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| coloured girls and houses - Muizenberg - 2007 |
In between work in Cape Town I had some time off. Muizenberg is definitely a place to go! Beautiful stretch of sandy beach, charming little coloured beach houses, slow and long waves - perfect for beginners at Surfing, Shark watch for the Great Whites that lurk under the tranquil waters, and stunning Coloured girls.
Just a photo. Where to begin?
From Cape Town you take a train to Muizenberg. Not one of the safest places in the world, Cape Town train station. And not many tourists or white South Africans use them.
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| Muizenberg - 2007 |
I know you feel what I feel. Coloured, white, black? Apartheid. A philosophy of inequality that was officially abandoned in 1991 but is still to be sensed up until today. Blacks, Whites (either Afrikaans speaking "boeren" or English) and Coloured. Blacks are actually all part of many different
tribes and speak there own language. Zulu. Xhosa (like Nelson Mandela) seTswana. Often referred to as Bantu languages. Many having interesting click sounds that are impossible for us "westerners" to produce. White South Africans have a problem. They are the "haves". And there are many in South Africa that don't have a lot. White South Africans don't want to let go what they have, so they have to build high fences around their houses often with mean looking dogs that, back in the days, were trained to hate non-whites. By putting them in a bag, kicking it around and let a black servant open the bag. Nasty. So white South Africans are now scared of the masses in their country. Threatening
their land of milk and honey that they have build up according to western standards and is the best organised and most developed of all of Africa. Of course this was done over the backs of the indigenous people which are the Khoi Khoi and San or Bushmen people. Did you know that only half way the 20st century did you need a permit to shoot bushmen? These little brown fellows, hiding behind bushes and shooting their poisoned arrows, making their funny click sounds, were looked upon as animals. Before that time you did not need a permit at all! Nowadays there are very few bushmen left. Driven into the Kalahari where they have a large reserve but it is hardly possible to live in their traditional fashion, for al of the land is owned and fenced off by (white) farmers. South Africa effectively ruled Namibia, including the Kalahari from 1918 till 1990 so that land has been divided according to western standards as well.
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| Bushman girl - Tsumeb - Namibia - 2009 |
Drifting off? Possibly. That can be a problem when you travel and learn too much. Sometimes it's hard to dose. But don't doze off!!!
Coloureds are every one that is not black or white. They have mixed blood, often more than 3 different origins. Dutch, Irish, Xhosa, Indian, for example. They are often beautiful and slightly confused. During the Apartheid era their position was in between the Blacks and Whites. Since democracy [...] they are the underdogs. Their first language is Afrikaans. They don't have a tribal language and they use the most beautiful and fully evolved Afrikaans that I know of. Street-Afrikaans, if you may. Some call it Capetownian. Afrikaans is not a language of an oppressing force or racist regime. It is a very modern language that evolved mainly out of Dutch, but adopting whatever available influences. Half of the white people in SA look down on it, which probably roots in the Anglo-Boer wars that have been fought rigorously. Their language is the Queens English. With a rather outdoors rough accent. The other half is - slightly red-neck - Afrikaner, that rightfully see it as their language. But the largest group of speakers are the Coloureds. An example of how this language comes about is "moenie worry nie". You shouldn't worry. Or, must not worry not. Double denial is inherent to Afrikaans. Wonder what this has to do with the psyche of the Afrikaners. Are they still in denial?
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| Afrikaans lesson |
Although South Africa was build by Anglo's and Boeren fighting each other the country has many English cultural adaptations. The breakfast is huge and lush. They drive on the left side of the road. And they wear school uniforms. So much for equality. The girls on the photograph are random girls form Mitchell's Plains (an infamous township nearby) I bumped into that were willing to pose. This photo hangs on my kitchen wall in Amsterdam, so lately I see it everyday over my breakfast. Bitter and sweet memories. Is what South Africa can be brought down to. Sweet memories. Sometimes with bitter endings. As much as I wanted to have sent the photographs to these girls, and their friend you see jumping over the fence... this soon turned nasty and impossible.
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| bridge to nowhere in central Cape Town |
Same day, back in down town Cape Town, I see this curious bridge that hangs into nowhere close to the V&A Waterfront and I wanted to photograph from up there. So I asked this newspaper fender to be my guide and show me the way up. Along a road with roaring cars we walked up. Just when we arrive to the part that leads into nowhere, three Coloured guys stepped off the bridge and threatened me with a pointy screwdriver. "Give me this", grabbing on to my camera bag. No way! I was holding my bag and his hand. But there were two more guys. And the newspaper guy. Who helped by saying: "Just take his wallet man!" This would be my way out so I handed over my wallet, sound much cooler when you write it, and ran back down the bridge. In my wallet were my debit-card, some 100 USD... and the e-mail address of the photo-modelling girls... Sorry girls. If you might ever read this. Please contact me...
Meanwhile the white-sharks keep hunting for seals and jumping out of the Indian Ocean, off the coast of Muizenberg. The locals keep their guard and have posted shark-watchers up on the surrounding hills. Some white shark may mistake a surfer for a seal? Not everything is what is seems. In South Africa.
