Langa Township and Central Cape Town

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For today’s tour, we had arranged a different guide. After a hasty buffet breakfast, we met Rudy, a hulking Afrikaner with a thick accent. On our ride towards Langa Township he explained that we would be meeting Anthony, a township resident, for our tour of the township’s interior. Rudy went rapidly and somewhat haphazardly into explaining the history of South Africa, tracing the problems of today back to the Boer war of 110 years ago. He was quite critical of the current government. It was difficult to understand some of his reasoning with his thick accent and fragmented arguments, but it was clear that he had strong feelings about getting the country on the right track. We picked up Anthony on the edge of Langa and drove in a bit further to start our tour. Langa is one of the oldest townships, originally established as a place for migrant workers (all men) to live, and is just one of the manh townships (really, low-income suburbs) of Cape Town. Up to a quarter of the population of the Cape Town area lives in these sprawling communities that occupy vast stretches of ever-growing areas highly visible from the air on the flights into and out of Cape Town. Following the end of apartheid, the male migrant workers living in the townships were allowed to bring their families to live there, in most cases increasing the population density of the already overcrowded townships. The conditions now are quite varied. We saw people living in donated metal cargo containers (two families per container), ramshackle single-room shacks built from reclaimed materials such as wood from shipping crates, or solidly-build but overcrowded brick multi-family units where each family (including children) shared a single room with a single bed and six families together shared a sparsely furnished central room with a sink. Despite the overcrowding (or perhaps because of it), the rooms we visited were very tidy, with everything in its place. Typically, besides a bed, the only substantial piece of furniture was a small TV, always on. We walked from one part of the township to another, with a continuous lively conversation with Anthony. He would describe certain people, somewhat reverently as “good” and admitted than in his younger days, he himself was not a “good man.” Two prison terms had apparently allowed him to get an education that he had not had in his youth and he now is quite articulate and entrepreneurial in his efforts to better himself and the people of the township. We stopped to shop at a “conveniently” located souvenir stand and found a few things to take home while chatting with the merchants. We visited a preschool where we were accosted by dozens of children hoping for treats. Apparently, it is common for visitors to bring candy for the children, but unfortunately, we had none. The tour lasted more than two hours and was certainly challenging at times. In many cases the deplorable conditions that many of these people live in is painful to look at, though there were many opportunities to see people finding joy in their daily life. One group working outside their hodge-podge shack called after Andrew. Anthony translated for us from the Xhosa language that they were inviting him to come live with them. All in jest, and in good fun, but Andrew was clearly uneasy. We finished the tour seeing some of the finer houses where the more affluent members of the community live. Many people who achieve economic success are still culturally tied to the community and live in much nicer houses on the outskirts of the slums. It was interesting to hear about life in the Townships from Anthony’s perspective, but it was a challenging morning for all of us and we were left with a lot of unanswered questions. It is hard to imagine that people would choose their life in the township over other options (people continue to migrate there from out-lying areas, contributing to the overcrowding and the sprawl) and it is even harder to figure out what to do to make their living conditions better. We hopped in Rudy’s van and headed back into Cape Town to finish the tour with a visit to the District Six Museum. District Six was the section in Cape Town reserved for non-whites during the apartheid era. While the name evokes the enforced lower-class status of it’s inhabitants, the district was a rich cultural center. Rudy was not the most effective guide at the museum and it was difficult to get a lot out of our visit, especially since the kids had long since mentally checked out of this day’s challenging itinerary. We stayed long enough for Sonia to select a few books and then headed out. Rudy took us to the edge of Bo Kaap, the Malay district of Cape Town. Known for it’s brightly colored houses we learned that historically the houses were identified by color rather than street numbers, hence the great variety of color choices. We wandered briefly, passing a number of nicely maintained houses as well as a mosque and then headed back. Rudy dropped us in Greenmarket Square where we quickly settled on a restaurant for lunch. Service was slow and the food unremarkable, but we weren’t in the mood to be picky. Following lunch we shopped in Greenmarket square. Lauren found a scarf and Sonia a tapestry to bring home. We wandered back to the Company’s garden, arriving only about 45 minutes earlier in the day than we had on Monday. The 45 minutes did make a significant difference. The park was considerably more lively and inviting and we stopped to take photos of the squirrels as well as the stunning backdrop of Table Mountain. We hopped a cab back to the hotel and enjoyed some time to unwind after two tiring days of sightseeing. The room’s internet is not very functional so we took turns visiting the “business center” to catch up on our electronic lives. For sunset we returned to the roof deck to sip some wine and take photographs. No one was feeling very adventurous, so we opted for dinner in the hotel restaurant. Andrew had earlier spied “Gelato Mania” a few doors down from the hotel so we headed down the street to get his dessert. As it turns out, you can get a much nicer (hot, made to order) Belgian waffle in Cape Town than in Amsterdam.

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Photos

John, Lauren, Anthony
Anthony was a great ambassador for the township with a checkered and interesting past.

Inside the cramped housing
Andrew with one of the residents. This building is of fine construction, but two families share this small room.

Preschool
The kids were excited to come out to play.

Greeting the visitors.
The kids could tell Lauren like kids.

Nice smile
The kids were excited by our visit and wanted to look at the pictures we took of them on the small camera screen.

Private Dwelling
This family has their own building, but clearly of poor construction. The cheerfully invited Andrew to come hang out with them.

Washing Station
The township women meet here to do laundry and (according to Anthony) gossip

Bo Kaap
This is the Malay district with it's distinctive brightly colored houses.

Shopping in Greenmarket Square
Lauren models a scarf that she bought from the outdoor market that caters to the tourists.