The Other Africa – Like Waking Up from Your Worst Nightmare
I landed at Cape Town and got through customs around midnight after starting the day at 4:00 AM. Speaking of customs as well as immigration, Africa is really wonderful. I have had no hassles nor have I seen anyone being hassled. Lots of Africans traveling between countries and they seem to move freely. I guess if you have money to fly, come on in. What I remember about the drive from the airport is that it was fairly quick on well-built highways (I have only seen them in South Africa) and a European/American was laid out before me including a glimmering skyline, full-blown traffic and street light systems and very nice neighborhoods, and Table Mountain loomed dark behind the city. I didn’t seem any crime going down and the streets were quiet (Sunday night) although I did see a rat making its rounds to the sidewalk municipal garbage cans. The city has garbage cans? Oh my, culture shock coming on…
I woke up early the next morning to get a jump on the 3.5 days I would only have in this city. I intentionally limited my time in South Africa due to so much security problem publicity although I was already regretting that decision before arriving in Cape Town based on what I saw in June in Pretoria area and from talking to so many other South African fans visiting the rest of Africa. I opened the doors from my room and Table Mountain was glowing with sunshine and it felt like a crisp winter morning in San Francisco. After learning that Robben Island and township tours would take a day ahead to reserve I did just that for Robben Island for Day 2 and planned to do the township tour on Day 3. Off to Cape Point/Cape of Good Hope for the day. I discovered that the Cape is pretty much Southern and Northern California squished into a much smaller area. I found great coastline drives through Cambria and Monterrey-like towns and surf towns like Huntington Beach. The non-town areas are open land including huge rock outcrops. All very scenic. I was wondering about where all the natives are hiding. Very few to be seen which seemed odd since the country is 90% (45 million) blacks. I saw my first wild penguins (African or Jackass) at Simon’s Town’s Boulders Beach. It took most of the day to get used to the gear shift on the left, but overall driving on the wrong side of the road and using roundabouts the British proper way came back to me quickly. I never did get used to the signal indicator control being on the right side of the steering well, though.
Cape Town did not seem to dangerous to me during my first day’s visit. I was mostly in the Gardens section which is made up of very nice homes between Table Mountain and City Center. I walked a kilometer to dinner on Kloof Street and all of the evening businesses like restaurants were wide open to the street like you would expect to see anywhere else. I noticed that some daytime businesses have a little gate that you get buzzed through. Sitting in the restuarant, I would have bet I was in San Francisco or Los Angeles. Certainly no blacks to be seen!
I woke up Day 2 and opened the door and found horizontal sheets of rain comng down. Ah – when it storms in Cape Town, it really rains and blows hard! Robben Island was canceled due to rough seas so now I had to improvise. I decided to hang out in the Long and Loop Street areas. I got my hair cut, ran between overhangs all day, but was generally well-soaked and did some shopping at the Pan African and other African Markets of which there are many. It was neat seeing all of the art I have seen in other parts of Africa all brought together here. I found a store selling ivory jewelry and other crap. I brought up the subject with the owner and when she started telling me that it benefits the natives, I proceeded to give her a ten minute lecture on why her type of store (I am sure it is illegal and she could not tell me how it is legal) fuels elephant poaching across Africa even today after 90% were wiped out in the 1980s and 1990s. I was ticked off by her attitude and told her that I my words would bother her conscious every time she sells something made from ivory. I’m sure she was happy when I left. This area of town also did not show any security issues and I did not see evil potential crime-doers anywhere. Again, some of the businesses had the buzz-in gates – I think I have seen these on Rodeo Drive to keep the rift-raft out???
Dinner was in the same area near Keerom and Wale Streets. It was called Five Flies – one hell of an odd name for a restaurant and unfortunately I did not ask why someone would name their restaurant after flies. Food was great. Inside was once again very white and very Californian. I saw black people in the city selling goods and doing other jobs, but the numbers were not adding up for me. Where do they live? Aren’t their numbers large like in the rest of Africa?
Day 3 was set up as a busy one with a township tour and Robben Island tour. We first visited the 6th District museum which documents the eviction of blacks and coloreds (part white, part black) out of the 6th District in the Cape Town to separate (and not equal) township areas on the outskirts during the 1960s. Basically, the whites did not want the coloreds in town and I am sure it was quite lucrative to move them away, too. Apartheid not even at its worst. From there we drove through the 6th District – a good amount of buildings were razed and not replaced and are still open fields. Blacks are now gaining rights to new homes being built on those fields. We continued on to Langa which is a township from the 1930s. The multi-tenant apartments are being done over into single family units and although they are old and pretty nasty, they are good on Africa scale. The single family home we visited was done up very nicely and included running water, sewage and electricity. It had a TV and the normal items you would find in an American lower middle class home. I was impressed with the neatness of the neighborhoods and enjoyed the hellos from all. It felt like I was back in the Africa I have come to know and love. I was also impressed that they had a good bus/taxi and commuter train system to get them into Cape Town.
We moved on to other areas before we reached where today’s immigrants from other parts of South Africa seeking jobs in the big city live.
Tags: Travel
vagabondrick
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