District Six was a vibrant, multicultural community located within Cape Town. It was an area in which Cape-colored (mixed race), black, white, and Indian people lived. Locals described it as a lively community where people of all races interacted with each other and enjoyed life in South Africa.
All of this came to an abrupt hault in 1966, when the Aparteid government decided to forcibly remove its 60,000 residents and make it a "white only" area. The area was so cherished by its inhabitants that they have since made a museum to commemorate the time they spent there. Also, since Apartied ended, previous residents have been petitioning to get their land back and finally the governement has agreed (although there is no longer enough land left for all of them). We learned all of this at the District Six Museum, where we started our tour and even got to meet one of the original residents.
The next stop was Langa - which is actually the oldest township in South Africa. The townships were built during Aparteid for the "non whites" and are still occupied by many Africans today. Our guide was a guy called Sam and he has been running tours since 1994 (very soon after Aparteid was abandoned). Sam lives in Langa, knows all the locals and so is a very informative guy to tour with. He took us to a local bar, where we had a chance to try the local brew, which is drunk out of one large metal pail and passed around from one person to the next. (Drinking is a major problem for many men living in townships)
We were invited into two apartments. One was a two-bedroom, which is shared by several families. One family of four have to share a twin bed! It costs 20 Rand ($2) a month to rent a bed in this building. The other two-bedroom was called a family hostel and only one family lives there. This one is newer, nicer and more expensive (200 Rand, $20 per month).
We drive by the spot in which a white female student, and anti-Aparteid activist (Amy Biehl) was stoned and stabbed to death by four members of a radical black political group. Although originally convicted of murder, all four were pardoned in 1998 - five years after the murder - as the killing was deemed politically motivated. Amazingly, Amy's parents strongly supported the decision and now even work with two of the men for the Amy Biehl Foundation Trust. Clearly it takes an incredible amount of understanding and forgiveness to put the murder of your daughter aside, in the support of the Cause she had supported so vehemently.
Lastly, we quickly visit a community centre before heading back into the centre of Cape Town.
