48 Hours in the Townships - Langa & Gugulethu

Langa is South Africa's oldest township, created in the 1920's to house migrant workers from their former homelands Transkei and Ciskei (Now Eastern Cape). In 1923, the so-called Urban Areas Act was passed, a law that forced black South-Africans to live in a different location from white South Africans.

Literally, the word Langa means Sun in Xhosa, the language that mostly spoken amongst black South Africans in The Western Cape. In reality, the township was named after Langalibalele, a chief who was imprisoned on Robben Island after rebelling against the Natal government in the mid 1800’s.

The highlights of Langa are numerous, from a nature preserve to social projects, art and cultural centers, eateries, and Bed and Breakfasts. The true highlight was meeting incredibly strong people, who decided to take their future into their own hands. It was great to see that so many people try to make a difference within their communities, that they contribute to a better future for the townships.

Quick Tips:

The best tip I can give you is very simple: Go to the townships! And do not forget to spend the night in a township B&B like I did.



The hospitality and the warmth are truly unforgettable. In these places you will learn more about South Africa than you will ever from reading books. Dangerous? There was not a moment in these 48 hours that I felt unsafe. Your host will do anything to prevent you from being hurt.

Best Way To Get Around:

The best way to get to townships, such as Langa, is with a tour operator who organizes township tours. They know the place, as the usually grew up in a township. Therefore you will be perfectly safe, 24 hours a day.

Please do not go to the townships by yourself, it is not recommended unless you are with someone who knows the area very well, preferrably a local.

Most tour operators, like Cape Capers, also organize shuttles to the different B&Bs. You can also contact your B&B and ask your host for more information on transportation. Most B&Bs are willing to pick you up.

During my 48-hour township tour, I spend my first night at Ma Neo’s Bed & Breakfast in the Langa Township. It turned out to be one of the most interesting evenings I had since I came to South Africa in 1994.

In contrary to your usually B&B, by booking a night in Ma Neo, you are invited into a genuine South African family, which was soaked in warmth and hospitality. I truly felt that I had been briefly part of a South African family, for one thing because I shared supper and breakfast with the entire family.

Ma Neo's B&B consists of two rooms, either double or twin. Each morning Mama Thandi, or her daughter Neo, treats you on a simple, but awesome breakfast that keeps you going for the rest of the day. And supper is just as mouth watering as breakfast.

What I liked about my stay at Ma Neo’s B&B was the fact that I learned a lot about South Africa and townships life. In the short time I was there, I had many long discussions about South Africa in general, township life in particular, and several social, political, and economic issues with which South Africa struggles. And of course AIDS, one of the severest problems in South Africa.

Mama Thandi, besides running a B&B, works as an AIDS counselor. This means she assists and advises people in her direct community on everything concerning AIDS. Things like, getting tested, how to get tested, and why to get tested. Also, about the necessity of taking anti-retro viral drugs (ARV’s), about how to prevent your child to get infected, and about the many myths regarding HIV/AIDS.

"I hate sangomas (traditional healers)", Mama Thandi stated. "They not only spread myths, as for instance being cleared from AIDS after having s*x with a virgin. They also take advantage of desperate people: they claim ARV’s do not work, and that they themselves have the cure. While they don’t. They just take the money and let the people die."

She told me more about her work, some of the most heart breaking and heart warming stories I have ever heard. It made me realize, once again, how massive the AIDS problem is in this country. It also made me realize that South Africa, and the rest of the world, need more women like Mama Thandi. Women who, without expecting anything in return, dedicate their lives to make lives of others more bearable.

Where?
Off N7.
Postal Address 30 Zone 7, Langa
+27 (0) 21 694-2504
maneo@absamail.co.za
http://www.sonke.org

One of the first stops of my 48-hour township tour was the Edith Stevens Wetland Park, a true oasis in the middle of the Cape Flats. This is the geographical location north of Cape Town, where before and during apartheid most black and coloured townships were built.



The Edith Stevens Wetland Park is surrounded by several townships, and boasts more than 80 species of plants, several reptile species including the endangered leopard toad, birds, and small mammals such as the clawless otter.



Apart from serving a leisure purpose, the Edith Stevens Wetland Park plays a key role in environmental education in the townships, social development, and job creation. Inhabitants from the townships are, for instance, trained in the clearance of alien and invasive vegetation in, and around, Cape Town, such as eucalyptus and pine trees.



These trees, and other plants, need to go because they are a threat to the indigenous vegetation as fynbos. For one thing, they make the soil acidic. Fynbos does not like that, and is therefore jeopardized by the many pine and eucalyptus trees in the area, once planted for timber. Second, Eucalyptus and Pine need a lot of water. I don’t need to explain that this is destructive for such a dry area as Cape Town.



In other words, the ESWP is much more than a piece of nature.



Directions:

Edith Stevens Wetland Park

Lansdowne Road, Phillipi

+ 27 (0) 21 691 8087

www.capeflatsnature.org

South Africa is scattered with monuments and memorials that commemorate events that happened during the apartheid era. One of them is the recently erected Gugulethu Seven in the township of Gugulethu (which means "Our Pride").

On March 3, 1986, very early in the morning, seven young black activists from Gugulethu were ambushed by South African police and shot dead. According to two police officers who played a role in the killing, they did what they did because they believed the young men had planned to attack a police van.

Fourteen years later on March 21, 2000, Human Rights Day, a memorial was unveiled to remember the Gugulethu Seven.

The impressive memorial consists of seven statue-like granite blocks representing each of the lives and deaths of the young men. The strength portrayed by the memorial gave me goosebumps. It made me think of all these people who dedicated their lives to the struggle for freedom against oppression. It made me think of the ones who died and were killed.

It also made me think about the progress this country has made. Let’s be frank: Eleven or more years ago, it was unthinkable for a white girl to be shown around in a township by a black South African.

Where?
Gugulethu Memorial
Corner of NY1 and NY111
Gugulethu Township

Part of my 48 hour townships experience was a walking tour through the township of Langa, covering three different residential areas:

1. The Old Hostels: These housing units were build in the 1920's to host migrant workers from the Eastern Cape. Each hostel consisted of units or apartments, with each three or four rooms. Each room housed three to four men, and women were not allowed.

When the ban on women was lifted, each room soon became the home of three families. The children slept on the floor, the parents in the bed. The old hostels still exists, and are still being used. It is incredible that in a new South Africa, which is supposed to be a better place for all, people still live in inhuman conditions. We visited one of the hostels, and it was heart breaking. The Walls were blackened by petroleum and coal stoves, windows were broken, and it stank and it was over crowded.

2. The New Flats are new housing units that offer families decent living conditions. A difference between day and night if you look at the Old Hostels. Only one family per unit, consisting of several rooms and adequate facilities like a toilet, running water, and electricity.

The plan is to move everyone who either lives in an old hostel or shack into similar housing units.

3. Informal Settlement: These areas are actually illegal squatter camps, constructed by (for instance) the many migrants who flock to the Cape en masse. Since there is a housing problem, they have no choice than to live in a self-constructed shack made of wood, hard board, iron plates, and everything else they can find.

According to the statistics, 16,000 families from outside of the Western Cape province flock to Cape Town every year in search of employment and a better future. Most of them end up in an illegal settlement like Langa

No, for a lot of people not too much changed in the last 10 years since South Africa gained its freedom.

During my walking tour through Langa I also visited a day care center, where the children had prepared a song. I could not help smiling when 30 or so enthusiastic high-pitch voices kicked off the national anthem Nkosi Sikelele Afrika (God Bless Afrika) on maximum volume. While humming along, I silently prayed—and I am not even religious—for a better future for these children, the future leaders of South Africa.