Friday, January 15th - Cape Town, South Africa

Another slow relaxing start this morning despite the fact I was up and ready to go by 7:15.  Going to bed early certainly gets you up earlier.  However, that doesn't mean you get moving early.  I think it was close to 10 before we left the apartment.

Our first destination was the District Six Museum.  Of course we walked right by it the first time but didn't get too far before realizing our mistake.  District 6 was once a vibrant and vital part of Cape Town where a tenth of the city's population lived, but now it is a big open, empty space.  In the 1970's, as part of apartheid, 60,00 people were removed from the area, an area that covered hundred of blocks.  Now there are discussions about how to develop the land and some former residents of District 6 are definitely wanting their heritage to be recognized, and many want their lad back - a process that will no doubt take a lot longer.

District 6 was settled by former slaves, Cape Malay, Indians, native blacks and a few whites, and included merchants and artisans and various other professions.  It was a very inter-racial and multi-cultural area and therein laid the problem.  The government of the time did not want the different races mixing and possibly inter-marrying so after years of saying the district was just a den of crime that should be removed from the city, they eventually declared District 6 as a whites only area.   That meant most of the people had to leave the area and their homes were bulldozed.  The people were moved to the Cape Flats area, which was no more than a slum about 25 miles further away, and their lives changed drastically.

The Museum was not large but the space was used well to tell the stories of how the displacement happened, what the community was like before and how tight it was, stories of individuals and what happened to them, and of course all the rules and laws and supposed logic behind the move.  The individual stories were certainly the most interesting and it took quite a while to read through some of the stories. One of the most amazing things to me though, was that these were real homes and buildings, some of of them several storeys high.  At one point I thought it was just another slum that was being torn down but this was not the case.  The government bulldozed actual homes and apartments that were as big and as nice as what I lived in at the time.  The district had streets and parks and stores and schools and churches.  When they were finished all that remained were the churches.  There are a few more buildings on the area now but softly it is just barren land.

From there we walked down toward the waterfront but stopped at the castle or fort.  It is officially called a castle but didn't look like one so the name fort seemed more logical.  Originally it was called the Fort of Good Hope and was right on the shoreline in a good location to assist ships going around the Cape of Good Hope.  Now it is several kilometers from the water as the city has reclaimed and developed land in front of it.   There was a green area around it that was once the moat and there were high stone walls (beautiful big brown, grey stones) above it that comprised five walls and five corner bastions of the star or pentagon-shaped fort.  You couldn't really walk around the ramparts although we did try several times.  A lot of the area was closed off because it was under construction/renovation or simply restricted to visitors.  The main entrance was gated and you could see how thick the walls were (several metres) as you went through and came out under the clock tower.  Several of the walls on the interior were painted yellow which was the original colour used to cut down the heat of the sun.

We arrived just prior to the key ceremony and the firing of the noon cannon, both of which only happen once a day so we timed it just right.  The key ceremony was pretty unimpressive and the cannon they were firing was pretty little but it was still interesting to see.  There were larger cannons up on the actual ramparts.  We had a bite to eat from the little coffee shop - not much more than cake and ice tea but the chocolate cake was pretty good.  After that we wandered around for several hours.  We didn't take the actual tour but caught up to it several times.  We saw the prison areas, the torture chamber, the granaries, the arsenal, the well, etc.  Sometimes we seemed to be in areas where we maybe weren't supposed no be but there was no one around so we just kept walking.  At one point we were definitely in an area that was under renovation and it was obviously part of the old castle/fort which held the main buildings for entertaining.  There were large windows and chandeliers and the rooms themselves were very large and could accommodate many guests.  

There were two official museums within the compound: the Secunde's House and the Military Museum.  The Secunde's House has been redone and furnished to look as it would have centuries ago when the Dutch East India Company controlled the Cape from 1652 to 1795, before the British occupied.  The three separate areas are furnished as if from a 17th, 18th and 19th century period.  The Secunde was second in charge of the settlement at the Cape - a vice governor.  The Secunde's House would have been where he lived and carried out his administrative duties and received guests.  Furniture originally came from the Netherlands and was made primarily of oak.  Later the Dutch used local designs and woods such as yellowwood and stinkwood.  The English used mahogany for most of their furniture so period again was quite different.  In one room there was an 18th century sedan chair, probably for the women of the house, which would have been carried by slaves who probably lived in the basement of the castle.

The Military Museum was huge and covered hundreds of years of South African history.  It seemed to go on for ever.  Each time you went out a door thinking you were exiting you actually entered another room of exhibits.  I found the original tribal history and wars very interesting and spent a lot of time there, not realizing that there was so much more to see beyond that room.  The museum covered the arrival of the first whites and the wars that ensued after that including the Boer Wars, and the World Wars so in all the museum covered many, many centuries.   It was interesting at first but got tedious after a while.  The Fort also had other exhibits like an art gallery but we didn't get to see everything.

From there we went on a walk back over to the Green Market Area.  We went through the flower market that was absolutely full of beautiful bright colours.  There were not many proteus out though so I'm still waiting to really see the national flower.   Cape Town is very easy to walk around, at least in the main city centre so we enjoyed walking from place to place.

Our next stop was the Slave Lodge.  The Lodge itself is pretty unremarkable from the outside.  It is simply a pale yellow square building with two storeys of plain rectangular windows.  The only ornamentation of sculptures is above the main entrance.  The building doesn't look that big on the outside but is quite large once you are inside.  It was originally a slave lodge and then later a government building, a courthouse and a museum.  It is one of the oldest buildings in the city.  I was expecting the building to only be about slavery in South Africa and indeed most of the exhibits were on slavery.  However, some of the building is devoted to other exhibits such as ceramics, silverware and artifacts from Egypt.

The slave exhibit made it very plain that living in the Slave Lodge was not all that nice.  Slaves (men, women and children) from south eastern Africa and from the Indies were brought to Cape Town in the 17th and 18th centuries by the Dutch East India Company to help with its ventures in the Cape and around the world.  The slaves were kept in the slave lodge until they were sent elsewhere to work.  The exhibits gave you an idea of what the living conditions were like at the time, what the treatment was like and how the slaves survived.  Some of the other exhibits talked about their different cultures and music, which was really interesting.  It also helped explain how they survived what they were living through when families were torn apart and separated.  The museum also had an exhibit about how the slaves were transported to Cape Town and that was pretty brutal to see and hear.  I don't think I would have survive the ship ride with them.  I think we all had separate audio guides as we toured the building.  I don't remember listening to things together so I think it must have been on individual audio sets.

From there we walked through the Company's Garden, a lovely green park that was established in the 17th century as a place to grow fruit and vegetable to supply all the ships going around the Cape of Good Hope.  The "company" refers of course to the Dutch East India Company and it was their garden hence the name.  The Company's House is just to the one side of the park and it is a beautiful low white building with sculptures on top.  It is not accessible and is fenced off by a white brick fence and ornate railing which makes the house look even more impressive.

The park itself is quite lovely with trees and flowers and grass and benches to relax in.  There are statues and fountains and ponds and it really is a relaxing setting.  There are friendly squirrels always looking for a handout and pigeons who will come and sit on your arm or head or shoulders if they think you have any food at all to share.   There are big swings to rest on - some big enough to hold several children or adults at once - and seats shaped like birds nests.  They even let you walk and sit on the grass, unlike many parks.  They have a restaurant where we were thinking of going for dinner but alas they close early so we missed that opportunity, although it seemed more like snacks than meals.  

The War Memorials are in the park as is a very prominent statue of John Rhodes.  At the far end of the garden you have the South African National Gallery, the Jewish Museum, the South African Museum, the Planetarium and other large lovely buildings.  The end we entered at had the Slave Museum, the Parliament, St. George's Cathedral and other government buildings.  It really is a lovely area and our apartment is just a couple blocks away.  Unfortunately the government buildings are in our way so we have to go way around to get back home again.   

On way back to apt, via the far end of the park, we found a small grocer where we could buy some supplies for home.  We also found a restaurant which was very small but interesting.  It is definitely frequented by the younger crowd but we figured we fit in quite well.  The food was good and we enjoyed ourselves but we didn't get home until after dark, which was a bit unnerving as a walk, and had a late evening for a change - maybe 10:30 so not really late by some standards.