South Africa -- Cape Town and the Bottom of the World

The "Five Amigas" (plus one photographer) pose for a postcard portrait with the iconic Table Mountain.

On this five-day post-trip of the safari, we went on top of the mountain, visited African penguins, toured the seaside, and gazed at the rocky Cape of Good Hope located at the bottom of the world. On our last day in the city, half the group checked out the famous Stellenbosch Wine Country vineyards and the other half went to Robben Island, the 18-year prison home of Nelson Mandela. But first, we celebrated New Year's Eve.

 

New Year's Eve in Cape Town

New Year's Eve is a big celebration in Cape Town and it brings local people and many other South African tourists to town. Movement on the streets drew to a slow crawl due to over-crowded traffic and streets blocked streets for the parades on January 1 and 2. Getting around town was a challenge, but we were able to accomplish everything on our schedule thanks to Stanton, our cunningly strategic guide. He not only knew how to avoid downtown traffic, he knew how to get around other guide' tours around the Cape area--by going in the opposite direction.

Stanton picked us up at the airport and took us to our downtown hotel. After settling in briefly, Stanton gave us an hour-long walking tour around the neighborhood. The hotel was on the White side of the old apartheid dividing line, which faced the Black side that also used to house slaves before abolition. An apartheid leftover were these  colorful houses. Table Mountain is in the background.

 

The Netherlands Consulate General is located across the street from our hotel.

The Dutch presence goes back to 1652 when Cape Town was founded by the Dutch East India Company to be a refreshment outpost that supplied ships with fresh water, fruits, vegetables, meat, and a rest for weary sailors. The indigenous Khoikhoi who grazed their cattle at the Cape were gradually eased out of their lands as the Dutch built their new city. 

 

We passed by St. George's Cathedral where Bishop Desmond Tutu presided 1986-96.

Known as the “People’s Cathedral” for its role in the resistance against apartheid, St. George’s Cathedral is the oldest cathedral in southern Africa and the mother church of the Anglican Diocese of Cape Town, according to its website. It serves people of diverse backgrounds, both within and outside the congregation, who look to the Cathedral for leadership, spiritual guidance, and sustenance.

 

 

Before his appointment to St. George, Tutu was bishop of Johannesburg 1985-86. He also served as chairman of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission during the post-apartheid era. The theologian who was known for his work as an anti-apartheid and human rights activist also sought to fuse ideas from black theology with African theology.

 

 

In the evening Stanton called an Uber car to take us to Pigalle, a fancy French-style restaurant that served steak so tender it could be cut with a fork. A jazz band entertained the dinner guests and some people danced on the wooden floor next to the bandstand. Women were largely dressed up while most of the men wore casual clothes. Couples and groups of couples filled the dinner tables to celebrate the New Year. The place reminded me of 1920s night clubs that I had seen in the movies. Servers were well-trained, attentive, and well-dressed in black tuxedo-style bow ties, vests, and trousers with starched white shirts.

Stanton was just going to drop us off at the restaurant, but when he saw we were a little leery about getting back to the hotel on our own in a strange town, he remained with us for dinner. After he dropped us off, he went back to his family to celebrate the New Year. He was very kind to do that and we appreciated his gesture!

The streets were crowded with carloads of people going to family celebrations, bars, restaurants, the V&A Waterfront, or maybe just cruising. At midnight, the fireworks went off to bring in the New Year as well as  shouts of joy from people in cars and those walking on the sidewalks. Below are some of the fireworks from my hotel room. This was truly a unique and memorable experience because we were celebrating the New Year in Cape Town!!!

I have been to many different places in the world on both Christmas and New Year's but this one in Cape Town was the most dynamic.

 The CBD -- Central Business District at night is generally well lit. It is also one of the safest areas in the city with 24/7 security guards posted in little green-and-black booths. If you need help or directions, these booths were the place to go. There was one posted in front of our hotel.

Minstrel Parade -- January 2

Every year on January 2, the Minstrel Parade is held. It is reminiscent of Cape Town's past when slaves were allowed this day off for fun and family time. This tradition continues with the Tweede Nuwe Jaar Parade where thousands of people in glittery uniforms, face paint, hats and parasols march through the city’s streets, playing their signature “ghoema” music on banjos, trumpets, and drums, according to Cape Town Travel. And, it's so popular, people stake out their places on the curb the night before. At this time, choral groups also kick off a five-week series of competitions. 

JP Smith, a member of the City of Cape Town’s mayoral committee for safety and security, said the Tweede Nuwe Jaar Parade is an event with huge historical and cultural significance to the people of Cape Town. “It represents the rich heritage of our beautiful city and means so much to thousands of Capetonians who have grown up with the culture associated with the minstrels and the Tweede Nuwe Jaar Parade," according to The Plainsman. "The City of Cape Town’s annual support for the event is to ensure that we can contribute to preserving this history and culture for the next generation."

Our group was busy touring Table Mountain and Cape Point so we didn't see much of the parade. Besides, the streets were so crowded, it was impossible to see anything anyway. However, with the help of Google Images and The Plainsman, here are some shots and explanations of the event to give an idea of the day's extravaganza that is akin to Carnival in Rio de Janeiro or New Orleans.

 

80,000 people attended the parades, according to The Plainsman newspaper.

 

 

 

 

Table Mountain

A cableway invented, manufactured, and installed by the Dutch takes thousands of people up and down Table Mountain. Stanton was able to avoid the crowds of tourists and local people who use New Year's Day to visit the mountain. An early breakfast helped.

 

Once the cableway took us up the mountain, we followed the marked path around the top and took in several breath-taking views of the land and sea below.

 

 

 

 

Not long ago, a fire ripped through Table Mountain and left these charred rocks.

However, these beautiful fire lilies were the first plants to sprout after the fire. This is a lesson of the Hindu god, Kali: what she destroys, she recreates.

Eve's Footprint 

As you look across the bay and up the West Coast, it was there that 117,000 years ago one of our early modern ancestors may have stared back at you as she stood in the wet sand of the Langebaan Lagoon. Archaeologists who identified her fossilized footprints called her "Eve". 

She is not, however, our earliest ancestor. Indeed, Stone Age artifacts found around the foothills of this mountain suggest that our more ancient relatives lived here as early as a million years ago. (Table Mountain National Park)

Khoi herders arrived here in the Western Cape about 2,000 years ago. They found grazing land and sources of fresh water on the slopes and foothills of Table Mountain, particularly during the dry summer months. Having brought their sheep and cattle here for generations, it was these people who met the first Europeans to set foot upon these shores.

 

The paths at Eve's Footprint overlook

Stefani and Helena at Eve's Footprint with the Cape Town bay.

  

 Lion's Head and Signal Hill

Lion's Head lies between Table Mountain and Signal Hill and stands at 2,195 feet above sea level. Robben Island is at the top of the photo. The stadium is to the right of Signal Hill near the coastline. (photo by Wikipedia)

The 17th century Dutch called the peak Lion's Head and Signal Hill as Lion's Tail since the shape of these two land forms resembles a crouching lion. 

Lion's Head served as a sacred place for the Cape Malay community in an area called Bo-Kaap. The residents there are descendants of the slaves brought by Dutch settlers from Malaysia, Indonesia, and Africa who used the lower slopes and Signal Hill for graves and shrines.  

In 1897 gold was discovered on Lion's Head, but the grade was too low to be profitable so the mine closed after a year. Although the suburbs of the city surround Lion's Head and Signal Hill, city authorities have successfully restricted housing developments on them.

Lion's Head attracts hikers who take an hour-long walk to the top to enjoy scenic views of both the city and the ocean. This activity is particularly enticing during a full moon. Paragliders like its slopes as a launching point.

 

Robben Island served first as a leper colony and later as a prison colony. Nelson Mandela spent 18 years of his life there. Today, the prison is a museum with tours led by former prisoners. 

The oil tankers park themselves here because it is cheaper than docking in the harbor.

 

 

The Cape Town Stadium known as the DHL Stadium is an association soccer and rugby stadium that was built for the 2010 FIFA World Cup. It is the home of WP Rugby and the DHL Stormers since 2021 and host for other Cape Town teams as well.

The stadium had a seating capacity of 64,100 during the 2010 World Cup, but was later reduced to 58,309. Its construction began in March 2007 and was completed in 33 months at a cost of approximately US$600 million.

The Cape of Good Hope

I always loved studying maps. It's how I learned my geography. However, seeing the Cape of Good Hope on the southern tip of Africa became both a wonder about its odd name and an inviting dream destination. So here I was at the bottom of the world--or at least the African bottom--at a place that changed the world in the 15th century as Europeans sought trade routes to India. 

Although the Cape of Good Hope is on the southern tip of Africa, it is neither the dividing point between the Atlantic and Indian Oceans nor the southernmost point of Africa. That distinction belongs to Cape Agulhas about 90 miles to the southeast. Park officials put up this sign anyway, which gives tourists a lot of pleasure snapping photos of themselves.

(I thought I had my photo taken on this spot, but apparently not. ARGH! At least I took a photo of this man with the sign as a long line of visitors waited their turn to do the same thing.)

The picturesque rocky shores of the Cape of Good Hope are beautiful, but the hazards they posed to 15th century sailors were monumental. This area of the sea marks the point where currents take a ship eastward than southward. Rounding the cape required a southward route in the open ocean and quite a bit west of the African coast. The first European to discover this route was the Portuguese explorer Bartolomeu Dias on March 12, 1488. He named the area the "Cape of Storms" to describe the challenges it presented to his accomplishment. King John II of Portugal (1477, 1481-99) later renamed this place the "Cape of Good Hope" because of the great optimism it engendered thanks to the discovery of a long-sought sea route to India and the East.

 

 

Bartolomeu Dias (c. 1450 – May  29, 1500) was the first European to go around the Cape on March 12, 1488. He was a Portuguese explorer.

 

 Vasco da Gama, (c. 1460s – December 24, 1524), First Count of Vidigueira and a Portuguese explorer, was the first European to reach India by sea on May 20, 1498.

After rounding the Cape of Good Hope, da Gama followed the eastern coast of Africa northward before sailing due east to India.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The Portuguese government commemorated the accomplishments of Bartolomeu Dias and Vasco da Gama with crosses at the Cape of Good Hope.

Stanton, our Cape Town guide                    Meagan on the rocks near shore

Big rocks with patterned gutters, cracks and crevices like these were created by the tides, rain water, and erosion.

The beauty of the sea, mountains, and rocks at the Cape is unfathomable. We spent a lot of time just looking at it and taking it all in.

 

Cape of Good Hope Nature Reserve

The Cape of Good Hope looking west, from the coastal cliffs above Cape Point, overlooking Dias beach. This is the other side of the Cape of Good Hope marker that provides some stunning views of the sea, mountains, and rocky shores.

 

The vast blue ocean was mesmerizing. The mountains that touched the sea projected the transformational strength of Nature and its geological forces at work. We are indeed small in this world as natural places of greatness and beauty remind us.

 

Noordhoek Farm Village

At the southern end of the Chapman's peak drive is a Noordhoek farm village. The whitewashed and thatched buildings provide raw juice shops, coffee shops, bakery, restaurants hand made crafts shop and clothing stores. We didn't stop in the village, but we saw some beautiful land forms around the bay where the town is nestled.

 

African Penguins -- an endangered species

One of the highlights of our Cape Point tour were the African penguins at Boulders. These little guys that stand about 24-28 inches tall and weigh 5-7.7 pounds were fun to watch as they played, flirted, and nested. However, like some glaciers that are melting before our very eyes, the penguins will soon die out at the present rate of their decline in population.

Boulders is one of the African penguins' few breeding areas between Namibia and the southern coast of Africa. Tragically, a 95% decline in population since 1800 threatens their extinction by 2026. We may have seen the last generation of this species.

1800 -- 4 million

1910 -- 1.5 million

1995 -- 150,000

2000 -- 150,000 - 180,000

2010 -- 55,000

Today, their breeding areas are largely restricted to 24 islands near Namibia to the Boulders Beach and Algoa Bay, about nine hours east of Cape Town along the coast.

African penguins spend most of their lives at sea until its time for them to mate and lay their eggs. Here are couples getting ready to nest (above left) and already nesting (above right). We were fortunate enough to be there for this event.

 

The mother and father take turns sitting on the nest for about 40 days before the chicks are born. Here are baby chicks both in and out of the nest. They will spend 60-130 days hanging out before they go into the sea on their own for the next one to two years. Afterward, they return to their natal colony and molt into adult plumage. 

When penguins molt, they are unable to forage in the sea since their new feathers are not yet waterproof. That means they don't eat for three weeks, and they lose about half of their body weight.

 

Love Story

The African penguin is monogamous and penguin mating is a romantic love story. They breed in colonies and pairs return to the same site each year. Females remain fertile for about 10 years.

Penguins like to hang together on these shoreline rocks of their breeding grounds.

 

Our time in Cape Town was short, but we saw its major highlights, we experienced an festive holiday, we spent time in an important historical site not only for 15th century explorers but for 20th century advocates who ended the unjust system of apartheid. (See my blog on Robben Island as well as Johannesburg.) As with all my travels, learning about other countries, their history, their cultures, their struggles is the most valuable thing I do--and I have been fortunate in being able to see the world and share it with others.

Sources

https://sahistory.org.za/article/dutch-settlement

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vasco_da_Gama

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cape_of_Good_Hope

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/African_penguin

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cape_Town_Stadium

 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lion's_Head_(Cape_Town)

South Africa -- Robben Island

One of the major reasons I have long wanted to go to South Africa was to see Robben Island where Nelson Mandela served 18 of 27 years of imprisonment for his struggle against Apartheid. The safari offered a five-day post-trip extension that allowed me to go there, and I'm so glad I did! 

Robben Island helped to shape Mandela, the first Black South African president (1994-99) and recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize. It had helped teach a man to hold hands with his jailer when he was inaugurated president--and then to lead his wounded nation that had been full of hate, fear, and racial discrimination for centuries to a full, multi-racial democracy. This same man was then able to inspire common South Africans to participate in the Truth and Reconciliation Commission where victims forgave their persecutors who in turn admitted their crimes publicly and in community with the hope of resolving conflicts left over from the past. South Africa then inspired 52 other countries to follow this same path to resolving their internal conflicts. Robben Island is a testament to the strength of the human spirit in the face of utter injustice and holding on to hope and a total conviction for the cause of freedom.

The  1.9 square mile island, 4.5 miles off the coast of Cape Town had originally been a haven for seals, birds, and penguins. Later, in 1652, it was used to protect the early Dutch settlers' sheep from the wild animals of the mainland. Since the late-seventeenth century the island held prisoners. From 1962-1991, Black, Indian, and mixed-race inmates called Coloreds were held in what became a maximum security prison. It remained a medium security prison for criminal prisoners until 1996 when it was closed. Robben Island is now a national museum and a World Heritage Site.

Welcome

We were welcomed to the island by our guide, a former prisoner. He treated us a bit like prisoners so that we could get a sense of what life was like in an Apartheid maximum security prison. Rules were strict and his speech was brusque. For example, if you got lost from your group, you may not be able to board the ferry boat back to the mainland. Take photos of the various rooms of the prison and don't linger because we had to make room for the next group.

Our guide described prison life. If you were told to take dirt from bucket A and then put it in buck B, you had to do it exactly right or you could lose privileges or incur punishment. It didn't matter why you had to do it. The system was designed to dehumanize and humiliate prisoners who were deemed dangerous to the ruling White government.

 

 

 

The prison yard was fenced off with barbed wire so that there was little opportunity for escape.

 

 

 

 

 

 

This room was used to process prisoners. Handcuffs and leg irons were removed. Prisoners were stripped and their personal information was recorded. They were given a prison card with a prison number and were ranked from D to A. The lowest rank was D and A was the highest rank with more privileges. You could move up or down the ranks for the smallest of infractions.

The room was also used as a courtroom. Prisoners from the 1960's testified to prisoners being beaten here.

 

 

This sign designates the hallways for grades A and C.

 

Prisoners were issued prison clothes. In the 1960s, Africans were given short pants, shirts, moleskin jackets and sandals, and no underpants. Colored and Indian prisoners were given long pants, shirts, jackets, underpants, socks, and shoes. Africans received long pants beginning in 1971.

 

 

 Nelson Mandela's prison cell

 

The stark emptiness of the cell contrasts Mandela's life after prison where he inspired a world to forgive those who were persecuted by others. However, he says that it was the solitude and emptiness of his prison cell that allowed him to be inspired.     

 Mandela reflects on his prison cell and its influence on his life.

 

Outside Mandela's cell block was this open area below. The photo on the right shows the prisoners partaking in some sort of exercise. The photo on the left is our group visiting the area several decades later. Mandela secretly wrote his book, Long Walk to Freedom while in prison on Robben Island.

 

Prisoners' letters often had parts of them censored.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 "In '64 we were not allowed anything. Nothing; only your face-cloth, your toothbrush, your spoon and your clothes, of course. And soap. We drew the board on the floor of the cell with a little bit of soap. We drew the different chess pieces on cement bag paper and played chess with those flat pieces of paper."

Testimonials by former prisoners describe their lives.

For more prisoner stories, see the Robben Island website.

 

 Breaking the Silence of the 1960s

The South African Student Organisation (SASO) was formed in 1969. This was the birth of the Black Consciousness Movement under the leadership of Steve Bantu Biko. SASO organized in universities and conscientized the high school students who led the 1976 student revolt against being forced to learn in Afrikaans language. "Black Power!" was the slogan of a new generation challenging Apartheid.

The SASO 9 were sentenced to 5 years in jail for organizing the Viva Frelimo rallies after the fall of the Portuguese government in Mozambique in 1974. The SASO 9 leaders were sentenced in December 1975 and brought to Robben Island.  

"We were young intellectuals. We were all in our twenties. When walked in the prison corridors, we would raise our fist and shout: Black Power." 

Dr. Saths Cooper

 

The limestone mines occupied the work life of the prisoners. They spent most of their day there digging the soft white rock without eye protection as the sun beat down on them in a blinding light. This intense light damaged their eyes. After Mandela became president, the press were not allowed to use flashes or shine bright lights on him because of the damage done to his eyes working in these mines.

The mines also served as covert classrooms where the prisoners secretly offered classes to one another so they would be ready to participate in the eventual post-Apartheid period. Inmates used to say that they graduated from the University of Robben Island with professional degrees in law, accounting, medicine, etc.

After many years of struggle, prisoners were given the right to study. They registered with institutions like the University of South Africa (UNISA), Damelin, Rapid Results College, and the University of London. Prisoners were supported by their families and organizations like the Red Cross (ICRC), International Defense Aid Fund, and Amnesty International.  

Other open spaces at the prison.

 

 

 

During the 19th century Robben Island was used for people suffering from leprosy and mental illness to keep them away from the mainland. The leper colony was maintained until 1931. Here is the cemetery where these people were buried.

 

V&A Waterfront was named after Queen Victoria and her son, Alfred, was built in the 19th century as a stopover for European ships. Today it has a variety of shops, restaurants, the Two Oceans Aquarium, and the ticket office for ferry rides to Robben Island.

Robben Island is accessible for tours by ferry boat. Tickets and visiting times are limited presumably as a means of crowd control over the number of people allowed in the former prison. We were lucky that Stanton, our local guide, had connections to get three of us on the ferry boat when the tickets had sold out.

 

These buses took us on a tour of various other places on the island: the quarry, the Christian Reformed Church, the superintendent's home, the leper cemetery, and the souvenir shop and refreshment stand.

The Robben Island shoreline is beautiful and serene after four centuries of turbulent history.

 

Resources

https://www.nationalgeographic.com/travel/world-heritage/article/robben-island

https://www.robben-island.org.za/

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robben_Island