History of Cape Town

I did a lot of things in the last few days, but didn't have the time to write about it! I will start with describing what I learnt in museums I visited.

I did 3 museums lately: the castle of good hope (first castle established by the dutch settlers in the 17th century), the museum of district 6, and the slave lodge. I will not go in details for every one of them, but give a brief summary of the history of Cape Town I learnt through them.Hope you will find it as fascinating as I did!

Early colonial history

Cape Town was first used as a refreshment station for ships travelling between Europe and India. Going to India on land was made difficult by the presence of the Ottoman Empire in between them, so that explorers such as Vasco da Gama tried to find an alternative way by the sea around Africa. The trip however was very long, and the position of Cape Town, at the tip of Africa, as a mid-way point towards India, was prefect to refuel on water and food on the way.
Little by little, and despite the resistance of the locals (the Khoikhoi), a colony was established there by the Dutch East India Company. The Dutch started settling there, and soon imported slaves from all over the world (including a lot from East Africa) to serve them and to build the colony.

Map of slaves importation towards Cape Town

Slavery

Soon there were much more slaves than free men in Cape Town. The slaves conditions were horrible, half of them would die during or from the trip, and once arrived in Cape Town they would often be confined in miserable conditions at the Slave Lodge. There are many stories of slaves rebelling and uniting against their masters, but unfortunately this rarely ended well for them.

Some example of the slaves right restrictions

Finally, much later than in Europe, and somewhat reluctantly, in the middle of the 19th century slavery was finally abolished in the colony (which was now British). However, the former slave population (mixed coloured, with origins from many different countries) was not given any money or housing, and were therefore extremely poor. This is the origin of the poverty in the coloured population nowadays in South Africa, which the white population made sure to maintain over the centuries (even after the independence of South Africa) for example with the apartheid regime.

 

Race distinctions under the apartheid regime 

 

District 6

 

The apartheid, formed in 1948, was a big blow for the already poor and struggling coloured population in South Africa. The list of horrors and tragic stories it led to is endless, but one of the most marking was the story of the District 6.

District 6 was a vibrant neighbourhood in Cape Town, quite poor but very dynamic, and most importantly, very multicultural and cosmopolitan, with a dense population comprising coloured people but also whites. Such an area wasn't to the liking of the apartheid regime however, and soon they decided to replace it with a white only area, as it was very close to the city centre. The story of District 6 is the tragedy of over 60 000 people forced to move out of their homes when the bulldozers came to destroy everything. 

Most of the people evicted from their home had nowhere to go, had lost everything, and were placed in an area far from the centre, called the Cape flats. There was nothing there when they arrived, and they had to survive however they could. The Cape flats are today the most dangerous and violent area of Cape Town, and are the reason why Cape Town has the highest murder rate in the country! It's a part of the city where one is highly discouraged to go as a tourist... A nice heritage from the apartheid!

District 6, after being destroyed, despite being renamed by the apartheid regime "Zonnebloem" (which means sunflower in dutch), was left mostly underdeveloped, and struggled a lot to attract people. This is in part due to the resistance of the population to rebuild on the ruins of this once beautiful and symbolic neighbourhood. Even today, a lot of it is still unbuilt land, and feels a bit empty and odd when walking inside it... Since the end of the apartheid some effort has been made to try to relocate some families from the Cape flats into District 6, but it is still a very slow process.