To really appreciate a place, one needs to get into the heart of its culture. And that is what this half-day tour will do for you. In a couple of stimulating hours, you will home in on three distinctly different communities that, through force of circumstances, have developed in unique and separate ways. Apart. As in that hateful word: Apartheid. Any understanding of present day conditions in South Africa is enhanced by looking at past injustice and the legacy of the struggle against Apartheid. Freedom has not come easily. On this tour you will pick up a wealth of insight into South African history. It includes a brief educational introduction to Cape Town, one of the world’s most culturally varied cities.

The Bo-Kaap (Upper Cape)
Turn your back on the skyscrapers and high-tech facades of Cape Town, and head back in time to the Mother City’s "Malay Quarter", a lively, living museum and home to the oldest mosque in the Southern Hemisphere (one of ten such holy places in the neighborhood). The traditional inhabitants of Bo-Kaap are proud of their rich cultural heritage. They are mostly descendants of slaves who had been imported by the Dutch back in the 1700s. It’s like entering a time warp. Brightly painted terrace houses line the streets, where men in robes intermingle with executives in suits and animated conversations are often interspersed with words in Arabic, Urdu and Afrikaans. Walking through the cobbled streets, you’ll discover the unique culture, lifestyle and personality of the Cape Muslim community and their contribution to South Africa’s development.

District Six
An ominous silence hangs over this wide expanse of nothingness in the midst of an otherwise high-density city. This desolate landscape – flattened by bulldozers – was once the vibrant home of a unique community whose lives had been inextricably intertwined with Cape Town. As a result of the Group Areas Act, 60 000 Capetonian families were forcibly removed from the area between 1966 and 1982. The District Six issue remains crucial. You’ll gain deeper understanding as we examine the deserted area, now named Zonnebloem, and visit the museum that attempts to represent and recapture District Six in various ways – as a fine-spun tapestry of communal life torn apart but not forgotten. The area is scarred with many vacant lots where houses once stood. If you look carefully you will be able to see the foundations of the front porches and the remains of some of the pavement stones. And if you set your mind to it, you might imagine what life may have been like before the bulldozers roared in…

The Townships and Cape Flats
And now for something completely different… You may find it shocking and tragic or view it as an example of survival against adversity and injustice. Whichever way you regard township life, this tour won’t leave you unmoved. Seeking racial segregation, Apartheid policies disrupted all non-white population groups, distorted both rural and urban development and ensured hopeless overcrowding. Few houses were built. Sprawling satellite camps of seemingly endless shanties – makeshift structures of various materials – provide little more than a roof and some shelter. As we shall see, squatter settlements are seeking their own solutions as an economic necessity. Against all odds, township life prevails, in all its nuances.

As guests of local community workers, we’ll take a walk through a vibrant black community with all its different social strata. This is Langa… Cape Town’s oldest formal black township. You will have the opportunity to talk to residents and try the traditional African sorghum beer and ginger beer at a small township shop ("spaza") or a tavern ("shebeen"). We’ll witness the work in progress as hundreds of squatters, with the help of state grants, are setting about building their own brick homes. This tour will take you right to the heart of the communities. And in many ways it will touch your own.