CAPE TOWN.

We headed to Cape Town on Saturday morning. After we got settled, we headed off for lunch and then Robben Island. Robben Island is off the coast of Cape Town and was first used by the British for people with leprosy. During apartheid, the island become the home to Robben Island Prison which held many political prisoners. Nelson Mandela spent 18 of his 26 years in jail on the island, and we got to see the cell where he spent all those years. Our tour guide, who spent many years in the prison as a political prisoner, showed us a cell and talked about the conditions of the prison. One thing he mentioned was how apartheid even stretched into the prison with coloreds and Indians receiving better food, like bread, than the African prisoners. After seeing the prison, we took a tour of the island. We saw the quarry where the prisoners were put to work and the cave where they ate lunch. The cave is of importance because it was a place of polical discussions and became known as the University of Robben Island.

Sunday, we had our only day off in Cape Town and we made the best of it. We got dropped off by a taxi at the botanical gardens in the early morning on our way to climb Table Mountain. We briefly walked through the garden, which I think my parents would appreciate more than me, and headed for the mountain. It was a fun and hard hike which you had to use ladders at certain points. When we were at the top a helicopter came really close to us and then headed off. We saw rescuers belaying down with a stretcher. Hopefully it was just an exercise. The view at the top of the mountain was amazing, and of course, pictures can’t do it justice. But here are some anyways:

Monday morning, we headed to the University of Cape Town area for class. Our first lecturer worked for an NGO and goes on the television and radio a lot to discuss politics. She was extremely articulate and explained the current political situation which I already knew a lot about. Recently at the ANC conference in Polokwane, Thabo Mbeki was defeated. While he can only serve 2 terms as president, he tried to keep power by becoming the president of the ANC for the third time. The man who beat him was Jacob Zuma who is being touted as an anti Mbeki liberal. While he does have support from the powerful union and ANC partner COSATO, he is far from a progressive. He was acquitted from rape charges not long ago after he had sex with an HIV positive AIDS activist. He said that he had the right to have sex with her because she turned him on and when asked if he used protection, he stated “I took a shower.” Now, he is about to go to court for corruption charges. Anyways, he was an Mbekite for a long time and I don’t see his values far from just wanting to be president. It very possible that he wont be president because of the current charges, and the unknown but most likely progressive, Kgalema Motlanthe, will become the next president.

After she spoke, I and a few friends toured the campus. The campus is amazing and right next to Table Mountain. We headed back and heard a lecture from Neville Alexander. Google him if you like, but anytime a person starts a lecture by telling you he spent 10 years in Robben Island with Mandela, you listen. And, what he had to talk about was slightly controversial. He stated that apartheid was affirmative action for whites, and the new affirmative action was unnecessary, and using a foreign system. He stated that there could be other methods that could be used to get better results like looking at wealth and requiring certain African languages for jobs.

Tuesday was a very powerful day spent in the shack communities surrounding Cape Town. We were with the organizer of the Anti Eviction Campaign who had no teeth due to a cop’s foot. We started at the Delft settlement which is located on a sidewalk next to newly built government housing. The settlement was sad, but unlike Kennedy road, showed great political maneuvering by the organization. They were tired of not receiving houses from the government and said that the houses being built were given to people through bribes. So, they illegally occupied new houses. They lived in houses for two months before the government came and forcefully removed them. The whole thing was caught on camera and the scenes of riot police, which showed all over the country, were reminiscent of apartheid.

Here is how it showed on national news:

After being removed, the people set up a community on the sidewalk outside. Everyone in the community is well spoken and on point with the message that they will not leave until they all have houses. They keep track of who comes in and out, and regulate who can live in the area to keep the original community in tact. As I walked up the street, a boy came up to me and showed me a rubber bullet from the eviction. It was awesome to see poor people taking action. After Delft, we headed to Joe Slovo settlement which is huge shack community. There we talked with some residents who also were demanding houses from the government. In all, it was a great day seeing political action at work, and I wondered what Kennedy Road could do to attract as much media attention as these communities have.

Wednesday was spent at the District 6 museum which was a diverse neighborhood destroyed under the Group Areas Act of the 1950s much the same way Cato Manor was where SIT is located. I was pretty tired, but a mural on the wall caught my eye. It was a wet fresco which is like a cave painting and water makes the colors become more prominent.

After I got back, three of us went on an amazing run up Lions head (the pointy mountain in the third picture of Table Mountain). As we looked at the ocean below us, we realized we were looking at the bottom of the world. We stayed up too late Wednesday night (Long street in Cape Town reminded us of Bourbon Street in New Orleans) and hopped on a plane at 6 with no sleep but a great week behind us.

One thing standing in our way was the Independent Study Project proposal which was due Friday. The proposals go in front of a board of academics who either give a grade, usually around a C, or reject the proposal.