The conspicuous vestiges of Apartheid are woven into the fabric of everyday interactions in Cape Town. Seemingly benign street corners hold symbolic significance, and the raw emotions of a scarred and violent past surface readily and without warning. Few places capture this as well as District Six, the now empty plot of land that cuts through the city's heart. The neighborhood of District Six, once a bastion of multiculturalism and an icon of inter-racial harmony, is a source of both pain and pride for South Africans. The District Six museum preserves the memory of this well loved neighborhood that was bulldozed by the National Party under Apartheid precisely because it blatantly represented everything that Apartheid was not: inclusion and the celebration of difference. Race, peace, and equality are complex issues in South Africa and it is this complexity, a violent trauma kept at bay by a ferocious hope in peace and humanity, that has made me fall for Cape Town. Despite a past marked by hatred, Capetonians are in many ways the embodiment of love, and although they may struggle to live up to their astoundingly progressive Constitution, their hope in a peaceful future seems unwavering.
Lara, your post has given me goosebumps this morning! Reflections of race(ism) and equality as embedded in Cape Town's artifacts, and the byproduct of unwavering hope...maybe something we can learn from in the US in the light of the current policies clouding equality in our own country. I can't wait to swap stories with you when I get back! Mali Mali
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