In the good care of a local guide we took a look at the Cape Malay Quarter/Bo-Kaap. One of the oldest areas in Cape Town and also an area associated with the Muslim community. A wonderful area of houses influenced by Dutch-, Victorian- and an assortment of other architectural styles….and in all the colours of the rainbow. A good tribute to the mixture of cultures that has influenced the area. We visited the District 6 museum and learned about a shameful period of the SA’s history when the Apartheid regime decided to clear out the area called District 6, in the central of Cape Town, to make room for whites. District 6 was a multicultural area of the town, where people from all over the world lived together without any quarrels…When the area was bulldozed, families were split up for life, since according to the apartheid logic a white mum and a black dad would have coloured children…they would all have to live in White-, Black and Colourer areas…now considerations for splitting families apart. The visit to the museum made me both angry and sad…. (Apartheid really was the most evil idea since the Nazis in Germany.) But in the middle of all the anger and sadness I also noticed all the stories of happiness and joy that people had collected from those days, all the photos of happy people and families…..all though the District manifested a dark period of SA history…..the museum also let us see and remembered the good days before that lunatic government started to tear the land apart.
After that we went to Khayelitsha, a town stead (kåkstad) outside Cape Town. We visited a few projects there that in different ways tries to improve the quality of life for the people. Like Philani Nutrition Centre, a place where the women are educated in how to avoid malnutrition and illnesses due to malnutrition in their children. With HIV being a serious problem (more than 30% of the population in the townships are HIV positive) children often suffers from diseases due to lowered immune resistances because they are malnourished. They will be able to fight HIV if they are as fit as they may be. At the centre, the women are also taught different crafts to give them an opportunity to earn an income.One thing I definitely learned is that the Swedish Government owned aid organisation Sida is (as I have always expected) is a huge failure. Not one of the Sida projects have ever lead to anything positive. It is only the Aid-to-help-yourselves-project that truly give any lasting positive effects.We were guided on a walk through some of the areas, to get a first hand glimpse on how people live there. It was amazing….or scary….to see in what conditions people live. Whole families in just one room in shacks, or buildings….little more than shacks…. But there was also “Beverly Hills” areas, where the government have built small 2-bedroom houses, with small gardens. Areas where life looked a little more promising….We lunched in another township, Llanga, where we were treated to a wonderful meal at a Home-restaurant and also enjoyed good musical entertainment.