District 6 in the Mix

Monday July 23, 2007

Cut out on orientation this morning – a great decision. We went to the District 6 museum in downtown which was fascinating. District 6 is (was) a neighborhood in Cape Town near the city bowl (downtown) that was home to an impoverished but diverse (read coloured and black with some Jews and Indians) community. The slogan on the coins here is “Unity by diversity” and in many ways District 6 was emblematic of that mantra. Despite overcrowded homes and low-paying jobs the community unified around their struggle against the oppressive apartheid regime to create one of the city’s most vibrant neighborhoods. In the 60s however, under the Group Areas Act, the government designated District 6 a whites only area and systematically began removing any non-whites from the neighborhood (almost everyone). The area was then bulldozed and has since seen little development, leaving a patch of barren land right next to the city centre.

Had a splendid lunch at a café on the streets of downtown Cape Town, It’s striking how different the city feels when you’re not touring in a large pack of Americans – it’s liberating actually. Today I was finally able to experience the city (or at least part of it) as it is, not as it was told to me. I was extremely satisfied to finally see the downtown area full of businessmen on their cellphones, beggars on the street corners and everyone in between running around. As is often the case here, I was stunned by the diversity in this city. Literally, people of all colors (black, white, coloured, Indian, Asian…) make up the bustling downtown, something I have never seen before (certainly not back home at least.)

We took a self-guided tour of UCT’s upper campus. I was not only awed by the beauty of the campus, perched on the slopes of devil’s peak with it’s stone steps and ivy oozing down the walls, but relieved to finally see a few students cruising around campus in flip-flops and hoodies. I was also excited to find that the UCT rugby club offices are housed in the on-campus pub that is quite a shrine to UCT and springbok rugby, not to mention that there are three pitches outside.