Cape Town, a history

So much has happened in the past couple of days and I've learned so much about the city of Cape Town. I have lots to share with you so bear with me! Most importantly, I began my volunteer placing yesterday. But before I go any further, I'd like to give you a brief history and culture lesson about Cape Town. I'm learning as I go and after living here awhile, will love to give you a more in depth lesson but here goes!

Cape Town was settled a long time (1650's) by the Dutch East India company as a stopping point to help stock the ships with fresh produce for the long trip from Europe to the Indies. When they got here, they mostly found a sparse population of hunter/gatherer tribes "the Bushmen" that almost completely got wiped out by Smallpox. Then, the Europeans decided they needed Slaves to help run their farms that supplied the food so they first imported them from Asia (mostly India), the South Pacific and Madagascar. This was followed by a long chunk of history where the British and Dutch fought over control of the well-located city of Cape Town, instigated by European wars and the spice trade. The British won control in the early 1800's and slaves were emancipated (as in Britan) in 1834. In the later half of the 1800's, when gold and diamonds were discovered in South Africa (mostly near Johannesburg), Cape Town benefitted from increased importance as an industrial trade capital. Along the way, many Africans (predominantly of the Xhosa tribe) within South Africa migrated to Cape Town to find work. Still held by the British, Cape Town based a bunch of segegrist laws, and when South Africa was granted indepedence, a government (only elected by whites, those with the right to vote) established Apartheid, which attemped to racially segregate all forms of life for South Africans. Many areas were given White Only status, and entire communities were uprooted and forced to move to different Townships farther from the city, organized by race. Within the whole of South Africa, black Africans (which made up 80% of the population) were granted 13% of the most dry and unariable land within the country. [That one is verbatim from a museum here]. Okay, so the white government basically set up a system that gave them all the wealth and power at the expense of black and coloured labor. There was peaceful resistance for many years by the African National Council (ANC) such as strikes, but the white minority government had difficulty continually denying others their rights. Police violence was eventually met with violence, and South Africa was a dangerous place to live in the late 1970's and 1980's. Finally, apartheid was abolished in 1990 followed by the first democratic election in 1994 that elected president Nelson Mandela.

Map of South Africa

I'm probably leaving out lots of critical details but feel free to goggle it to find out more information. Essentially though, this has left South Africa as having the best constitution in the world (at least in terms of granting rights) but without a government or means to protect these rights. There is still lots of racial separation and tension in Cape Town, and the city is plagued with extremely high rates of unemployment, 40% overall, 58% for black Africans.

In terms of the classifications of people, when the government established Apartheid in 1948, they classified people into white, black, coloured, and Indian. Black (or black African) is of African descent, most blacks in Cape Town are of the Xhosa (pronounced cosa) tribe (same as Mandela) and as far as I can tell, most black Africans belong to one of the tribes (Xhosa, Zulu, Sesotho, etc.) Coloured people are the descendants of the slaves, so are of mixed descent, many with African, European, Indian, Asian heritage, but with not enough black African to be considered Black. These terms "black" and "coloured" are not taboo in South Africa and most people positively identify themselves to these designations. There is still tension between the groups, apparently, but the school I work at for instance, has both black and coloured children.

Cape Town is still racially divided into townships. And these areas of suppressed black and coloured people for many years are very poor and struggling areas. Although they range a great deal in affluence, many people live in tin shacks with 2 entire other families, with extremely limited resources. The kids need a lot of help, and all the volunteers here are so excited out to help out in the schools and hospitals in these areas.

I'll be back soon to tell you more about my specific placement. My kids are sooo adorable, heads up!