The Dutch arrived in South Africa in 1652 and established a trading post as a halfway point for ships going around Africa to Malasia for the spice trade. Eventually settlers arrived and most from England, France and Portugal. But they also brought in their own slaves from Indonesia, India, Madagascar and Java but in 1834 the ruling British abolished the slave trade. These peoples plus the white/black mix became the Coloured people layer between the whites and the indeginous black peoples. These layers of colors is what Apartheid was all about. The whites ruled, the Coloures were second rate citizens and the blacks were next to nothing.
The city tour included views of former white Dutch homes that have been painted beautiful bright colors (so that drunk husbands could distinguish their homes from their neighbors), an underground shopping mall, the Castle of Good Hope and the square where Mandela gave his freedom speech where he asked all blacks and Coloureds to forgive the whites for the horrible treatment they had made them endure.
The rest of our tour focused on the Dark Years of Apartheid from 1950 to 1990. Rules, laws and policies were enacted to oppress the blacks. Our tour took us through Districk Six where in 1960 60,000 established homes and apartments of black people were demolished and they were forced to move with nothing but their clothes to places around the city where the only places to live were hastily and poorly built shantys. There was little work, debassing rules and laws and the world took no notice. In 1986 the world did notice and placed sanctions on SA to force change. And by 1990 Apartheid began to crumble. The government has a long road ahead to provide decent housing to replace the shanty towns and to create jobs.
We visited a school and talked with the principal and then the children sang for us. We also stopped by a judicial building that is now a museum about the black struggle.
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