Trip Report:
Two Weeks in South Africa, January 1999
Richard's Version
Day 3
Sunday, 1/10-
Because of the 7:45am city tour, we had to crawl out of bed at 6. Booo! Thank God we brought Peet's coffee with us! That and granola bars from home made our breakfast. We had the service desk call us a cab and made it to the University 20 Rands shorter but with lots of time to spare. Good thing too, as the building where we were told to meet the bus had roads on all 4 sides. We ended up circling it until we saw others who knew more than we did start to gather at a nearby bus stop.
There were 9 of us in a Toyota minibus (Claire included). Though we felt crowded, this was the same bus that carries 20 on the public bus 'routes.' Our guide was Annabelle, a manic woman in her early 50s who kept mentioning that her retirement investments weren't doing well. The day was chilly, gray and drizzly, which we were assured was completely unusual for this time of year. The tour ran down to the waterfront, past Green Point and Sea Point and past the ritzy highrise apartment buildings of Camps Bay. We stopped in the drizzle to snap pictures of the lion's head- the rocky butte (other than Table Mountain of course) that overlooks the city. From Camps Bay we went up the Kloof Nek (the saddle between Lion's Head and Table Mountain), and onto Signal Hill for a bird's eye view of the city. Still cold and wet, but the clouds were high (forming the 'Table cloth') and the view was great. We even chased around some guinea fowl. On the way down Annabelle pointed out some of the typical fynbos flora (proteas, succulents etc.).
Down Kloof Nek into the city bowl we entered the Malay Quarter (Bo Kaap or upper Cape). This part of the city is quite old, with many beautiful (and colorful) houses of stuccoed brick. The houses (and stores and mosques) are all wall to wall on narrow streets, giving it a decidedly eastern feeling.
The next stop was the Government street and Company (VOC) Gardens. These were originally the gardens that supplied the Dutch East India company ships that stopped here on the trips to and from India. The gardens are very nice, with lots of trees and flowers, very tropical. Next to the gardens are the old VOC headquarters, slave lodge (now the South African Cultural Museum), the South African National Museum and the Museum of Art.
After a short stroll through the gardens we were given a whopping half hour in the South African National Museum. Dead animals galore, but also a decent display on the Khoisan, centered around several dioramas featuring San figures cast from life (an interesting story in itself. See the book 'Miscast'). There was also a small section on Great Zimbabwe, and the Lydenburg heads.
From the museum the tour headed along the coast road Northeast around Table Bay, with a brief pass through District 6, an area where the black and colored populations were forced out, and everything except churches and mosques leveled. The area was slated for residences for whites, but no one would develop it, so it is a mostly empty swath of land in the middle of the city. Claims have now been filed (some 40,000) for people to reclaim their land.
If only the North coast were empty! Instead it is developing very rapidly, often with butt ugly modern houses in very close developments. Not pretty! Then we went on to see a township project that the city sponsors. They make tiny home loans to squatter families, building small but adequate houses and tearing down the shacks. The development showed quite a lot of home improvements, a school and many small businesses, so I think it is certainly a worthwhile program (if only for the plumbing!). The tour ended (thankfully) around 1:30, and we were dropped off at our hotel.
We had a nap and a shower before sharing a taxi to the University to register and and attend the opening ceremonies for the World Archaeological Congress. The opening ceremonies were packed with 700 archaeologists from 70 countries in a very nice hall with a domed ceiling and Cape Red Winged Starlings flying and singing. A great a cappella group started us off, followed by a series of quite political speaches from the UNESCO consul, the head of UCT and the Minister of Water and Forestry Dr. Kamer Asmal (a unifying presence throughout our visit. We'd see him on TV, hear him on the radio and see him in public any number of times). The reason for the speechifying was that the first WAC included in its bylaws a clause explicitly excluding the participation of South African archaeologists as long as the apartheid government was in power. The presence of WAC in South Africa therefore was an important symbol of the changes that the last few years have brought.
The speaches were interminable, but punctuated by song here and there. Then, just when we thought we could quit and go to the reception, we had a completely unexpected group unity event by DrumEvents. We were all given plastic tubes and sticks of various lengths and led through some quite fun music making. 700 pounding archaeologists make for quite a moving scene! After this we were all quite hot and thirsty and retreated to the cocktail party at Smuts Hall. Here we received a 'welcome' drink, after which we had to fend for ourselves. Alison and I managed to meet most of the people that would be participating in my session, but we hung out mainly with Gil Stein (whom I met just this evening at registration. He had missed his flight from Chicago, so had just arrived that evening and was quite punchy), Tom, and Sabine MacCormack (from Michigan), all very friendly people.
One highlight of the evening was the viewing of the golden rhino of Mapungubwe, an 800 year old town on the Limpopo river. This had been found early in the century, but its existence was hidden, ostensibly because it showed the high level of African art and civilization prior to the arriveal of the Europeans. The rhino also featured prominently in a new stained glass window in the hall, symbolizing the breaking of bonds and the recognition of indigenous history. All this, and jet lag, made us all tired and we took the bus back and crashed about 11pm.
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Notes/Resources
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Last Updated 19 February, 1999
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