Historic Cape Town

Today the Global Buddies learned about the Apartheid history of South Africa, and experienced more of Cape Town’s beauty.

Starting the day with a walk through Cape Town’s beautiful Company Gardens, they then toured the District Six Museum. District Six is an area in Cape Town where a lively and diverse community was forceably removed from their homes by the Apartheid regime and forced to live in neighborhoods designated according to race. At the museum, the generous spirit between the buddies was reflected in a small gesture when a South African Global Buddy used some spending money he had to buy lollipops for three of his “global buddies”.

From the tourbus, staring out the window, the Global Buddies excitedly cried out as the city view revealed itself as the bus climbed the mountain…There, on top of Cape Town’s Signal Hill, they ate a picnic lunch, took pictures, enjoyed ice cream and looked over the city and the famous Robben Island where Nelson Mandela and many other political activists were imprisoned during the Apartheid years of South Africa.

The view then became the road as they took the ferry across to Robben Island, with the beautiful Table Mountain behind them. Anticipation and excitement was high, especially amongst the South African Global Buddies, most who had never been on a boat nor been to Robben Island before. They learned a bit about the history of Apartheid, how even prisoners were treated differently according to their race (Black prisoners got less food – no bread for example – than Colored and Indian prisoners), and visited Nelson Mandela’s prison cell.They also got to talk to Ahmed “Kathy” Kathrada (friend of Global Buddies’ partner Yenza.org) by speakerphone. Kathy, who spent 26 years in prison, alongside Nelson Mandela (and was the only Indian prisoner amongst the eight men who were sentenced to life in prison at the Rivonia Trials) encouraged the Global Buddies to pursue education, telling them how after 8 hours working under harsh conditions, he and his fellow prisoners would study. He told the Global Buddies they had a duty to themselves and their community to educate themselves so they can serve their communities. He told the South African Global Buddies that now that the doors to education were open to them, he hoped they would enter them.

On the bus part of the Robben Island tour, the Global Buddies learned more about the history of the island and Apartheid, saw the lime quarry where the prisoners were forced to work in the sun, and were moved by the story of Pan African Congress (PAC) leader Robert Sobukwe who spent many of the last years of his life imprisoned and prevented from contact with all but a few.

The leper cemetery, penguins and wildlife, and the island view of Table Mountain and Cape Town all got the group’s attention.The sunset boat-ride back was made more fun by the choppiness of the water and the strong winds as the Buddies who were daring enough to sit outside glued themselves to their seats, laughing.

Perhaps inspired by their historic day, some of the American Global Buddies started singing the South African national anthem as they entered the Nelson Mandela gateway as the boat from Robben Island docked back in Cape Town. They’ve been practicing the anthem for a performance they’re going to do on Monday and their “show” today, singing the five-language anthem was quite impressive.