District Six

This morning I was scheduled to be attached to a paraglide so I could hurl myself off of Table Mountain. Bad weather was the forecast and thick gray clouds were sitting on the mountain when I woke up. (Cloud cover on Table Mountain is called the Table Cloth. Clever South Africans.) I called my paraglide guy to see what he thought. He assured me that a little overcast skies wouldn't hurt anyone.

"I'm not at the mountain yet but, you know, you never know, it could be fine."

Yeah, okay.

I decided that when I go I want the weather to be amazing, sort of like every other day we've had here. What's the point of soaring over the city when it's call gray and mopey? I told him I was going to postpone. He said he didn't blame me.

So that was that. How's that for anti-climactic. 

I have heard a saying several times since we've been here: if you don't like the weather, wait five minutes. Well, when we ventured out this morning it began to rain and many five minute segments later it had not stopped, as it rained most of the day. Luckily Cape Town has indoors among its mountains and beaches. We took cover in the District Six Museum.

District Six is a section of Cape Town that used to be a vibrant neighborhood, a melting pot of race and religion. By all accounts (that I have seen) it was full of hard-working people who had been there for generations, a true community in the shadow of "their" Table Mountain. It was the most cosmopolitan part of Cape Town and full of life, fueled by jazz musicians and traders.

Then Apartheid happened. District Six, targeted by the government because of its melting pot nature, was designated a White area in 1966. As a result, over a short period of time each of the approximately 70,000 residents of District Six were summarily kicked out of their homes and displaced to government-built shantytowns. In an attempt to erase all memory of the illegal racial mixing and peaceful cohabitation that had been happening there the government razed every last building to oblivion. The only building they left was a single church, which is still there.

The idea was that whites would move in to the vacated space that had been cleared for them. But they never did. Except for a few houses built within the last fifteen years, District Six is still a huge, empty, eerie lot in the middle of the city. The government has plans to rebuild it and move its former residents of 45 years ago back in but has been terribly lagging in its effort.

Anyway, there's a museum about it and it is outstanding. It's everything Robben Island is not. It's filled with photographs, interview excerpts, and narratives of and by the former residents. You learn about what life was like there before Apartheid, what the removal itself was like, and how life changed post-District Six both for the former residents and the city as a whole. One of the museum founders and a former resident acts as a curator. He gave a group of us a mini-tour and introduction. He was engaging and passionate, his talk was interesting, and his cell phone rang not once the whole time. I talked to him afterward and he answered all my questions. The District Six Museum is a superb experience.

After the museum we found lunch and took a little break. The rain also took a break and we went to the Gold of Africa museum, which is exactly what it sounds like: a history of goldsmithing in Africa. The gimmick is all the old gold stuff they have on display: gold tribal headdresses, gold jewelry, gold sword handles, gold figurines, gold shoes, gold mirrors, etc. Okay, okay, you can make stuff from gold, I get it. So that was that.

Then I had the first good cup of drip coffee I've had the entire time we've been in Africa. We've had plenty of good espresso but only drip coffee that could be mistaken for a) mud or b) dirty bath water.

Tomorrow we change hotels in the afternoon, moving us closer to the city center (or "centre" as they say in the metric system). In the morning I am hiking the mountain. Saturday we return to the food mecca of the Old Biscuit Mill, Sunday we are doing Christmas at the aquarium, Monday is up for grabs, Tuesday is diving with sharks, and Wednesday is run around and do all the last minute stuff before heading to the airport in the evening and buckling in for the 20-hour or so trip back. I can't believe the end is near.