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| Cape Town Township Housing |
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| Maxwell, Zulu Guide, with Cape Town City Hall in Background |
Life is culturally rich and perplexingly interesting in the black townships of Cape Town. White foreign tourists (i.e. our family) can visit the townships and feel quite safe when escorted by a guide who lives there. Our guide Maxwell greeted us in our hotel lobby wearing a pressed black business suit, crisp white shirt and tie. He is a tall Zulu man with a deep voice. His real name is Shaka, which means warrior. First, he took us to stand in the large plaza in front of Cape Town's city hall, where Nelson Mandela had addressed packed crowds as apartheid fell. Maxwell was 20 years old then, and stood with the mobs in tears and cheers. Today, he has steady work as a free-lance tour guide but he, like most other blacks, lives in the unbelievably crowded and primitive conditions in the townships. No indoor plumbing, no heat, no insulation and leaky roofs. The government provides the land and tiny shacks for free. In the townships, people can legally practice rituals such as sacrificing animals, that they would not otherwise be permitted to do in other districts in Cape Town. The first township we visited was Langa, the oldest township - very close to downtown Cape Town. About ten minutes after driving away from the downtown area, we passed a large electric generation plant, presumably serving much of the industrial area of Cape Town. After the electric plant, the main road continues past a tree-filled grove, for about one-half mile or so before the road to turn left into the township. Maxwell pulled over and stopped the car to point into the tree grove, to a half dozen or so light colored tents almost completely hidden by the trees. The landmark he used to orient our sights to find the tents was a shiny new BMW SUV parked just outside the grove. Smoke curls were streaming up from the encampment. He explained that the tents are occupied right now by boys undergoing their manhood ceremony. Just as the Zulus do out in their rural communities, they practice the same cultural rituals while living in the city. When boys are almost 19 years old, they must go into the woods, deprived of food and drink for a few days, and then undergo the circumcision ceremony without anesthesia. While recovering in their tents, they are brought food. That was why the snazzy BMW was parked nearby - for a food drop to care for the boys in the tents in the woods - between the electric plant and the overcrowded slum of urban shacks.
