the prices have gone up a lot for the next trip) and managed to persuade the owners to allow us to have the football on (Italy vs. Australia).
Again, the atmosphere in Clanwilliam was not so great.
Stellenbosch + turning heads over racial mixing
Penultimate stop with the truck and our 2nd of 3 stops in a youth hostel on the trip (you see how I got back into a "Western life" again?). Stellenbosch is the 2nd oldest European settlement in South Africa after Cape Town and is a pretty University town with a lot of Cape Dutch architecture, not far beyond the Cape Town suburbs. Here, the atmosphere was thankfully welcoming and relaxed. Despite the old facade, the town is modern and people mixed well (I mean different races spoke to each other or even had friends of other races) and were quite friendly. It is a student-dominated town, which is never typical of towns in any country. The student scene though is no doubt why the town is modern and not stuck in the past like er, Springbok. Not feeling like I am in apartheid South Africa 20 years ago here was nice. Maybe I had misjudged South Africa after all? Others too. Nevertheless, the race issue was still around, for example, I went to get my most expensive hair cut in Africa here (2 pounds) at a barber's shop. Only coloured people were inside. If I were in the UK, I wouldn't think anything of it but here, it meant, me, a white man, was crossing racial boundaries and mixing with "the others". Not that this was explicitly pointed out to me but the way heads turned and people gave me attention when I walked in; a slight unease at the start by the barber unsure if he was supposed to treat me differently to how he is used to; and the questions of the barber as he cut my hair were very obvious signals to me that I was behaving very much not like a white South African is expected to. There was definitely no unfriendliness directed at me though. The barber was very enthusiastic and making an extra effort for me. He seemed really happy to meet me but when I left the shop, I thought that while I have just added to the perception of interracial mixing, it's sad that such an event is something of a rarity. I found my behaviour normal, not strange. If going there to get my hair cut is strange in one of the most forward-looking places in South Africa, then this country has a problem.
Wine Tour
What we really went to Stellenbosch for was to go on a wine tour through the Cape Winelands. A few of us took the wine tour in a minibus through some gorgeous scenery - a mixture of Alpine-like mountains with beautiful vineyards in between and pretty Cape Dutch architecture. This is where the French settlers first introduced wine to South Africa. They settled in the town of Franschoek ("French corner" in Afrikaans). Our tour took us to four wineries and a nice spot for lunch. Wine, more wine and more wine was the order of the day. Apparently, the best way to get a good impression for the quality of wine is to swallow it, not to spit it out! I'm sceptical of this though - I wonder if they really were thinking "drunken customers are the most likely to buy our wines". And yes, we really did get drunk but we can't waste wine already paid for, can we? Frankly though, of the perhaps 15 to 20 wines I tried, none of them were particularly nice - they were all just OK or poor quality. I had to throw away a few of them! The best thing was the cheese offered in one winery, which was outstanding. At that winery, Fairview, they use goats milk for most of their cheese and wittily call their wine "Goats do Roam" (a little like the French wine "Cotes du Rhone"). And yes, the tacky name reflected the quality!
CAPE TOWN --> much to say so interspersed with more side-headings
Driving to Cape Town - culture shock
Driving to Cape Town (last drive on the truck) was a further culture shock. Yes, I had been getting used to Western living gradually over the past 2 months but I was still very much in the "developing" world and chocolate, skyscrapers etc. were only tasters of the developed world in isolated places, mainly capital cities. Driving to Cape Town on a 6 lane motorway (that's 3 lanes each way) with bridges, flyovers, slip roads and a mass of vehicles was shocking. As we approached Cape Town at 53mph/85kph (the fastest the company allows the truck to go), i.e. crawling compared to everyone else, we could see Table Mountain getting gradually closer. The motorway was getting more and more built up, the road network and infrastructure were getting all the more sophisticated, advertising bill boards all over the place, there were a few townships and a theme park. Into the city centre of Cape Town with all its skyscrapers which really are flash, it's abundance of flash cars and so on, things really were beginning to seem a little surreal.
A place to call home...
We made our home at Aardvark Backpackers in the Sea Point district of Cape Town, once the place to be (15 years ago) - it's an elongated fairly central district of the city crammed in between the mountain and the sea, hence the abundance of sea view apartments, mostly builts 10 or 20 years ago. Nowadays, it has gone downhill (hence the banners proclaiming that Sea Point is a "City Improvement District" and not the flashest part of town but there is worse. I liked it. So did others. There was a mix of races all walking the streets suggesting that it's safe.
At Aardvarks, 12 of us got one dormitory/flat with 12 beds in 2 rooms. I got in the 4-bed non-snoring room, which was great. The flat soon felt like home. We had a kitchen and a bathroom so the dorm, filled only with people I had became great friends with was ideal. It reminded me of old student days or something. The chance to stay in one place for so long was great for me - 8 nights here beat my previous record of, I think, 4 nights in one place.
Discovering the city on day 1 + some thoughts on the city + meeting some people
First things first, I had to get out to discover the city. I don't like being stuck somewhere where I am disorientated, feeling like a small dot, not knowing how I relate to the rest of the city. So I left Aardvarks and walked. And walked a lot. For those who know Cape Town, I discovered Sea Point, Green Point, the Victoria and Alfred Waterfront, the city centre and beyond up the hillside towards Table Mountain. The Waterfront is quite famous and is perhaps the most recognisable part of Cape Town apart from Table Mountain. It was built a decade or so ago to transform the sea front/port area of the city and now it is a pretty area for shopping and socialising - there is a huge mall and lots of bars, restaurants and souvenir shops. It is mainly for the tourists who flock in large numbers to this place. South Africans find the prices a little steep as they're used to fairly cheap living costs, partly due to low labour costs.
Via the business area, home to many posh hotels and very flash-looking offices home to global multinationals, I went to the city centre. Here, Long Street was a place I liked - a very long street that is now quite funky with "alternative" scene shops for music, art, bars and cafes. Just off here is Greenmarket Square, a small square full of souvenir stalls, selling a large variety of crafts of which only a few are South African! A few days later when I returned to the market, I really had a good look around and chatted to a fair few stall holders. Some were annoyed that I could walk up to their stall and say "Oh, how lovely...I saw thousands of these in Zimbabwe" or "Oh right, Malawi chairs have made it to South Africa now?". This meant they weren't going to make a quick buck from me! And of course, the prices here are inflated compared to the souvenirs I bought elsewhere. Some people though are impressed that you have been to their country and enjoy talking to you about it.
Another part of the city centre is where most of the mainstream shops (Mr Price and all) are located. It could be any other central shopping district of a British city. Interestingly though, there are almost no white people shopping here. They prefer to visit malls out of town near to where they live.
On my 1st day of walking about, I met a Big Issue seller (they have it in South Africa and Namibia only in Africa) with a nice air about him who ran down the street after me to show me that he is inside the Big Issue. He was featured that week as being one of the South African players in the Homeless World Cup 2006, which is being held in Cape Town in August(?). He also went to Scotland for the Homeless World Cup held there in 2005. I bought a copy from him, impressed that he made it into the magazine and he was the first Big Issue vendor I met in South Africa. When he put the money into his wallet though, it was literally bulging with notes, he could hardly close his wallet! Then of course I saw another million and one Big Issue vendors who found it hard to sell a single magazine! :-( I will point out that there are white people in Cape Town who are homeless.
The centre of Cape Town also had its fair share of conmen who come up with all sorts of reasons why you must urgently give them money. There have been a few (I mean a small number) in cities in Africa. I have normally listened to them and outwitted them to see through their lies because occasionally, there really is someone who really does need help and you only find them by giving street beggers a chance. I remember one "refugee from the Democratic Republic of Congo" who chatted to me for about 5 minutes. He stupidly asked "Parlez-vous francais?" at which point I asked him basic questions such as "what is your name?" and "where do you come from?". He then told me that he is not fluent in French and doesn't know it to a very high level because he didn't get the chance to go to school.... Brilliant how he speaks fluent English then without going to school and has only lived in South Africa for a short time. He also didn't know the name of many major cities in DR Congo apart from Kinshasa. Not the sharpest pencil in the box is he?
Returning back to Sea Point from the city centre, I came across a minibus with a guy shouting something resembling "Sea Point". For 3.5 rand (30 pence) I got back to Aardvarks to give my aching legs a rest. I was so happy to get the minibus home. While my day of exploring Cape Town was great, I did feel a little sad that I didn't feel as though I was in Africa anymore. The dodgy minibus cheered me up on that front.
We all went out for a free meal at the Waterfront that night as a goodbye leaving meal as it was officially the last day of our trip from the top to the bottom of Africa with lots of squiggles to the left and right.
Table Mountain
I'm sure pretty much all of you have heard of this mountain. It dominates the Cape Town skyline and adds something special to the place, I feel. I walked up the mountain with Thoby. He set out with a plastic bag with water and sandwiches in. I set out with little more in a small backpack. We underestimated how long it would take to get up! We didn't go the most direct route up to the top but went on a much longer route taking us to the reservoir and slightly forested area on one part of the top of the mountain (about 700 metres above sea level). It was windy and not so warm. I was close to being caught out on this! On the real top (1000m above sea level, i.e. higher than all of England) we were afforded brilliant views right around. The city sprawl became obvious as did the city's unusual shape. After we had enough of the wind and laughing at the even less prepared tourists (in shorts and t-shirts) who came up on the cable car, we descended via a steep purpose-built path that was popular and the intended route to get up the mountain.
That was an exhausting day. That night, I saw a man who had been stabbed in the chest lying in the road in the evening in Sea Point, near to where we were staying. It seemed that I was the only passer-by shocked by this. Others either just walked past, took photos with their mobile phones or played around re-enacting the event. Doctors on call came to help and after one hour, the ambulance arrived! I should also mention other seedy aspects of Sea Point include the Nigerian drug dealers working on the main street of Sea Point. At least one approached me every day asking if I wanted anything. They were always very friendly and a couple of times I got chatting with them...Nigerians are soooo very easy to talk to - even Nigerian drug dealers are friendly, huh? Now, I thought I might find an exception there! If you remember my Nigeria email, you will have read my general enthusiasm for Nigerians. Also, further along in Green Point, one can apparently find curb crawlers (and maybe some ladies that attract them).
Meet up with friend, Chantal, and her views
Sunday lunchtime, I met up with Chantal, a medical student and friend of mine who I met when living in The Netherlands. She picked me up in Sea Point, which she said she was very concerned about because she steers clear of the place and couldn't believe that I was even passing through there, never mind staying there. We had a drink at the waterfront and chatted. She found my "adventures" in Africa amazing as she was so shocked that anyone would ever want to go to most of the places I've been. She feels that she is not African (an identity thing) even though she is and knows as much about Africa as the average person in the UK. This was interesting for me because almost everywhere in Africa so far, it was possible to easily talk to people about another African country or at least people would be able to identify with people of a country far away. I asked a black South African the same question and he said he doesn't feel African either.
I asked Chantal if she likes living in South Africa. Chantal lived in the US and the UK as a child as her father used to be a South African diplomat (in apartheid days I imagine) and so claims that she knows of the disadvantages of living in South Africa better than other people do who have lived in South Africa for all their lives. The freedom to walk the streets when in Holland and feel safe are lacking in South Africa. She fears for the future of South Africa more than other whites I think. With a little prodding, she told me that she believes that things are going to get far worse before they get better. She then went on to suggest that South Africa may end up like Zimbabwe. I claimed that this is crazy talk as Thabo Mbeki (President of South Africa) or any other politician is not so stupid that they would risk the collapse of a strong economy for the sake of getting revenge at white people of which there are 5 million. She disputed my positive talk, claiming that the feeling of "black power" is so entrenched that it is very possible. I was scared by this but I have since heard (right wing?) claims that once Nelson Mandela dies (he's now 88), there will be a massacre of white people. I really sense that is ridiculous talk and the foul talk of right wing white or black groups who stir up racial tension and hatred (oh, a bit like the BNP in the UK then).
Chantal also believes that there is more racism from the black community directed to the white community than the other way around. Positive discrimination is an important policy of the government whereby a black person has to be employed instead of a white person if he/she has the same qualifications as a white person who has more experience and therefore is probably better at the job. This is to hasten the closure of the economic segregation that still is very very obvious. Chantal didn't say she disagreed with this as such but used it as an example of why white people find it "harder to live" nowadays. Racial quotas at schools is another example. Being told you are the wrong race and therefore cannot send your child to a particular school sounds outrageous in most countries but so deep are the wounds here, radical action has to be taken to heal the wounds and reconcile the past.
I would recommend reading the following if you at all interested in the racial politics and racist perceptions in South Africa etc. Read it once you've finished my email though ;-)
http://www.economist.com/research/backgrounders/displaystory.cfm?story_id=760691
Another day of exploring + dodgy train journey
I had another day walking around town today of which a few things are worth space. I spent some time wondering around the market area in front of City Hall where Mandela made his first speech on release from prison and on being elected President. In the afternoon, I took the train to Rondebosch, a district of Cape Town home to the University of Cape Town, 15 minutes from the central station. STA Travel have a branch there and is where my flight tickets were waiting. I was strongly advised not to take the train as it is dangerous and now the domain of non-whites. Recently, there was a train guard strike and a lot of deaths from "train surfing" (people doing dare devil tricks running on the top of trains or jumping along the side of them). The guards were now back thankfully but that doesn't stop much. The manager of our hostel in Sea Point was robbed and thrown off the train at 50 km/h a couple of weeks previously and an Oasis traveller was also thrown off once when travelling to Stellenbosch, not far away, a few years ago. Still, I had nothing but 30 rand with me (£2.50) and 50 rand tucked in my sock. When buying the ticket, some unusual words were directed at me: "you want first class, don't you?". My response was "erm...well, do I have to? I mean, is that the safer?". I passed through very high security gates to prevent anyone sneaking through to the train. First class was perhaps the dirtiest train carriage I have ever been on. Graffitti was everywhere and it was generally unpleasant. Still, there were a few other white people and a couple of people of Indian-descent in my carriage. One woman had a laptop bag and two guys were on their mobile phones so I felt I was not top of the pecking order to be robbed (that's generally my tactic - don't make yourself a target!), especially not in the 15 minute journey! Rondebosch proved to be a pretty area and a nice leafy district in which to live if you don't want the hustle and bustle all the time. I went back on the a minibus, passing a lot of "Adult World" sex shops, which appear to be dotted all around Cape Town. South Africa is a liberal country.
Rachel arrives
Tuesday and Rachel Sales, a friend from University arrives at the airport. I went out at 4:30 a.m. or something like that, just after my friends got in from the bar. Rachel was the last person into the arrivals lounge (by which time I had lost all hope!) with no luggage due to her 1st plane being late, leaving a tight connection in Frankfurt. We slept, I showed Rachel around town in the afternoon and we caught up on gossip.
Tour of South African Parliament
Today, we toured the South African Parliament. The Parliament is a source of immense pride for the South Africans as they have only had democracy for 14 years. The tour was interesting and as usual, apartheid history was prevalent. Interestingly, the main chamber, which is quite new, is of the British model (government and opposition on opposing benches) as opposed to the semicircle model adopted by most of the world. The South African Constitution, I believe, allows for one President and one Vice President from each party that gains 20% or more of the vote, which means the ruling MDC and 2nd placed Democratic Alliance (most whites vote DA) have one Vice President each. The MDC (Movement for Democratic Change) however is still hugely dominant in South Africa, receiving very nearly two-thirds of the vote. The South African pride in their Constitution, adopted in 1996, means they allow anyone into Parliament with the minimum of security checks and they don't even have a record of those who visit. South Africa's proudest part of the Constitution is the clause in the Bill of Rights, which reads:
"The state may not unfairly discriminate directly or indirectly against anyone on one or more grounds, including race, gender, sex, pregnancy, marital status, ethnic or social origin, colour, sexual orientation, age, disability, religion, conscience, belief, culture, language and birth"
http://www.polity.org.za/html/govdocs/constitution/saconst.html?rebookmark=1 for the full Constitution
District Six Museum and National Art Gallery
We spent some time in the District Six museum on the same day. District Six is the name given to the former coloured area of Cape Town that was bulldozed in the apartheid era as it is was prime land suitable for the expansion of the central commercial and white areas. The museum is very personal and is much for the people who lived through that time as it is for tourists.
The National Art gallery was good and unsurprisingly, had displays on modern art aiming to reconcile the differences between races and art on apartheid. Thankfully, there was other art: both modern and classical as well as an exhibition on the woman heroes of South Africa, which I liked.
In the evening was Amelia's birthday party in the bar of the Aardvarks. We all had to wear dresses (Jason somehow made this trendy on the trip, wearing it in shopping centres in Uganda and the like, which is brave given we've seen a child beaten by the public in Nigeria for doing exaclty that). I may have worn a black silky jump suit (had to mention this before Rachel did!). Hmmm...
Robben Island museum
Rachel and I had booked to go to Robben Island, the place where black, mostly political prisoners were kept in apartheid times. White political prisoners were kept in Pretoria Central Prison. Unfortunately, the sea was too rough due to the wind and rain. It is winter in Cape Town and this weather is like this sometimes, although I had almost nothing but sun and clear skies when I was in Cape Town except this morning! We were refunded and spent our time looking around the Robben Island museum at the Waterfront, which was very interesting.
The following word's on the wall of the museum are important for the museum and for the future of South Africa...
While we will not forget the brutality of apartheid
We will not want Robben Island to become a monument of our hardship and suffering
We want it to be a triumph of the forces of human spirit against the forces of evil
A triumph of wisdom and largeness of spirit against small minds and pettiness
A triumph of courage and determination over human frailty and weakness
Ahmed Kathrada, 1993
I couldn't help noticing the parallels of Robben Island with British prisions. Robben Island prison was an institution where political prisoners educated themselves en masse. It's like petty thiefs going to prison today in the UK who come out as graduates of the University of crime!
Camp's Bay and Clifton
In the afternoon, we chilled out in Camp's Bay and Clifton, further out of the city centre beyond Sea Point. They are elongated and spread up the side of the mountain, full of luxury homes with beautiful views. This is one of the playgrounds for the rich and suitable for a peaceful end of the day for us :-)
Start of the road trip: Cape Peninsula and Gugulethu township
Just as you thought I'd seen the back of the great road trip, Rachel and I hired a small car to take us around South Africa. I said my goodbyes to those who were left, I reminded myself how to drive and with Thoby, we went around part of the Cape Peninsula, which was beautiful, doing a loop back into the centre of Cape Town where I met up with Paul, a guy I met earlier on in my stay. Paul lives in the townships and agreed to take me to where he lives, only we kept putting it off until today so off we went onto the busy, badly planned Cape Town highways where every driver seems to be on a suicide mission. Paul lives in Gugulethu, which is not a particularly poor township at all and not the image one has of a township. For a start, it was a shock that we could drive to Paul's house and park on his driveway! The house, like all others in Gugulethu (meaning "Our Pride") was brick-built. Some others in the street were quite flashy. Admittedly, Paul's own room was a shack in the back garden but still he had his own room and own bed with a nice quilt cover and matching cushions! Every house had shacks in the back garden but they had access to a toilet at least, a kitchen, a lounge etc. in the main house. Paul and his friends were not embarrassed about where they live but they were sure about what we would think of it because they assumed what kind of place Rachel and I live in. Well actually, I didn't think the place was so bad. I mean, they had a sofa, some chairs, an equipped kitchen, a sideboard with best plates and cups on etc. Yes, they are poor but this is better quality than more than 90% of African accommodation, hence it didn't shock me at all. It didn't shock Rachel either. She was expecting a place full of shacks like most of the accommodation in Cape Town's largest township, Khayelitsha. I suppose it is the perception of poverty that is important. They probably perceive poverty more so here than in many other parts of Africa because they see wealth all the time when they go into the centre of the city and they just can't have it. In other parts of Africa, wealth isn't flaunted into people's faces as often, if ever.
In the township, we also went to the local market, some cafes and bars and a shopping centre in the centre of Gugulethu, which is relatively tacky and dirty. Paul commented on this to the effect of "you see this, this is all we have for a shopping centre?". It was bigger than any district shopping centre I have seen in Africa! It was actually tidier and doing better business than some shopping centres I have been to in Birmingham ( e.g. The Swan, Yardley for those of you who live in Birmingham). Yet, Paul and his friends believed we were thinking "oh dear, I can't believe people live like this". I decided it would be good to get lunch from there so we went into a bakery. Coincidently, the owners were white and they were the only white people I saw in Gugulethu! The white woman who served us asked where we were from and what we were doing here. She said that "we were out of our area" to which I said "I don't really care...I like to see how other people live". She seemed put out by that. Chantal told me to not go into a township under any circumstances but tours have been safely running to townships for years and the Lonely Planet says as long as you have a black friend with you, you are safe! Apparently, very few white South Africans have ever been to a township. Yes, there is a crime problem in South Africa. Yes, a disproportional percentage of criminals in the country are black but really, townships are relatively very safe as criminals don't expect to find easy prey there and most importantly, it is common for criminals in townships to be punsihed by their neighbours. The strong community means that people often don't call the police if someone is robbed or whatever but prefer to stone them, which is a bigger disincentive to carry out crime!
Two more observations: in the township, heads didn't turn on seeing me and Rachel. And the township definitely had more of an African feel to them than the rest of Cape Town with people being friendlier on the surface, welcoming into their community etc.
This was the end of Cape Town for me. I loved this place actually. It may sound like I was banging my head on the wall due to race relations being such a problem but I have written about that because it's so significant. 99% of the time, I was just having fun, appreciating the positive, vibrant atmosphere that exists. Race relations are relatively good in Cape Town when compared to other parts of the country and crime is controlled relative to Johannesburg. Paul told me "in the roughest part of Johannesburg, Hillbrow, it would be normal for me to hear 5 to 10 gunshots daily but in Cape Town, I hear only 1 gunshot a year". It's also safe to walk in the city centre of Cape Town but in Johannesburg it is stupid. Thoby is still in Cape Town, doing an internship for marketing giant, Saatchi and Saatchi. He thought that getting such an internship in Canada or Europe would be incredibly hard but in Africa, there are fewer qualified people within those countries knocking at their doors so he considered it would be easier to get experience in Africa (he's right and I would consider it). By that time, I wished I had been more organised and tried to get myself some work (unpaid though due to high unemployment in South Africa). I could see myself staying in Cape Town for a while.
Garden Route
I finally left Cape Town (had to drag myself away) and headed out on the N2 road, which is the main road through the so-called Garden Route, a picturesque part of the South African coast east of Cape Town. We chose to divert slightly and go on the so-called Route 62 (the tourist board sets out a lot of driving "trails").
First night, we stayed in a lovely farm house in Montagu with beautiful mountains around and a couple of peacocks in the farmyard. The owner thought my accent was French (get that one). Rachel had to push the car in the morning though as I was reminding myself on tactics to get a car to start on a cold, frosty morning. Half of town was pretty with old Dutch architecture and very white. The other half of the High Street and the town was coloured and black and poor. We went to a lovely farmers' market in Montagu. All white of course except a small group of black people in the centre who were selling tourist souvenirs. OK...maybe I should stop mentioning this racial stuff. In this case, one can't say racism has anything to do with the farmers' market being very white. It's simply a cultural difference - historically, farmers have been white and the people who eat the expensive delicacies on offer are white because they were always the people with the money! I am uncomfortable with it but I could come to terms with that in my head and would probably overlook if it I lived in South Africa for some time.
For us, passing along Route 62 and through the Garden Route was about the scenery. It was definitely pretty in many places - mountainous inland with some attractive "passes" (narrow roads through mountains that come close together) and forested nearer to the coast, which has some beautiful bays in itself. Near to the town of Oudtshoorn, ostriches were everywhere as here is the centre of the world's ostrich meat industry. I wanted to get Rachel on one but she'd have none of it. Some show farms make their money from ostrich rides!
We stayed in Knysna the next night on the coast. Here and Plettenberg Bay just further along were beautiful. We stopped at Bloukrans bridge to have a look at the world's highest bungee jump (2nd highest in NZ, 3rd at Victoria Falls) off the world's 3rd highest road bridge. Still couldn't see myself doing that! We ate lunch on the beach at Port Elizabeth; inspired an ice cream seller do a shaking bum dance after giving him a 1 rand (9 pence) tip and then headed north through areas with many aloe trees - strange green aloe shaped leaves with orange flowers. We stopped at a B+B in Queenstown and watched the World Cup final from bed. I remember asking the owner if she had a TV in the room because I want to watch..."tennis" she interrupted by saying. I was a little shocked. "Erm no, the football final". Can't be many places in the world where people did not know the world cup final was about to take place half an hour later! Dare I say it, most white South Africans are not very interested in football but love rugby! It was here that Rachel was shocked by the very friendly female owner saying that when she went to London to visit her son and daughter working there she had to do her own washing and ironing - it was a culture shock she claims! Rachel was lost for words listening to this!
Yes...Queenstown felt a little like Clanwilliam or Springbok but the atmosphere was not so bad. It was stuck in the past though.
[Now entered Lesotho. See Lesotho section for intervening days]
We drove for the remainder of the afternoon to an awful dreary town called Standerton where we stayed in a "chalet" complex with a greasy spoon cafe. It was really a soulless motel. I remember getting directions to this town at a service station. I asked a (black) worker on the station forecourt for directions, handing him my map. He explained perfectly well how to get to Standerton. As I was about to go, an imposing (white) guy came storming over speaking Afrikaans, standing in front of the worker and asking how he can help me as he was taking the map out of the hands of the worker. Well some people may find this the "helpfulness and friendly, caring approach of South Africans" but I don't. Unfortunately, I could only assume he had ingrained prejudices and that's what I took away from this encounter.
[Now went to Swaziland and Mozambique. My blog explains my actions on those days]
Back in South Africa, we crossed a disorganised border (yes, last border for me :-) ) to make our way to Johannesburg, taking 2 different people certain distances along the way. In Jo'burg or Jozi as it's sometimes called locally, we dropped off our hire car, which was thankfully considered as in as good a condition as we received it, despite 3800km of driving! That's long, huh? I've grown used to large distances in Africa. European distances now seem like a short trip! We were collected from the airport by the hostel, which was my home for my final 3 nights in Africa!
Johannesburg - apartheid museum and Soweto tour
Next day, we spent the full day doing what most tourists come to Jo'burg to do: went to the apartheid museum and on a Soweto tour. We spent 3 hours in the excellent apartheid museum, learning about South Africa before apartheid, how apartheid came about in 1948 (although forms of it existed before then), the resistance, riots, violence, sabotage, international sanctions, negotiations and so on. Two interesting facts:
- South African government employed just one black person during apartheid. His job? To train guard dogs to attack black people!
- More people died during the 1991-1994 negotiations for a democratic South Africa than during all the years of apatheid resistance!
Next on our organised (not much choice in Jo'burg) tour was a visit to Soweto, an abbreviation of South Western Township. An old nuclear power station greeted us as we arrived in Soweto whose two cooler towers have an advert and a mural depicting life in Soweto. The power station used to provide power for Jo'burg but not for Soweto. No surprise there then.
First stop was the Hector Pieterson museum. Hector was the first child to be murdered by the South African police in the 1976 school anti-Afrikaans marches. The government decided to force teachers teach many subjects in Afrikaans and for pupils to learn it as there was a need for more Afrikaans-speaking workers. Few teachers knew Afrikaans and the pupils were outraged at their education being interfered with in such a way and the opressors' language being forced upon them. The Soweto schools march was masterminded by pupils alone and was intended to be entirely peaceful and it was on the schoolchildren's part but once the children refused to turn back on their march, the police killed Hector Pieterson, thought to be the ringleader (he wasn't actually). Obviously, this was not the response the children were expecting. One boy picked Hector up in his arms and has also become a hero. In the end, a large number (thought to be 200 to 600) of people were killed over the days of unrest.
Next stop was Nelson Mandela's former home, which has around 1000 visitors every day now. Mandela lived here before he went to prison and moved back on release from prison but lived there for only 11 days as he had underestimated the profile he now had and the sheer number of journalists coming to his house was something he couldn't deal with so had to move out to a place that allowed him more peace. His home is a one bedroom house with bathroom, toilet, kitchen, living room and dining room and in reality is little more than a monument to the 88 year-old these days with many of his honorary degrees on the wall, foreign gifts, paintings and so on. Archbishop Demond Tutu happens to have lived in the same street, making it the only street in the world where 2 Nobel Prize winners have lived. Winnie Mandeal still lives in the area, in a large, luxurious house with bullet-proof windows. She still owns the cafe opposite her old house, which is operated out of a metal shipping container.
We also made a visit to the Catholic Church, Regina Mundi. Gatherings of black people in South Africa were banned under apartheid in case they were plotting a protest, sabotage etc. Churches were therefore often used because people could go there on the premise of going to a service but were actually going for a meeting. Many people went to the Regina Mundi during the Soweto uprising for safety but the police shot at it from the outside and from the inside to stop any gathering.
We had a very brief tour of the informal settlement of Mustwaledi where we were shown the worst of conditions in Soweto. The loaded language about the poverty there was interesting because I have seen many places like this in Africa. Yes, this one is certainly poor but the presence of chemical toilets (!) and perhaps more consumer items owned made it seem a little better than some other places. I deeply resented being guilt-tripped to give a tip to go in there, although the money does go the community development fund. What I don't like is where my relationship or my welcome only goes as far as my money goes, which has been a problem now and then in Africa but not normal. I am happy to donate money to the needy but I don't like the way it happens here. I am not used to it but is it a neccesary evil here?
Most reading this will no doubt have an image of a township in their minds but it probably isn't very accurate of the reality. Soweto has 3 million inhabitants. With 7 million live in Johannesburg, they together they make up 10 million of South African's 47 million people! Soweto consists of some makeshft settlements as I just described. Next up, it contains social housing given to the needy (on a very long waiting list) for free. These are basic homes with electricity and running water but small. Next up are the older social homes which are of higher standard (like Mandela's), now making up "respectable" areas. Of the highest standard are luxury homes that the new black elite live in (sometimes called buppies or black yuppies). Many black people who "make it" decide that living in a soulless Johannesburg suburb is not for them and they move back to the township where there is a strong community spirit but still get their luxurious home anyway.
Johannesburg city tour
On Rachel's last day, I did something that I had never done before now...go on an organised city tour! Johannesburg is the only city I have been to in Africa that is simpy too dangerous to venture into by ALL accounts, yet it is Africa's richest city and one of its most significant. While I am here, I felt it was unfortunate to not see its centre, which is visible due to the mass of skyscrapers, and so I paid for the tour anyway. One area we passed through was the central district of Hillbrow, which used to be a white-only area in apartheid days but nowadays it's incredibly rare for a white person to venture there as it is probably the area with the highest crime rate in the whole country. It is also an area with very few South Africans as it's well inhabited by immigrants (illegal and legal) from the rest of Africa, particularly Nigeria, DR Congo, Zimbabwe, Zambia and Malawi. Immigrants don't have the best of images in South Africa. I did see a government TV advert encouraging people not to victimise immigrants. Shame the British government doesn't take a leaf out of their book! Just beyond Hillbrow, there is a very tall circular building remisicent of the Rotunda in Birmingham, UK. It used to be a thriving commercial centre with apartments, shops and offices but now it is occupied entirely by squatters. The Eastern side of the city centre is mostly derelict as industry has moved out of the area due to safety, white business owners fleeing the country after 1994. In the central business district, many businesses have also moved out but there are some still operating there as they have underground carparks for staff to drive into and so people can feel safe, not having to walk the streets! I went up to the 50th floor of the Carlton Centre, Africa's tallest building. It provided us with a good view of Jo'burg from the suburbs to the inner city, townships and gold mines, the latter being the reason for Jo'burg's existence. The centre has few shops as most people go to out of town malls for safety reasons and practical reasons. Why shop in a dangerous city centre lacking atmosphere?
Crime
Crime is a huge fear of the white community across South Africa. Big walls, gates, security cameras and guards are not so rare. Crime is rife and has spiralled ever since the fall of apartheid. Given the average white person is richer than the average black person, white people are far more likely to be a victim of crime. This is one reason cited for white emigration (the UK is a popular destination for them!). Car jackings, armed robbery or robbery at knife-point are all common. I read that a Shoprite supermarket has recently been attacked by no less than 70 armed robbers at once, probably by the striking workers who know where money is kept! South Africa has a sky-high murder rate with around 20,000 recorded homicides per year, although the government thinks that a further 10,000 murders go unreported. Up until July 21 when I learnt the statistic, no less than 56 police officers had been murdered so far in 2006. That is 2 officers murdered every week! A police officer being murdered in the UK is rare and when it does happen, it makes major news for weeks and months if not years. It is well known that crime *tends* to relate to the difference between rich and poor - the larger the gap, the bigger the crime rate. In South Africa, this certainly has some truth! Johannesburg is the city with the biggest reputation for crime, hence the dead city centre and general restrictions on people's freedom. In the townships, the community spirit tends to keep crime lower as a whistle system is in place in many townships where if anyone blows a whistle continuously, neighbours come rushing and then stone the thief to death or something similar.
The volume of crime probably makes South Africa the most dangerous country that I have been to on my travels, yet I doubt it was a place where many of you were "concerned" for my safety. Going to the deepest, darkest parts of unknown Africa probably made most of you more concerned but that was actually really safe.
HIV in South Africa
-Thabo Mbeki, the President, has in the past doubted whether HIV leads to AIDS!
-Jacob Zuma, the Vice President, has had sex with a known HIV+ woman without using a condom. He was cleared of rape but he told the nation "he had a shower after sex to try to stop contracting HIV".
-The South African Health Minister was recently lambasted at the UN Conference for HIV/AIDS in Toronto as she currently downplays the usefulness of antiretrovirals and instead emphasises the need for a healthy lifestyle, eating many fruit and vegetables in order to build up the immune system.
-South Africa has the 2nd largest number of HIV+ people (5.5 million) in the world after India. South Africa has a prevalence rate of around 19%.
-At least Bill Gates is more use than Bob Geldof!
Summary of South Africa
South Africa is a place I could talk about for some time but I have mentioned only the starkest things in my mind. Yes, this has often involved race but this is because race is such a big issue in the country that most of my most prominent thoughts involve race. But race did not dominate my thoughts when I was in the country itself. Instead, the beautiful scenery, the people I met and having fun were dominating my thoughts, although the most vivid issues involve racial problems. For the problems that exist in South Africa, I would find it very hard to live there and in many places, I just couldn't live. Overall of course, the country has achieved some remarkable, if not almost unthinkable progress in the past 20 years (mostly in the early 1990s of course) and noone could really expect things to be back to normal by now. The country's economy is growing fast (6% per year) and equality is slowly being achieved but there is still a marathon to complete and its internal affairs will remain volatile for some time to come. And more important than anything, here, like everywhere, people are deep down, generally good people.
