When male or female workers came to the cities to provide labor, they were housed just outside the cities in what are now known as the Townships, They lived in single sex hostels or rudimentary structures similar to dormitories. Essentially, the system was akin to recreating slavery in the modern world.Ī township perched precariously along sand dunes The residents of these homelands provided the labor force for mining and other white business interests (farming, vineyards, etc), but had no civil rights or government support whatsoever. Under Apartheid, South Africa was carved up into specific areas or “homelands” divided along racial lines. Some would argue that not much has changed in this regard, even in the 21st century, but there has certainly been tremendous progress since the end of Apartheid. During this era, the four main racial categories were “White,” “Coloured,” “Indian,” and “Black.” Both the Coloured and Indian categories were divided into additional sub-categories, but the basic concept is that whites were at the top of the totem pole, Indians and Coloureds fell somewhere in the middle, and the Blacks were relegated to the very bottom. There are deeply embedded racial classification systems in place, dating from the earliest days of the Dutch settlement and of course becoming all the more entrenched throughout the era of Apartheid which officially began in the 1950s. From our last post, you may remember that Cape Town is among the most diverse cities in the world. In this post, we bring you a cultural perspective on Cape Town with a description of our Langa Township tour.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |