South Africa In A Nut Shell

As I sit here in this small fishing village called Gansbaai, I finally found some time to collect my thoughts and attempt to write about my experience in Africa thus far. Gansbaai is a very small town located approximately 2 hours east along the coastline from the major port city Cape Town, which is in South Africa. It is still in the early stages of my travels and to make any significant judgments of an entire country when I’ve only been to 2 places would be rather unfair, but what I will do is make an attempt to capture what I’ve seen so far and let you, the reader, make the decision.

The volunteer house where I stayed for 2 weeks in Gansbaai



The Bay area in Gansbaai

South Africa is one of the more developed countries on the continent and is probably one of the most intense countries you could venture to history-wise. From what I can see, apartheid will always have a lasting impact across the country. Even though it seems people here have learned to adapt to live on the same soil with one another, there still lingers some major separations between the blacks and the non-black communities.  For those of you who do not have a solid understanding of apartheid like myself, don’t feel bad. I will give you a quick overview. Apartheid was a system of legal racial segregation enforced across South Africa by the National Party government during 1948 – 1993. During this time, ‘non-white’ inhabitants (whom were the majority) were given no rights and minority rule was taken over by ‘white people’. Residential areas were segregated often resulting in forced removals. By 1958, black people were deprived their citizenship, their right to vote and basically denied their existence.  The government segregated education, medical care and public services and blacks were provided with inferior services in comparison to white people.  As one could imagine, this created massive resistance and violence amongst the black communities. Anti-apartheid leaders such as the former president Nelson Mandela and Jacob Zuma (the current South African President) were among thousands who were banned of their rise to power and exiled to Robben Island. If you have not read the biography ‘A long walk to freedom’ by Nelson Mandela, I highly recommend it. Nelson Mandela has devoted his whole life to bringing back equality across South Africa and spent 27 years of his life imprisoned on Robben Island before he was released and elected the President of South Africa.

 I do want to make it very clear that it is NOT as dangerous as the rest of the world makes it out to be. There are NOT people running around the streets cutting each other up with machetes or any other crazy stories you might have heard in the news, read in the newspaper, or heard from people you met in your life.  

Part of being human, is that we are the creators of our own fears and to conquer your own fears, you need to let go of comforts, open your mind, and being willing to prove yourself wrong.

To put it best, a local journalist in Cape Town wrote that to enjoy your experience in Africa, it is necessary to let go on any pre-convinced notions and come here with an open mind. I don’t think I could have put it better myself.

A the trapeze of electrical wires that is connected into each shanti in most townships

The communities seem to still be quite segregated and majority of black Africans are still living together in townships, which are often poverty stricken areas either on the outskirts of the cities or out in rural areas. I had the opportunity to go and visit several of the townships outside of Cape Town. They brought me back to memories of the slum areas I would often see in India. Almost everyone in these township communities live in small little shanties that are held together with a few screws, some bits of tin and a relatively sturdy 2 X 4. The roofs are also made of tin and often have large rocks on top of them to help keep them from blowing off in the wind or heavy rainstorms. Along the horizon of tin roofs, its easy to notice one large telephone poll being used as the central power line and from that pole is a trapeze of electrical wires running down to each individual tin home.  The townships are small communities that appear to be one tightly knit family where everyone knows one another. Jobs are created inside the townships and they all share the same resources and walk the same streets. From what I can see, these people have no other choice but to get used to living in close proximity as life in the townships are pretty much as close as it can get.

The population of South Africa is an estimated 50 million people with 5 million of these people living in the country illegally. It is believed a majority of these illegal immigrants have come from neighboring countries such as Zimbabwe, Congo, and Nigeria.

This photo was taken of 2 boys living in one of the black townships

South Africa is rather developed and seems very modern and actually reminds me a lot of Australia. Even though the blacks and whites have learned to get along with one another, I can sense some rivalry walking the city streets in Cape Town. I've been trying to figure out how to look like a local and NOT a tourist. The locals very rarely get robbed and are mostly left alone. During my short stay of 6 days in Cape Town at a backpackers, I heard half a dozen stories of people getting a knife pulled on the streets and told they must give money or things could get out of hand.  More often than not, they were tourists. The people lurking on the streets look for the easy prey, so I don't want to appear as easy prey anywhere along my travels. This was my first indicator that I was in a country I needed to learn more about. Realizing that I’ll be travelling through many countries in Africa, I'm having to adjust and always be cautious what I’m wearing and how I am acting.  I have been advised by the locals to keep eye contact as a means of intimidation to those who may think of trying to rob or steal anything from me!

Travelling through Africa is going to be a challenge and lots of the local South African people have been really impressed when I tell them that I’m planning to travel through 14 countries all the way up to Egypt. They all tell me it is possible to do and have friends that have done it.  But even in the wealthiest country here, there is little opportunity to travel, as it’s hard to earn enough money!

As for my own personal experiences here in this country, I have climbed some of the mountains and had splendid views overlooking the city and coastal areas. I took a day tour out to Robben Island and got to see the individual maximum security prison cell where Nelson Mandela lived during his time there.  In the jail complex, there are communal rooms where most of the inmates were kept. There were approximately 30 inmates per room and each person slept in a single dormitory style bed. The guards monitored the conversations and several small speakers were mounted on the walls to ensure the talk was kept to a minimum. There was one washroom per area, which was to be shared by all inmates for that particular room. They were given just enough food to ensure survival, and their white inmate’s received more nutritious meals than the non-white inmates. Nearby the prison was a limestone mine where prisoners were forced to work by breaking the large pieces of limestone rocks off the cliff side and breaking them down into smaller pieces. This job was physically demanding and to make matters worse it was often carried out in the blistering heat and the light off the limestone was so intense it caused permanent eye damage in some of the prisoners.

This photo was taken of Nelson Mandela and he looks on from his prison cell on Robben Island

In the city area of Cape Town is the famous Table Mountain. It can be seen from miles away and it stands at an impressive 1,086m (3,563 ft).  This mountain creates a very unique phenomenon. On most days, early in the afternoon, winds arrive from the southeast and are pushed up the mountain slope towards the top, which creates a pocket of cold air. Because of this cloud formation, the cloud expands and begins to form a tablecloth-like cloud over the mountain. Once at the edge of the cliffs, the winds then proceed to speed up on the decent down and this creates treacherous outland winds that are powerful enough to push boats way out to sea and inexperienced sailors often have to call to be rescued as their only hope for survival.

The clouds rolling over the ridge on the table mountain in Cape Town

During my time in Cape Town, I’ve found the locals extremely welcoming and almost always up for a conversation. Africa has a different outlook on time and appear to take a lot more relaxed approach on life, so the pace is slow and steady. Cape Town is known for having an exceptional nightlife and I ended up meeting a good group of friends at the backpackers to test it out with.  We ended up going out pretty late and didn’t take long for us to realize the reputation was true. As enjoyable as it is to meet fellow travelers from all countries of the world, I do enjoy spending as much time with the locals as possible. I often found myself wandering around the city and sparking up as much conversations as I could to help give me a better understanding of the area I was in. I would start my nights going out with my backpacker friends and would often run into friendly locals, spark up a good chat and continuing the rest of the evening partying with them and being introduced to all the friends as: He’s from Canada! I didn’t mind having this as an introduction as it seemed to stir up a lot of interest and excitement amongst their peers. There are not many days that I don’t thank the almighty that I grew up where I did and that Canada has such a good worldwide reputation.

If you ever get the chance to visit Cape Town, as I mentioned in the beginning, make to let go of any pre-conceived notions or fears before you arrive, as this tends to be your worst enemy. In my mind, Cape Town is a city full of historic events, great beaches, restaurants that cater to your every need, friendly locals, superb nightlife, and safe as ever just as long as you don’t walk around on your own at night. It’s hard to imagine people coming here and not enjoying themselves and it’s easy to see why Cape Town ranks as one of the top cities in the world to live in.

Stay tuned for the next article:

Getting up close and personal with Great White Sharks.