South Africa Township & Development Tourism
Lilliesleaf Farm: A Page in the Book of the Liberation Struggle
A small but important part of South African liberation mythology was committed to posterity this week when the Lilliesleaf Farm in the Rivonia suburb of Johannesburg was declared a museum and national monument to the Liberation Struggle. Although the bustling suburb of Rivonia has since grown up around this apparently innocuous house, in the early 1960s it was an isolated farm location, and proved perfect for a time for banned members of the ANC to hide-out from the ubiquitous and highly efficient police and security services. The house was home for a few months to Nelson Mandela himself as he laid low pretending to be a gardener and a cook. It was also a meeting place for most of the luminaries of the struggle, and many of the defining policies that ultimately saw the overthrow of apartheid some 30 years later were devised here.
Date: June 10th, 2008 |
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New Dutch settler in the Cape Flats: Maduma
I read a lovely article today about Arnoldus de Veth, A 74 year old Dutch pensioner who has taken up residence with his new wife in the township of Gugulethu.
Gugulethu (Our Pride) lies in the Cape Flats and is a imposing expanse of shacks, bustling and cramped picture of poverty, community and South African culture. For a white person, let alone a Dutchman living in Gug’s is virtually unheard of. The townships have a reputation of crime and violence, but also warm hospitality and strong communal bonds.
Date: February 26th, 2007 |
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Khumbulani Children’s Home
In 2000, nine women in Khayelitsha, Cape Town’s biggest township, sat together and asked themselves a number of questions regarding what needed to be done in order to combat HIV and AIDS in their community. They were looking for a gap they could help fill.
One question was - Who is doing something about the orphans created by South Africa’s AIDS pandemic? No one had an answer, so they decided to start a project that would focus on children affected by AIDS.
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Khumbulani Children’s Home
Date: July 7th, 2006 |
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A Day in Soweto
As the white van turns left off of the M12 into Soweto, South Africa’s largest township, an awkward silence falls over the group of American tourists.
“So Joe, what is it that your government is doing to improve the lives of everybody in your country?” Joe Motsogi, owner of JMT Tours and Safaris, asks himself on his headset.
For Joe - who points out that the government is spending millions of rand on various housing and development projects at every stop - a tour is not only about the sights and sounds of Soweto, but about the future of his country.
Date: May 18th, 2006 |
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A Trip to Town from CPT International: the Cooling Towers (2/5)
Visiting Cape Town soon? Here’s a sneak preview of your first glimpses of the city - what you’ll see en route from the airport to town (click on the CPT to Town tag for all the posts).
Proceeding along the N2, you continue to pass the city’s outlying townships, until you see, rearing up on the horizon, two enormous cooling towers that appear to be in some state of disrepair, and your heart momentarily leaps into your throat.
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Cooling Towers
Relax! They’re not nuclear: they’re the cooling towers of the now-defunct but once coal-fired Athlone Power Station. The power station was mis-named, for it’s actually in the backyard of Langa, Cape Town’s first “black,” or “African” township.
Where are you? You’re at - or have just passed - the junction of Bhunga Avenue and the N2 highway.
Here’s a map.
Date: May 17th, 2006 |
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South African Retrospective: Robben Island
Prison Islands occupy a particular place in the macabre mythology of human history. Thanks to the searing autobiography of French detainee Henri Charriere, Devil’s Island is one of these, although perhaps more famous, if somewhat less malignant, is the South African redoubt of Robben Island.
International Heritage Site
Robben Island, with its cell no: 46664, the 18 year home of iconic black nationalist Nelson Mandela, was granted International Heritage Site status in 1999, five years after the collapse of apartheid in South Africa, and largely thanks to the incarceration on the island of leading ANC activists of the anti-apartheid era. Since then it has been a museum, and home to a diminishing number of local residents, all in one way or another associated with the sites penal past, and all nowdays in one way or another associated with the cultural museum that has taken its place.
The History of the Island
Robben Island, meaning Seal Island in the Dutch, lies some 12km off the coast of the Cape Penninsular, and is accessible by ferry from Nelson Mandela’s Gateway on the Victoria & Albert Waterfront in Cape Town. Its penal heritage corresponds more or less with the period of colonial interest and activity in the region, with its initial use in the late 17th century to isolate political activists and leaders of the Dutch Far East colonies. The Maturu Kramat shrine, built on the Island in honor of imprisoned Musilim holy man Sayed Adurohman Moturu, who, when released, founded Islam among local slaves, and became the first Imam of the colony.
During the 19th century a number of native chiefs were imprisoned on the island during the colonial wars of containment and occupation of that period, as were, of course, the activists and nationalists of the more modern period. Parallel to this the Island has been used alternately as a hospital, a leper colony and a training and defense station during WWII. Vestiges of all these functions remain to interest visitors to the site.
Date: March 19th, 2008 |
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Capture South Africa’s Rainbow of Colours with Mandela Park Mosaics
Hout Bay’s township of Imizamo Yethu houses one of the brightest African craft projects around: Mandela Park Mosaics, founded in 1999 and today a supplier of all manner of glittering, hand-made artefacts, from African-themed vases to Matisse-inspired wall installations.
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Mosaic Vase
Date: July 27th, 2006 |
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Surveillance Lights: the 1980s’ CCTV
Spotted! A surveillance light!
Where? Khayelitsha, near Sibanye.
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Surveillance Light
What is it? It’s a 1980s’ version of CCTV - a product of the constant clashes between the security forces of the apartheid state and those who belonged to freedom movements, especially during the long State of Emergency declared by the then SA President, P.W. Botha, in 1985. The lights are found only in townships, where they illuminate …
Date: June 2nd, 2006 |
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Ikhaya Restaurant, Khayelitsha, Cape Town: Restaurant Review
Ikhaya Restaurant
B 386, Benayo Crescent (off Ntlatlo Rd)
Khayelitsha | Map
Category: Casual
Fare: Traditional African cuisine
Price range: Low-to-Medium
Open for: Breakfast, Lunch, Dinner
Under review: Dinner
SA Blog recommends? It’s divine!
Snippet
The Ikhaya restaurant (”ikhaya” means “home” in Xhosa) is not only an eating place but also a conference and activity center. It hosts formal functions like weddings and anniversaries, as well as less-formal occasions like corporate functions, seminars - and even press conferences!
(See full review below.)
Date: May 17th, 2006 |
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Liziwe’s African Cuisine, Guguletu, Cape Town: Restaurant Review
Liziwe’s African Cuisine
NY 111, No. 121, Guguletu
Cape Town | Map
Liziwe’s Restaurant
Category: Casual
Fare: African feast!
Price range: Low-to-Medium
Open for: Breakfast, Lunch, Dinner, Coffee
Under review: Dinner
SA Blog recommends? Enthusiastically!
Snippet
Afternoon and evening meals range from R35 to R45, and their professional chef cooks up fresh mielie pap (stiff porridge/fufu) and meat stew, served with carrots and green beans, white samp (umngqusho omhlophe), served with stewed carrots and cabbage, and steamed bread (Isonka samanzi), served with mutton and chicken stew. All of the meals go down well with Liziwe’s homemade ginger beer (non-alcoholic) - or with her mqombothi (sorghum beer - very alcholic).
See also: Liziwe’s Guest House (Accommodation Review)
(See full review below.)
Date: May 5th, 2006 |
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