A famous Cape Town spot for photographers and Instagrammers is Bo-Kaap, a multicultural neighborhood known for its brightly painted houses and cobblestone streets:
Once known as the Malay Quarter, this is the heart of Cape Town's Muslim population. The first slaves in the Cape Town region were not from South Africa but rather from Malaysia, Indonesia, Ceylon (Sri Lanka), and other parts of Africa, and they leased homes/apartments in this neighborhood. At that time all the buildings were white.
During the apartheid era, Bo-Kaap was a "Muslims only" area that was the ONLY part of Cape Town where Cape Malay people were allowed to live. Anyone of another ethnicity or culture living in Bo-Kaap was forcibly relocated, mostly to townships on the city's outskirts. Bo-Kaap was one of the rare non-white neighborhoods actually within the city center.
After slaves were liberated in 1834, the houses in this area could be purchased by former slaves, who painted them in a panoply of vivid, almost fluorescent colors because for the first time they COULD choose the colors! The bright colors were an expression of their freedom.
As you can see, Bo-Kaap is not just one street, but a kaleidoscope of streets. Each of these photos is of a different section.
We had very little time to explore this neighborhood as we were nearing the end of our last day in Cape Town. I would love to have eaten at a Cape Malay restaurant, shopped in a few of the stores, and visited a museum and a mosque.
Maybe next time. (I hope there IS a next time!)
Still, there is one very famous church in Cape Town. I was very excited to visit St. George's Anglican Cathedral, the church where Desmond Tutu was archbishop from 1986-1996, a critical time for the overthrowing of apartheid and the establishment of a new government.
The original church on this site was built in 1834, but it was rather modest, so a grander edifice was begun in 1901. Work went slowly and the transept was not completed until 1936. Even today it is considered unfinished.
But before I get into a little more detail about the church, there are a few things in the neighborhood worth mentioning.
At the curve in the road just past St. George's is one of the oldest buildings in Cape Town. Built in 1679 by the Dutch East India Company, it has been used over the years as a government building, a post office, a library, and for various other purposes, but its original use was for housing approximately 9,000 slaves between 1697 and 1811. These days it is a museum (appropriately named the Slave Lodge) that tells the history of slavery in South Africa. You can see the ground floor in my picture below, right behind the man feeding the flock of pigeons:
In front of the Slave Lodge is a bronze sculpture of Field Marshal Jan Christian Smuts, who twice served as prime minister of South Africa (1919-1924 and 1939-1948). Although he was originally a very vocal supporter of segregation and of not extending the vote to black Africans, his views evolved over time, and during his second term he began to work for change (although not for equal rights). In international politics, Smuts is famous for having created the League of Nations, the precursor to the United Nations.
On the other side of the Slave Lodge and just diagonal form St. George's Anglican Cathedral is the Dutch Reformed Groote Kerk (Dutch for "Great Church"). It is interesting to have these two churches "facing off," as it were, especially considering the constant battle for supremacy in South Africa between the Dutch and the British. Sadly, the door was locked the day we were there and we were not able to go inside.
| "... as a unifying leader figure in the campaign to resolve the problem of apartheid in South Africa. ... Through the award of this year's Peace Prize, the Committee wishes to direct attention to the non-violent struggle for liberation to which Desmond Tutu belongs, a struggle in which black and white South Africans unite to bring their country out of conflict and crisis." |
The tower is clad in sandstone from nearby Table Mountain:
It is difficult to see it in this poor photo, but the rose window depicts Christ in the center surrounded by cherubim and seraphim, angels, apostles, prophets, and saints:
The pulpit and lectern are from the original cathedral built on this site:
The beautiful organ was a gift from the Church of St. Margaret in Westminster, England, in 1909:
One of my favorite things in the cathedral was African Madonna by British sculptor Leon Underwood (1890-1975). I wish I had a better photo, but the black stone was hard to photograph.
On our way out, we stopped at one of my favorite things in Cape Town, "The Arch for the Archbishop," a structure of 14 curved wooden beams forming what feels a bit like a pair of hands cupped over and protecting those who walk beneath it. It is located in the square next to St. George's. It was unveiled on Archbishop Emeritus Desmond Tutu's 86th birthday in 2017 and commemorates what one site calls "Tutu's life and legacy as South Africa's moral compass for more than 50 years."
The 14 beams specifically reference the 14 chapters of South Africa's 1997 Constitution, and phrases from that document are engraved on each beam.
There is a great short video of the Arch dedication ceremony on YouTube that includes some additional details:
And that was our last day in the beautiful, complex, historical, mind-boggling city of Cape Town, a place to which I hope to return someday. Even the airport is awesome:
The bead work they do is unbelievable:
Look, Bob! I could take Nelson home with us!!
Nelson Mandela--he is everywhere in South Africa. As he should be.
Fun commentary - learned some things I didn't know. The Cathedral was a little disappointing, from the standpoint of expectations, and fun to learn more about the background of Bo-Kaap. Cape Town is an A-1 destination.
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