IMIZAMO YETHU Township and District Six - Cape Town

IMIZAMO YETHU Township

There are so many beautiful parts of Cape Town which would make it easy to forget the contrast in living conditions that people over there face primarily people of black ethnicity. After driving through beautiful

Hout Bay when you go a lttle further you get to this township below...

  I was fortunate enough to be able to enter a local township today in cape town,was shown around by 'kenny' as the townships are too dangerous to enter alone.  Myself and Anna went and it was lovely to talk to him and hear about life for him and the other 25,000 people who lived there!!! I was amazed at how big townships can be.

Kenny explained how volunteers had been working with the community to improve living conditions of the shacks to reduce damage regularly faced by floods and weather. This has an implication on sanity also due to the sewage that can pass through from the shared toilets within the community, think he said there were about 8 in his part of the township again something so basic that we take for granted as each household back home has such facilities to hand.

 The children outside their home, small, compact but brightly coloured within the township...The local hair salon and barber shop..some great artwork, i was tempted to swing by for a trim or some crazy braiding for my locks :-)

A lovely local lady doing her laundry, she was very happy to say hello and we were thankful for her receptiveness into her community.

We laughed when talking about " walkie talkie"- i said in the UK its a radio...here she said its a chicken dish!!!

The church below to bring the community together

He explained how they encouraged the children to attend pre school and want to try and develop this more so that they can learn to read and develop skills for the future.  I think its upsetting to see the environment in which the children have to learn, although decorated bright and colourful, i can't imagine taking my little cousin to a school surrounded by so much barbwire fencing for safety.

It is remarkable that with so little by western standards, you could tell they had the community spirit to work together and look out for each other which i feel we are missing back home, which is so sad.

The children we so smiley and found pleasure kicking a can or a bottle with each other, the little ones were very receptive running up to us to say hallo!

Cheeky monkeys!! :-)

I hope the initiatives and development work continues to give these cheeky little angels a future that i'm sure we all take for granted x

DISTRICT SIX

I went into Green Market Square in Cape Town Centre search of the District 6 Museum.

District six was a multicultural environment that had over 60,000 inhibitants that was an area taken over by white supremacy in the 1960's forcing its inhabitants to forcibly leave during Apartheid.


Across the road at Green Market Square


The entrance to the District 6 Museum...

A mothers peom

Incredible spirit of the people who lived there, with stories and photgraphs all around the museum shown to us in their words and memories.

 Above are the road/street names from the original district 6 area and all the people who work here used to live there so can give accurate insights and information of their time there.  Theres so much history for me to blog but worth researching about. You can still tell that its a place people were and are passionate about and its an emotional journey that they let you be part of.

Many people believe this is where gangs started out due to the need to protect the little turf each had in such challenging times, often hanging around the seven steps making some areas no go zones even for locals. 

Me overlooking the map of the district 6 area in the museum, reading around this area was remarkable and i imagine it to have had a New Orleans kind of vibe in its day.  With the different cultures living and mixing together and some great parties.

Dylan (a usa traveller) who i visited the museum with, we caught it just in time after doing a few detours to find it haha!!

Was a great museum and a good celebration of the strong spirit of those that lived there.

 The green market area of town is very busy lots of markets, buzzing city vibe and a great place to have a wonder and soak up a little atmmosphere. Really enjoyed today and pleased i have been able to meet some lovely local people and learn a littlle more about both past through district 6 and part of the present from a different perspective :-)