South Africa

February 2008

My desire to travel annually to a distant land took me to southern Africa this time. My February birthday was the impetus for a break in a warm part of the world. I signed up for Overseas Adventure Travel’s Ultimate Africa Safari in Botswana, Namibia, and Zimbabwe. My previous trips with OAT had taken me into homes, schools, markets, and more, providing rich cultural insights into the countries visited; therefore, I knew this trip would be more than game drives. My friend Pat Fesci joined me on the tour.

Preparation for the voyage was extensive. We were traveling to a malaria-endemic area, which required special clothing to keep us covered yet cool. Everything had to be lightweight or in sample sizes, as our luggage allowance, including hand baggage, was only 26 pounds due to light aircraft flights between countries. A most useful item I purchased was a travel vest from the National Geographic catalogue. It weighed eight ounces and had multiple pockets inside and out. We received a duffel bag from OAT.

On Super Tuesday, after casting my vote in the Massachusetts primary election, I set out for Boston’s Logan airport, on public transportation thanks to my light load. Checking my duffel bag all the way to Johannesburg, I flew overnight to London to catch my connecting flight the following evening. Fortunately, our travel package included a day room at the Heathrow Hilton, where I instantly fell asleep upon arrival. My roommate Pat, who flew in from Washington, arrived later and had to tiptoe around not to wake me up.

Our British Airways flight from London to Johannesburg took eleven hours. I sat next to a South African man, who was on a break following three weeks he had spent supervising a flotilla for a French oil rig in the North Sea. He kept me entertained in between his sips of whiskey through the night. At 9 am, two hours ahead of GMT, we arrived in Johannesburg, where it was a clear, sunny day. Happily taking off my sweater, I checked into our hotel at Tambo International Airport, where we would stay until our departure for Victoria Falls the next morning. The afternoon was reserved for a visit to Soweto.

Soweto (the South Western Townships) was an optional tour, which I had had to book in advance. I skipped the pre-trip to Kruger Park to be able to go to Soweto, as I wanted to see this iconic place of historic confrontations in pursuit of freedom in South Africa. Four of us were picked up at the hotel by a local guide, who was a native of Soweto. During our 60-minute ride, he introduced us to his township of 4 million inhabitants consisting of poor, middle income, and wealthy people, including several millionaires. Soweto has a university, a 4000-bed hospital, and a college for training jewelers. Although open to whites in principle, these institutions cater to blacks in this town, which is still largely segregated. Many of the residents work in gold mines outside the city, making a sweltering journey underground every day.

One resident walked us around a poor neighborhood. Women sat in yards shaded by shacks, while children played nearby. Every garden seemed to have a corn patch. Billboards promoted condoms against HIV. We then drove through the sprawling city’s upscale neighborhoods, passing by Archbishop Tutu’s house and Nelson Mandela’s former home, as well as the one where he lived at the time of his arrest. He was in prison for 27 years.

In July of 1976, a student uprising against instruction in Afrikaans, a foreign tongue, led to the killing of a thirteen-year-old boy, triggering riots. We visited the Regina Mundi (Queen of the World) Catholic Church, which had served as a sanctuary for many during the uprising, and afterwards as a venue for meetings of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission. Following a visit to the Hector Peterson Memorial, we spent a long time in the Mandela Family Museum, dedicated to the history of apartheid. The next morning we flew to Victoria Falls.

At the end of the main trip nine of our original group of twelve continued on a post-trip extension to Cape Town. We arrived at our destination close to midnight, due to a four-hour delay at Johannesburg Airport. We were met by our new trip leader, Eric, a white South African of Danish origin. Since we had had a very long day traveling from Zimbabwe, I settled quickly into the hotel, eager to go to sleep, not realizing till the next morning that we had a view of the Atlantic Ocean from our window.

Cape Town and Cape Town Peninsula sit on a plateau flanked by the Atlantic and Indian Oceans. Our hotel, the Bantry Bay, was in Ocean Point, a picturesque suburb of Cape Town by the Atlantic Boardwalk, lined with palm trees. We started our day at the Kirstenbosch National Botanical Gardens on the eastern slope of Table Mountain. More than 5000 plant species can be found in these gardens. We walked among the formally laid out beds of flora, with their brilliant colors and shapes against the backdrop of the fog-shrouded mountain. Guinea hens with speckled feathers pecked on broad lawns, water lilies were mirrored in ponds, and cultivated pathways gave way to yellowwood forests. Browsing in the well stocked book and gift shops completed our excursion.

Our visit to a diamond shop provided a great deal of information about the journey of the gem from source to finished jewelry. Found in the ground as an angular stone, it is first cut in half with a thin piece of circular copper wire. Then it is further cut and faceted until light shines through it and reflects off the surface. Size and cut determine the quality of the gem. We were also introduced to tanzanite, a beautiful grayish-blue stone set in elegant jewelry and found only in this part of the world.

A walk over the bridge from Clock Tower Square took us to the Victoria and Alfred Waterfront, where there is an array of restaurants. We had to use South African rand or credit cards to eat in the restaurants, and needed our passports to convert money. Eric advised us to use credit cards for all purchases to have the best exchange rate. We ordered fish and ate on the patio of a busy restaurant. I ordered “grilled” butterfish, which was somehow lost in translation and arrived pan-fried. Our tour to Robben Island was canceled due to heavy winds. Located across the bay from Cape Town, the island was originally a penal colony for errant slaves, then a prison where Nelson Mandela and other anti-apartheid activists were kept. It is now protected as a nature reserve, and its old jail buildings function as a museum dedicated to the struggle against apartheid.

The waterfront has been successfully developed into a tourist area. A bright red clock tower built around 1880 faces the harbor. Below the spectacular backdrop of Table Mountain, there are shops, craft markets, upscale hotels, and pubs bustling with activity. Outdoor performers add local color. We browsed the shops; I bought napkin rings of bone with stylized zebra patterns, a small basket, and a T-shirt showing Africa’s “big five” animals — the buffalo, elephant, lion, leopard, and hippo. Back at Ocean Point, we walked among whitewashed modern homes with gardens, then joined spectators for a sunset over the Atlantic. As beautiful as the ocean is, it is chilly for swimming and full of kelp. Instead of eating the kelp, South Africans export it to Japan.

The next morning, based on a forecast for wind-free weather, we went up Table Mountain, a famous 1085-meter-high flat-topped sandstone mountain visible from all directions. There were long lines at the cable car station, but they moved quickly, as each of the two cars held 65 people. Our cable car journey, about six minutes long, provided a 360-degree panoramic view thanks to its turning floor. We enjoyed views of the city and coastline from the top and walked around the mountain’s rocky terrain, admiring flowers, including blue orchids, pushing out between boulders.

Our next visit was to the Cape of Good Hope Nature Reserve. We took the coastal route south and cut across the peninsula, passing Fish Hoek and stopping on the coastline of False Bay to see a penguin colony at Boulders Beach. Coming upon hundreds of penguins burrowed in sand or resting on boulders was unforgettable. With their distinctive black and white coloring, they were like statues sitting in sand holes alone or in pairs. The African or black-footed penguins in this colony are a warm-weather species; they rest during the day and are active at night.

Our lunch stop was at the Black Marlin Seafood Restaurant in Simon’s Town, north of Boulders Beach. The specialty of the house was skewered fish. Chunks of the grilled fish of our choice came on a skewer hanging from a metal stand and were placed in front of us behind our plates. This was a clever idea that allowed us to help ourselves when ready for each chunk, rather than have the skewers sitting on our plates with the accompanying rice and steamed vegetables. A green salad, whole grain bread, and ice cream completed our delicious lunch.

Following a winding road with wonderful views down to the sea, we reached the Cape of Good Hope Nature Reserve. This southernmost point on the peninsula had wild scrubland, baboons, and ocean views, and was teeming with international tourists speaking many tongues. From here a stiff uphill walk — the funicular train was not in service — led us to an old cliff-top lighthouse at Cape Point, a dangerous spot for ships, where currents from the Indian and Atlantic Oceans meet. Fogged in, we could not enjoy the view below. Back on the road we snaked upwards, enjoying scenic views, which included scorched landscapes with red flowers. Fires start due to heat combustion and are put out by water bombs from helicopters. Fed by nutrients in the charred detritus, flowers pop up after fires.

On the ride back, Eric talked about South Africa from a white man’s perspective. Cape Town is a predominantly white city of 4 million people, 1 million of whom live in informal settlements, our guide’s term for shanty towns outside the city. When apartheid ended, blacks arrived from the east for job opportunities. The ANC gave them land, mostly “to collect votes,” in our guide’s view. The municipality provides electricity and plumbing for the stacked-up barracks. People are divided into three races — white, colored, and black — a classification devised by the English occupiers. The “coloreds” are descendants of slaves from Africa and East Asia who had relations with Dutch farmers. There are also Malays, with high cheek bones and almond eyes. The “blacks” are from the bush, constitute the poorest of the three official races, and are looked down on by the “coloreds.”

The next day, we traveled east of Cape Town to the wine country and the heart of Cape Dutch culture. The scenery included rolling hills, beautiful farms, and dramatic mountain vistas. We visited two wine estates; the first was Anura Vineyards. After tasting seven kinds of wine and a sampling of cheeses and pâté, we had a behind-the-scenes tour of wine production. Grapes are hand-picked to guarantee quality, and then crushed with their skins for red wine. They are fermented with yeast and aged in oak barrels for different periods of time before the wine is bottled and corked. The barrels are imported from France or the US, as South African oak is too porous because of the climate.

The second estate we visited was on the Solms Delta, along the eastern bank of the River Dwars. The estate vineyards, surrounded by towering mountains, are exclusively Rhone varietals, which do well in the temperate climate, with its long, hot summers and mild winters. We tasted five wines and then visited the Van De Caab Museum, which told the story of the farm from its Stone Age inhabitants to herders to European traders, followed by colonization, slavery, emancipation, and finally democracy. Amazingly, the entire history of South Africa had been compressed into this graceful farmland. The current white owners of the farm have established a trust, which receives 50% of all revenue from the wine. The beneficiaries of the trust are the historically disadvantaged residents and employees of the Delta, as well as the wider rural community.

Next on our itinerary was the town of Franschhoek, whose name means “French corner,” in reference to the Huguenots, Protestant refugees who settled here in the 18th century, persecuted by Louis XIV for their religious beliefs. This was a charming town with historic buildings; pricey, elegant shops; and many al fresco restaurants, eight of which are listed in the country’s top 100 places to dine. I spent the lunch hour walking around to see as much as I could. Our second port of call was Stellenbosch, an architectural jewel founded in 1679, 30 kilometers east of Cape Town. All historic buildings here have been restored and designated as heritage sites. The town is known for its university, the first Afrikaans-language institution of higher education, and for its large number of Cape Dutch houses, distinguished by their windows, which are divided into small squares, and their oak trees.

In the evening we had a home-hosted dinner at the home of a middle class colored family. We met the grandmother, the wife, her fourteen-year-old twin boys, and her two-year-old daughter. The men were away at work. We had a glass of wine and samosas in the sitting room, with television and family photos nearby, and bird pictures on the wall. Then we moved to the dining table for local cuisine — bobotie, a sweet-and-spicy dish of ground meat, rice, carrots, peas, and beets, as well as cake with custard sauce. A black woman, who was a neighbor’s housekeeper, came over to do the dishes. The conversation centered on the difficulties of daily life in South Africa.

On our final day we went to historic Cape Town in a public minivan, which left when full. From bustling Adderly Street we walked to the Company’s Gardens, peacefully set with grand buildings housing various museums. Tucked in a corner is the Anglican Saint George’s Cathedral, former diocese of Nobel laureate Desmond Tutu. Dominating the area are the Houses of Parliament, built in High Victorian style. The South African National Gallery is mainly a collection of Western art from the apartheid era; current acquisitions favor indigenous art. We viewed a special exhibition of African crafts and a compelling photo exhibition of apartheid days.

The museum shop had remarkable crafts made by women in townships and organized by project, with help from designers. In addition to crafts deeply rooted in tribal skills — such as wooden sculpture, pottery, and beadwork — the museum also had unique contemporary crafts — papier-maché bowls from recycled paper, and candle holders from colorful twisted telephone wires, to name a few. Sale of these items helps create income for women and empower those with HIV/AIDS to take control of their lives.

Cape Town has many museums relating to various aspects of its colorful past; most operate under the umbrella of Iziko Museums of Cape Town. The Iziko South African Museum has a wide variety of cultural and natural history displays, including a superb collection of rock art removed from its natural setting. Paintings and engravings, hallmarks of African expression, depict the San people, who were inspired by beliefs about the spirit world, rain making, and healing. The Iziko Slave Lodge is a building originally constructed to house slaves for the Dutch East India Company. Dating from the 17th century, this lodge is one of the oldest buildings built and occupied by slaves, who came to Cape Town from Angola, Mozambique, India, and Indonesia. The building contains archeological deposits, original artifacts, and objects used by slaves.

Visiting the Slave Lodge was a poignant ending to our trip. It reminded me once again of this young nation’s suffocating history and its refusal to be silenced. Since the evil of apartheid ended only fourteen years ago, the country’s struggle with the messy and complex processes of an evolving democracy is understandable.

At the airport I stood in line to recover the sales tax for my purchases, only to spend it straightaway on crafts that bore tribute to Africa’s long tradition of visual expression through bold forms, vibrant colors, and joy in creation.