Cape Town: Mixed Feelings

It's been a week since I left Cape Town, but I found it difficult to write about for a number of reasons, and hoped for a little perspective.

The unadulterated good: the city (at least where I was staying) felt totally developed. Drink the tap water, toilet paper in public restrooms developed. Also, it's beautiful, in the same way that northern California and New Zealand are beautiful: green, mountainous, lovely ocean views.

But that isn't enough. I'd been warned by a friend of Pakistani extraction that Cape Town was one of the least diverse places he'd ever been, notable in Africa for its absence of people of color. I did notice some people of color in the upper middle class area where I was staying, but most of them were domestics or street vendors. I am told that furing apartheid, it was one of the most diverse, liberal areas in South Africa. Apparently, this is no longer the case.

While in Cape Town, I did four touristy things. The first was visiting Table Mountain (very cold and windy, but great views where the cloud cover hadn't taken over). The next day, I went for something completely different: a township tour, guided by a township dweller. Here were the blacks and colored that were almost entirely absent on the streets of Cape Town. The majority live in substandard housing ranging from two-room structures with outhouses and access to public showers to shanties made of corrugated metal. But because almost no people of color live in the city proper (many were forced out during the 60s), even the middle class live in these townships, although in signficantly larger houses with satellite TV and fancy imported cars in the driveways.

So, a short post for a whole week spent, but it is difficult to praise the positive without acknowledging (and lamenting) the negative. I hope that Cape Town will see better, more integrated days.