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Published: November 3rd 2012
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Disclaimer: all historical stuff listed here is from our guide, no fact checking has been done.
1949 was the first year of apartheid, today we went on a city and township tour with Owen to learn more about the people and history.
When the Dutch came and started settling in Cape Town, the drunken sailors were getting the local females pregnant & leaving a mixed bread that wasnt accepted by the locals so they started to built their houses sharing walls as it's own alarm system if a home were attacked to take the woman all the familes would come to their aid. This is area become where the malay workers from the dutch shipping would live & they brought their colorful styles to the area.
There were three classifications: black, colored, and white. To determine if you were black or colored, a pencil would be put in your hair and you tip your head forward... if it fell out you were colored, if it stayed put you were black. Owen was initially classified colored because his family's hair was different, even though they were 100% black. Payment for a job was legally different. If a white washed
a car they might get R10 for washing it, colored R5, blacks R2... all jobs had pay scales like this. Laws were passed that blacks could not own property.
Mosque on Church St to spite the Dutch. This was one of the first churches in cape town which was late converted in to a mosque the british to show their dominence named the street on which the mosque sttod to church street. Drove past a piece of the Berlin Wall in the middle of the city, slave lodge where slaves hid during trading (interesting to note that slaves were paid, didn't go unpaid as in the USA)
Local joke is that McDonald's is the American Embassy and KFC is the American Consulate.
Strand St was beachfront property 400-500 years ago. The dutch are masters at reclaiming the land.
The rail even to this day is designed for the lowest of the working class, professionals absolutely do not use it.
Unemployment is the most serious problem here, it's 50% in the townships.
Cape of Good Hope Consul is the oldest building in Cape Town built by the Dutch on Strand St.
Clock tower is
old city hall and where Nelson Mandela asked everyone to forgive the white man for what they had done to them.
District 6 is where 60k people lived, their homes were demolished by bulldozers with the army in front because the owners wouldn't leave and people had no choice but to go to the townships to live. Whites wanted to build homes for themselves on this prime real-estate, but because so much attention was brought to what they had done, nothing was ever built. Now new homes are being built there and given (by the country) back to those who were kicked out. There is a 79 year old man whose front steps from his old house are still there... he comes to sit on them because they are his steps, waiting for the day his new house is built.
Another story about a man who was able to move into a house elsewhere rather than moving to the townships. He had 50 or so homing pigeons, and kept them in their cages in the new house for 3 months before releasing them, figuring he'd lose a few but thought most would come back. None came home that
night. He drives by district 6 on the way to work every day, and the next day when he drove by all 50 pigeons were where their house used to stand, looking around as if to ask where their house went...
In 1976, the government tried to force the teaching of Afrikaans in schools. All blacks pulled their kids out of school, coloreds joined in... this is when Owen was classified as Black because of their resistance to this... thebegining of the upheaval and the demise of aparthied. Sanctions were imposed, no imports or exports out of South Africa which is what eventually led to the freeing of Mandela and the end of Apartheid.
Owen explained that the shanty towns that popped up were actually a positive thing as it allowed families to come back together again. Men no longer had to be bussed to work days away from their villeges & families, they were able to live together close to their work.
Langa is the oldest black township, no water or electricity when it was built.
1994 is the first time blacks can own property. As we drove through the townships, the owners take great
pride in their homes. They are being fixed up if the owner has a job, if not fixed up that person is unemployed. All have been given these homes, Owen says there really isn't homelessness like in the US, some people choose to live on streets but not many and they don't have to. People really take care of each other here.
Number one priority is replacing all of the shanties with proper homes. In Khayelitsya shanty there are 2 million people... this is 25% of Cape Town's population! Many of the wires seen overhead are illegal electricity to the homes.
Center that we went to in the township shows women how to weave and other crafts so they can learn a skill to make some money. Everything in the center is recycled... the yarn used for weaving are all old t-shirt edges/collars. The flowers I bought are from recycled soda cans, etc.
People look and seem optimistic about life despite current circumstances as they are better than the past and still improving.
After the city and township tour, we headed to the wine region.
Our first stop was Ernie Els Estate which was absolutely
beautiful!! I have to say more so than our wine region. Our tasting and thoughts:
1. Chenin Blanc - very good
2. Sauvignon Blanc - pretty good
3. Big Easy - a lovely light red blend
4. 2011 Merlot - age up to 7 years, pretty good and neither of us normally like merlot
5. 2011 Cab - age 7-11 years
6. 2010 Syrah - age 4 years
7. 2010 Proprietors Blend - can age 10 years
8. 2009 Signature - can age 15 years
Lunch at 1802 - great Greek salad, awesome grainy bread, butternut squash soup. John had the Gnocchi with butternut squash in a cream sauce.
Lunch was in Stallenbosch first and oldest rugby city of South Africa. Pop 80k which are mostly students. Most buildings on the Main Street are heritage sites.
Then we went to Warwick Winery which was also beautiful, but not good wine.
1. Sauvignon Blanc - peach and grapefruit which I suppose would have been good if I liked grapefruit 😉
2. First Lady Chard - ok
3. Chard - bleck
4. Cab - bleck
5. Pinotage - bleck
6. Three Cape Ladies - bleck
7. Trilogy - eh
Museum
Street signs from District 6 This winery had this cup that two can drink from... it's called the wedding cup, whoever finishes first wears the trousers in the family. We both left a little which they said means you have a balanced relationship.
Our hotel in Francshoek. was truly spectacular. We chose the smaller of three rooms and the manager at dinner wondered why... we told him the view, the seclusion, sunnier, cuter, etc.
We had dinner at the hotel's amazing French restaurant. I had grilled pear salad with greens, caramelized pecans, butternut squash and spinach tortellini (butternut squash seems very big here, yum!!) which was fantastic, so much so that John wished he had it instead of the springbok he ordered. He also had the ostrich carpaccio for an appetizer.
The desserts didn't look interesting, so John asked the waiter for the most chocolaty thing they have. He brings back a chocolate tort with chocolate ice cream and chocolate sauce on top. YUM!!!!! John asked why the ice cream tasted so good but "different", I told him it was homemade, he proceeded to ask the waiter the same question, who went and asked the chef who verified what I had said
😉 I had a lovely port to top off the dessert.
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