Cape Town was originally settled by the San and Khoikhoi nomadic peoples, collectively known as Koisan. Later the Dutch East India Company (VOC) established a base here. The natives shunned the VOC so they imported slaves from Madagascar, India, Ceylon, Malaya, and Indonesia. In time the slaves intermixed with the Koisan. The offspring of these unions formed the basis of sections of today’s colored population. The Dutch ruled for 150 years until they were defeated by the British in 1806. An outbreak of bubonic plague in 1901 was blamed on black African workers (although it actually came on boats from Argentina) and gave the government an excuse to introduce racial segregation.
Table Mountain is one of the more iconic symbols of Cape Town. Unfortunately, I never got to see it due to the weather.
District 6 was a lively neighborhood with multiple races living together in harmony. In the 1960s the government decided it should be a white only neighborhood so they forced out over 60,000 non-whites and bulldozed the buildings. Many white citizens were against this forced evictions and therefore didn’t want to move to District 6. Because of this, many of the areas that were bulldozed just became empty lots for weeds to grow. The government is trying to make amends by helping former residents get housing back in their neighborhood, but it’s an incredibly slow process. Today the District 6 museum has artifacts and photos chronicling the history. I paid a bit extra for a private tour from a former resident. Noor was third generation to live in his apartment. His grandfather came over from India in the 1890s and bought their apartment. The building was demolished during the forced evacuations.
The floor of the District 6 museum is a map of the former neighborhood and residents have labelled where their demolished homes and features of their neighborhood once stood.
A close up of the map
One of the men who drove a bulldozer kept all the old street signs. He was supposed to throw everything away, but he kept them in his house all these years.
The castle was built by the Dutch between 1666 and 1679 to defend Cape Town. Today it is still the headquarters for the Western Cape military command.
Built by the Dutch East India Company in 1679, the Slave Lodge is one of the oldest buildings in all of South Africa and it was used to incarcerate slaves up until 1811. Later the building was used for government offices, a Supreme Court, and now it’s a museum.
Robben Island was used as a prison by the Dutch East India Trading Company and that continued all the way up until 1996. The most famous inmate was Nelson Mandela who served 27 years in prison, 18 of which were here on Robben Island. I got pretty lucky that my tour was running. It was the first tour in four days because the ferry couldn’t run because of the weather.
Mandela’s cell
Our tour guide was a former political prisoner.
All letters coming in or going out were censored. Anything the guards found to be against the rules was removed.
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