Township Tour

Township shacks
A sign in the District Six museum
A street on District Six before it was demolished
The same street now. (see the three arches at the top of the stairs)

We were blessed with the opportunity of taking a township tour with the best tour guide, Colleen Knipe-Solomon of siyaFundisa Edu Tour. We were happy we did it at the end of our trip and not at the begining because we were able to understand the context so much better. During the tour we covered some of the historical/political/cultural/social contexts of the townships of Cape Town; Bo-Kaap (ex slave quarters); major contributions slaves and Muslims played in Cape Town communities; District Six (Apartheid Group Areas Forced Removals and its legacy); understanding the displacements of huge communities to the Cape Flats (aka townships), the formation of sub-economic Townships and perpetuation of their social crises; Langa (oldest township) how, why, when and events leading to Joe Slovo; informal residents- backyard dwellers and Delft residents; a drive through Bonteheuwel and Gugulethu- Guguletu 7 and Amy Biehl Memorials; Khayelisha- meeting with a local tailor and learn about her business and also what it is like for her living with HIV/AIDS; Philani Nutrition Centre; and the world famous Vicky's B & B in a township shack.

It was a moving, insightful experience and one of the highlights of the trips. I jotted down only a few of the interesting things we learned.

Township Tour Tidbits:

~ It was illegal to teach a black person math beyond the 8th grade. The government said there was no reason for them to have any math skills beyond that given their life course and they should not be given any kind of hope.

~ No houses were built from 1950-1978 as a way of keeping black people out of town (the houses were already occupied by whites after everyone else was forcefully removed). This began the chronic housing shortage.

~ Drugs only because a large issue after the forced removal. After forced removal, stay at home mothers had to get a job. Removing this nucleus of the family created a void of attention and care for the children. Gangs moved into the areas and took on the role as they recruited young boys into the gangs.

~ Afrikaans language is a mixture of languages including Dutch and Indonesian.

~ African culture has a hard time forsaking their liberator leaders even after they become tyrants. It’s difficult to let go of the original idea of the liberators as protectors.

~ Stadium workers (on the 2010 World Cup stadiums) make $2/day.

~ South Africans were the only people in the world who didn’t know what Nelson Mandela looked like until he was released and made his first public speech. All pictures of him were banned in country.

~ The government did ‘culture tests’ to determine an individuals race. The most famous is the ‘pencil test’ where a pencil was placed in the hair and if it fell out you were classified as colored and if it stayed in you were classified as black. This is why beauty parlors were so popular in those days (and following to present day) as everyone wanted to get their hair treated, straightened or relaxed.

~ Other ‘culture tests’ included measuring the diameter of one’s nose and whether one had pink under their finger nail beds.

~ Speaking of apartheid, “What Hitler created in 15 years, we perfected in 50 years”.

~ One of the biggest misconceptions: South African slaves were of Asian descent, they weren’t native blacks.

~ There are 332 townships in Cape Town.

~ Government housing plans during the forced removals were done with no plans of urbanization. Houses were moved with out toilets or water.

~ Township has a Love Light Project focused on youths where youths have to take a 3-week course on sex education and HIV education before using the youth rec. facility. It’s been very helpful for the community.

~ In township, every child is sexually active by 12

~ S. Africa has the lowest abortion rules in world.

~ Projects around the township

· Restaurant training, Recycling, Youth Center, Storage units as stores

~ Khayletsha township residents are the most determined. They are proud and happy of their accomplishments and how far they’ve come. They are very ambitions.

~ 39% unemployment at the national level. 60-80% unemployment in the townships, of which ¼ are women with HIV/AIDS and 1/10 are men with HIV/AIDS

~ Swaziland has 59% HIV/AIDS rates, the highest percentage of total population in the world

~ South Africa’s HIV/AIDS rate is highest prevalence in the world

~ Townships are so tightly placed next to others that fires can spread rapidly. Record fire in December 2008 burned 500 houses in 8 minutes.

~ Government housing flats were promised at 25 Rand per month (roughly $3.20 US), but ended up being 750-1100 Rand per month ($96.15- $141.03). Only 1 family could afford to move in.

~ Cape Town offers the best hands-on medical training in the world because of its health disparity and problems.

~ Actor Danny Glover has a foundation that works in the townships.

~ The local cemetery is so full that bodies are three deep. The black community does not cremate. Bones are VERY important in the culture.

~ If the former president had not stepped down, Action Treatment Campaign would have charged him with war crimes for limiting ARV’s (HIV/AIDS medicine).

~ In the government forced removal, the government planned for people to live in very small areas and have different resources. This was in order to increase animosity between different races in neighboring townships. And it worked. It was called “Spatial Ethnical Engineering”

~ And most important quote:

· “Life is difficult but we never give up.”