Saturday, April 22, 2006
Cape Town, South Africa 4.11.2006
Cape Town is everything Jo'burg isn't. Situated near the Cape of Good Hope where the Atlantic and Indian oceans meet, it is the southern most city in Africa. It is magnificently crammed between the ocean and an impressive range of mountains. Small towns, fishing communities and charming vacation homes lay scattered along the coast. Prosperous adrenaline seekers can skydive, kite surf, dune buggy, bungy jump and abseil to their hearts delight. The landscape is tremendous in Cape Town. It is also the classic final "destination" of many African overland trips.
Yet just outside Cape Town, hidden from view on the barren plains, lies the vast Cape Flat townships. During apartheid, the white South African government wanted to ensure that cheap labor was easily accessible. To make this possible, they created black townships close enough to every city to provide bargain man power but far enough away to prevent unnecessary intermingling. The government then moved huge portions of the population to these townships.
While the quality of life varies greatly in the townships, by and large most areas suffer from a lack of electricity, have no running water, are incredibly overcrowded, and have very high unemployment and crime rates. Housing varies greatly, from lifeless tracts of tiny government constructed homes to frail shacks built from aluminum siding. Once out of the cities, some of these townships stretch for miles. On many maps, they are not even indicated. Some have absolutely huge populations, such as Soweto, with over four million people.
I have not yet been able to completely reconcile myself with the fact that, twelve years after the collapse of apartheid, the townships are essentially providing the same function as before. It is not the poverty itself in the townships that shocks me. People throughout Africa live in conditions strikingly similar to this. Their level of destitution is in no way unique or noteworthy. Rather, it is the absolute disconnect between two alien ways of life, created according to skin color, that I find disturbing. I want to say this is slowly changing, that South African's attitudes towards race relations are improving, but the economic reality is impossible to ignore.
The residents of the townships are mostly landless wage slaves. In most other African countries, the majority of the rural populations still farm. While material wealth is often elusive, these Africans at least own land and, hypothetically, they have some measure of control over their food security. In South Africa, every last hectare of land has been bought up and fenced off by commercial farmers, ranchers, investors and wealthy foreigners. Proportionally, very little arable land remains in the hands of the black population. It would be difficult to find space for a single garden bed in scores of the townships. With the possibility of sustenance farming nonexistent, the masses are stuck in blue collar jobs with few opportunities for upward mobility.
In many townships people are struggling to create vibrant and economically healthy communities. Some are succeeding. Conditions are changing. Yet, it seems like things are not moving fast enough. The inequalities still remain huge. Admittedly, this assessment is only based on a few experiences in the townships. As a white outsider, it has been difficult to accurately gauge the true conditions of life within a township. Numbers and statistics mean very little. Voyeuristic "township tours" can be very incomplete and misleading. Without a respected "guide" from within the community, townships can be dangerous to visit alone.
I would have liked the opportunity to have spent more time in the townships. I still have many unanswered questions, observations that need to be clarified, and possibly premature opinions to put to the test. Thankfully, there is still time as we head up the coast towards Mozambique. Nevertheless, I am alarmed to think that if I don't have an opportunity to spend more time in the townships during this trip, I could always come back in five or ten years and find black South Africans living in identical conditions.
Cape Town is everything Jo'burg isn't. Situated near the Cape of Good Hope where the Atlantic and Indian oceans meet, it is the southern most city in Africa. It is magnificently crammed between the ocean and an impressive range of mountains. Small towns, fishing communities and charming vacation homes lay scattered along the coast. Prosperous adrenaline seekers can skydive, kite surf, dune buggy, bungy jump and abseil to their hearts delight. The landscape is tremendous in Cape Town. It is also the classic final "destination" of many African overland trips.
Yet just outside Cape Town, hidden from view on the barren plains, lies the vast Cape Flat townships. During apartheid, the white South African government wanted to ensure that cheap labor was easily accessible. To make this possible, they created black townships close enough to every city to provide bargain man power but far enough away to prevent unnecessary intermingling. The government then moved huge portions of the population to these townships.
While the quality of life varies greatly in the townships, by and large most areas suffer from a lack of electricity, have no running water, are incredibly overcrowded, and have very high unemployment and crime rates. Housing varies greatly, from lifeless tracts of tiny government constructed homes to frail shacks built from aluminum siding. Once out of the cities, some of these townships stretch for miles. On many maps, they are not even indicated. Some have absolutely huge populations, such as Soweto, with over four million people.
I have not yet been able to completely reconcile myself with the fact that, twelve years after the collapse of apartheid, the townships are essentially providing the same function as before. It is not the poverty itself in the townships that shocks me. People throughout Africa live in conditions strikingly similar to this. Their level of destitution is in no way unique or noteworthy. Rather, it is the absolute disconnect between two alien ways of life, created according to skin color, that I find disturbing. I want to say this is slowly changing, that South African's attitudes towards race relations are improving, but the economic reality is impossible to ignore.
The residents of the townships are mostly landless wage slaves. In most other African countries, the majority of the rural populations still farm. While material wealth is often elusive, these Africans at least own land and, hypothetically, they have some measure of control over their food security. In South Africa, every last hectare of land has been bought up and fenced off by commercial farmers, ranchers, investors and wealthy foreigners. Proportionally, very little arable land remains in the hands of the black population. It would be difficult to find space for a single garden bed in scores of the townships. With the possibility of sustenance farming nonexistent, the masses are stuck in blue collar jobs with few opportunities for upward mobility.
In many townships people are struggling to create vibrant and economically healthy communities. Some are succeeding. Conditions are changing. Yet, it seems like things are not moving fast enough. The inequalities still remain huge. Admittedly, this assessment is only based on a few experiences in the townships. As a white outsider, it has been difficult to accurately gauge the true conditions of life within a township. Numbers and statistics mean very little. Voyeuristic "township tours" can be very incomplete and misleading. Without a respected "guide" from within the community, townships can be dangerous to visit alone.
I would have liked the opportunity to have spent more time in the townships. I still have many unanswered questions, observations that need to be clarified, and possibly premature opinions to put to the test. Thankfully, there is still time as we head up the coast towards Mozambique. Nevertheless, I am alarmed to think that if I don't have an opportunity to spend more time in the townships during this trip, I could always come back in five or ten years and find black South Africans living in identical conditions.
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