Cape Town, South Africa

Cape Town, South Africa

Cape Town is a beautiful city on the bay, dominated by the instantly recognizable Table Mountain. While Cape Town has a diverse range of people, architectures, and landscapes, most of my photographs are of the townships.

Townships

Cape Town's townships are self-contained mini-cities within the confines of the larger city of Cape Town. During the Apartheid era, people were required to live in townships if they were not deemed caucasian (I say "deemed" because people were subjected to tests to determine the race printed in their ID booklets). While housing segregation is no longer mandated by law, different racial groups still reside separately for the most part.

Many townships contain both "formal" and "informal" sections. The formal sections contain homes with electricity, water, bathrooms (sometimes shared between families), and telephones. There's a street address on each house, and residents can receive mail. The informal sections lack these basic services.

Vicky's B&B

If you'd like to get the full township experience, you can stay at Vicky's B&B. When I visited, there was a lamb carcass on the dining room table.

Vicky's B&B. This is a dead sheep on the dining room table. Khayelitsha township.

Medicine Man

Ndaba, a traditional healer, works in the Langa township.

District Six Museum

The District Six Museum recognizes those who were forcibly removed from their homes in Cape Town's District Six, a neigborhood which was then bulldozed. Many of these people are still alive today, and they have donated photographs and other memorabilia to the museum. The museum shows how "ordinary" these people's lives were -- working as school teachers, getting married, bringing up children. It's devastating to think about how these people's lives were torn apart.

Photography of Nomvuyo, one of the people forcibly removed from her home and relocated to a township. District Six Museum.

Photograph of Mariam Ebrahim, one of the people forcibly removed from her home and relocated to a township. District Six Museum.

Photograph of Peter Esau, one of the people forcibly removed from his home and relocated to a township. District Six Museum.

Photograph of the father of Saras Pillay, one of the people forcibly removed from his home and relocated to a township. District Six Museum.

Street signs from District Six, which was torn down, forcing the residents to move to townships. District Six Museum.

District Six Museum. Pictures of people who were forcibly removed from their homes and relocated to townships.

Eve Andersson (eve@eveandersson.com)

Comments

Thank you for an informative website and fantastic photographic collection. As a Capetonian and member of the trivago travel coomunity, I was particularly interested in your article about Cape Town. I have also just recently completed a Cape Town article for our community, which aims to become the world's largest independent information source for destinations, hotels, and attractions. Keep up the good work and when you have a moment, do drop by and view our selection of travel information.
Image: Cape Town 033.JPG

-- Pierre van Eck

Mr. Coley
I am traveling to Cape Town in September and enjoyed your pictures of the Townships and the people. I hope to see many of these sites first hand in September. I am traveling with a church group and will be doing missionary work so I expect to see some the hard facts of life in the under priviledged areas.

-- Ellsworth Coley

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