May 2
We left pretty early in the morning to catch our 9:00 ferry to Robben Island. The ferry is about a 30 minute ride through the Cape Town harbor. I sat on the top level of the ferry with some other people from our group. I figured I would get a better view from the top, but it was pretty cold. The V & A Waterfront is beautiful, and we were able to see it from the ferry.
view of Table Mountain on our boat trip to Robben Island. As you can see, it was a cold morning!
When we arrived at Robben Island we were immediately shuttled onto tour buses, which took us on the first half of the tour. We drove around Robben Island with a tour guide speaking about the quarries, the old town on the island, and the other buildings we drove past. One the bus tour we saw our first penguins! At one point we were able to get out and look in a small museum, get some hot drinks (it was really cold), and take some pictures of Table Mountain. After the bus tour we were taken to the main prison, where we had a little bit of time to walk around on our own and look at the exhibits in individual cells while we were waiting for our guide. At Robben Island they have former prisoners take tours around the jail, explaining how the jail worked and what it was like to a political prisoner in South Africa. We saw Nelson Mandela’s cell, the courtyard where inmates gathered, and the gardens Mandela planted during his time at Robben Island. After the quickest tour ever, we were rushed back to the ferry, with hardly a chance to glance in the gift shop. Although I was glad to get a chance to see Robben Island, the tour was one of the worst tours I was on in during my semester. I felt like I was just herded around, and just barely skimmed the surface of Robben Island. Robben Island is remembered as such a prolific scene from the apartheid era, but the tour was just disappointing.
Nelson Mandela's cell
After a lunch on our own at the waterfront, in which we had a little time to look around the mall, we headed back to St. Paul’s Guesthouse where we met with Tim Jenkins. Tim Jenkins, author or Escape From Pretoria, was a white Afrikaaner who was active with the ANC in the fight against apartheid. He was eventually arrested and put into a prison for white political prisoners. He broke out, and returned to work for the ANC. Today he works on a new currency system, the Complementary Currency Movement, which aims to be a local alternative to the money system. Jenkins was really inspiring, because all semester we’ve been hearing about the evils of apartheid, and talking about privilege and oppression, so it was good to hear about white South Africans who were opposed to apartheid and fought to end it.
May 3-4
The next couple of days were a blur. So much happened, and I can’t remember exactly what the order of events is anymore.
One morning started with what was supposed to be a walking tour of the history of the slave trade in Cape Town. Cape Town was a large slave port during its colonial history. We started at a museum in downtown Cape Town, where we met our tour guide. My impression of her was that she was going on and on with bitter rants about how women and the gay and lesbian community were not treated well in Cape Town. Although her comments had some merit, she was just so bitter, and I wanted to learn about the slave trade, which I felt I did not really learn about. We walked to all sorts of places in downtown Cape Town, so I at least felt like I got to know downtown better!
Another exciting experience was our trip to the District 6 museum. District 6 was a mixed community, where whites, blacks, coloreds, Indians, etc. all lived peacefully together under apartheid. However, the apartheid government did not want any evidence that people of different races could live together, because that would undermine the entire principle of apartheid. This museum has collections of photos and mementos from the people who were forced to relocate, along with a map of the entire district. People are slowly starting to move back to District 6, but not everyone has that option. Some people don’t have the money to return, and other homes were bulldozed to make way for new buildings. When we were at the museum there were all sorts of cameramen setting up big cameras in the museum. Obviously, we were all curious about why they were there. One girl overheard that they were setting up one of the stations for the TV show the Amazing Race! Of course, being the travel nerds that we are, we got really excited and wanted to camp out and wait for the contestants to come. Unfortunately, Romanus made us leave the museum and head to our next appointment. We saw the camera crews again when we were walking through the Green Market to get to another destination. This time I think they were just filming some of the background color for the show, but we still wanted to follow the camera crews until we found the contestants. So although that was sad that we never got to camp out and wait, I’m excited to watch the show this fall, so keep an eye out for Cape Town!
Another morning we spent taking a kombi tour of some of the sites a non-profit works with. One part of this non-profit works at training unemployed youth, to give them necessary job skills so they can find work. Other places work to provide services to the community.
One meeting that really stood out to me was meeting with Alan Storey, a pastor at a large church in down town Cape Town. He was a white Afrikaaner, but was another example of how whites in South Africa really can work for change within the community. He works to make his church as inclusive as possible for all people, regardless of race, ethnicity, or income level. In addition to that, he also spoke about the burdens of privilege, and how hard it was for him personally to work on giving up his privilege so that others could have more. I think everyone in our group was very impacted by this, because it is something we have been struggling with during the semester. How do we bring social justice about in the world? And further still, what privileges do I personally have to give up in order to “level the playing field”, and make things more just?
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