文章基本信息

标题：South Africa: the Cape of Good Hope - tourism: includes related articles and contacts for travel to Eastern Cape province
作者：Joanne Harris
期刊名称：American Visions
印刷版ISSN：0884-9390
出版年度：1997
卷号：Dec-Jan 1997
出版社：Heritage Information Publishers, Inc

South Africa: the Cape of Good Hope - tourism: includes related articles and contacts for travel to Eastern Cape province

Joanne Harris

Schoolchildren in uniform are forming a human wall so strong that you can't break through it unless you, too, are a child in uniform. The crowd is unyielding on this hot spring day outside East London City Hall in the Eastern Cape of South Africa. Noisy teenagers, adherents of the Azanian People's Organization, wave "Long Live AZAPO!" signs. Mothers heave heavy sighs as they carry babies on their backs and hold their older ones' hands. Men, attentive to the potentially explosive surroundings, eye the guards containing the crowd. And the international press fervidly scribbles on note pads.

Everyone here is waiting for President Nelson Mandela, whose motorcade is briskly making its way from the site of Steve Biko's grave in Ginsburg, where Mandela has just unveiled a bust of the martyred Black Consciousness Movement leader. Mandela is now scheduled to unveil a bronze statue of Biko, who was murdered by police 20 years ago to the day.

It's not good to remain in a place that has hurt you unless you transform it into a place capable of healing your wounds. Biko was murdered by agents of apartheid, and that regime tried for years to erase memories of the anti-apartheid hero who promoted black pride (and who was portrayed by Denzel Washington in the movie Cry Freedom). Today, he is being honored with a statue--a constant reminder that people laid down their lives for justice.

East London residents--proud of their country but mindful of its past--find it ironic that a statue of Biko, so loathed by the previous regime, is being permanently mounted at City Hall. However, everyone appreciates that this one act of memorializing him will play an important role in reconstruction, redressing imbalances and fostering reconciliation.

Now is the time to taste the new South Africa, which is not just erecting monuments to its heroes, it is also amending its legal system, dealing with human-rights abuses, tackling issues of land reform, redistributing wealth, and opening its arms to the world. If you accept the invitation, you won't find an inexpensive adventure, but you will find one abundant with experiences that you will savor for a lifetime.

You name it: Nighttime dining, dancing, and gambling at casinos before returning to your five-star hotel; whiling away your days watching whales and dolphins from white sandy shores. trekking along rugged wilderness trails and skiing down mountain slopes are among the country's many pleasures.

When contemplating a vacation to South Africa consider the Eastern Cape province, which offers an array of rarer treasures. You can spend a night (or two or three) at a traditional village, learning rural ways of life and participating in the chores of the day. You can visit spectacular game reserves, one of which guarantees that during the course of a two-night stay, you will see three of the Big Five (elephant, rhinoceros, buffalo, lion and leopard). You can tour such historical sites as Mandela's birthplace, the Garden of Remembrance (where Steve Biko is buried) and the Bishop. Massacre (1992) Memorial. In the Cape's largest city, Port Elizabeth, you can tour the townships in the company of experienced guides.

What is now called the Eastern Cape is the traditional home of the Xhosa-speaking Nguni tribes who spearheaded the 16th-century migration down the southeast coast of Africa. The Xhosa were subsistence farmers on land that was freely available. Their economy was based on keeping animals (cattle, sheep, goats, poultry), hunting and cultivation. They were joined by the British in the 1700s and by Dutch settlers who came to be known as the Boers. In less than 100 years, the Xhosa had lost their independence to the British and Boers, and the descent to apartheid had begun. Not until 1994 did the more than 7 million people in the ethnic "homelands," which had formed the backbone of apartheid, regain their South African citizenship.

One traditional community that has initiated a cultural tourism project is Mount Frere Cultural Village. As you approach Mount Frere, riding in a van through thick brush and over bumpy red dirt roads, you feel as if the van is a capsule transporting you back through time. Relax. The pace of life is changing, and you must change with it as you enter an age where there's no electricity and no running water. There's also no getting back without your driver, but for some wonderfully insane reason, you are able to relax. Maybe it's the Eastern Cape warmth that envelops you and puts you at ease. "People of this province sing themselves out of any problem," says the minister of local government, Smuts Ngonyama.

Soon you hear ululation, and the village women enthusiastically greet their guests in Xhosa, the dominant language of the Eastern Cape, made UP of words that click and rustle softly in the wind. You won't understand their words, but you can read the generations of love on their faces as they lead you into their mud-and-daub homes. With cow-dung floors and thatched roofs, they are surprisingly cozy.

Gathered in the candlelight are the men, seated in a semicircle on benches on one side of the room, and the women, closing the circle, but cramped on straw mats on the floor on the other side. (Remember-- when you enter this village, you accept its lifestyle and implicitly agree to respect its values and traditions.:) Few men are in the village at this time, because they spend months at a time far away from home, working in coal, diamond or gold mines. Children go off to school during the day, and women with working husbands stay at home to care for their families.

Your hosts sing you a hymn and then offer a prayer before inviting you outdoors. Under starry midnight-blue sky, you join in the dancing that takes place while the sheep that has just been slaughtered roasts over an open fire. An "appetizer" of roasted maize on the cob is passed around to quell everyone's appetite, just now aroused by the sweet scent of meat, and the ritual continues.

Enter another hut for dinner. Women serve the men and wait for them to finish eating before satisfying their own appetites with what's left--ribs and liver picked up with fingers, dipped into a mound of salt, and devoured. The second course, just as tasty and traditional, includes dishes that have been cooked in three-legged pots--a bean stew called samp and a spinach-and-maize pudding.

The naming ceremony--the highlight of the evening--is conducted in Xhosa, and guests participate with the aid of a translator. Your Xhosa name is chosen carefully, amid hoots and howls of laughter that you won't comprehend. Yes, they're talking about you, debating not only what name is most appropriate for you, but also what name you'll be able to pronounce. The personality traits that you've exhibited up to this moment are considered in the process. If you're a man with the cool exterior of a lion, you're likely to be named Zola, which, no doubt, you'd be proud and flattered to accept. Or if you're a quiet, gentle and good-natured woman, you might be called Nobongile, meaning "we thank God for this child."

You also receive a clan name (similar to a surname), after which you are introduced to your "adoptive mother." It's now quite late and very dark outside. A few daring individuals venture with flashlight to the outhouse down the hill. Otherwise, it's women to their huts and men to theirs for tea and cake before bed. Some guests sleep in beds; others, on the floor, on foam mattresses. The night that lies before you is restful--extremely dark and exceedingly quiet.

Up at dawn the next morning. The women have carried water from the pump five kilometers away. (Rainwater is saved in a tank with a tap and used for cooking and drinking; water from the pump is used for cleaning and washing.) Instead of cold- and hot-water taps, you have cold- and hot-water (heated over an open fire) buckets, from which you dip water into your basin for washing up. As this is a first, and your sleepmates are now your audience, you're shy. Brushing your teeth isn't a problem, but when it comes to your private parts, you either ignore them or discreetly dab a little water here and there, where you need it most. You tentatively wash face, hands and feet (no splish-splash), and then get dressed, while your African hosts get fully undressed, stand in the basin and vigorously wash everything, noisily dipping and splashing and displaying no inhibitions.

After a hearty breakfast of sheep's intestines (thick, chewy, bumpy and blue) with gravy and dense, moist, yellow corn bread, you're expected to help with the chores. These could range from fetching water to cooking and cleaning to milking cows and goats to resurfacing cow-dung floors to working in the fields.

Last night, between the warm welcomes, the tasty meal and the "family" fun, there was no time to survey the village. But now, in the light of day, you see the graceful rolling hills, the lush green landscape, the pigs, geese, chickens, cats and dogs running wild. Most overwhelming, though, as you prepare to leave, is the sense of community in this village and the ease with which its residents have welcomed you into it.

Farewells are heartfelt.

The most wildly anticipated event of any trip to the Eastern Cape is likely to be the game reserve. Be prepared for the experience: Pack your binoculars, load your camera, smother your body in mosquito repellent and dress warmly.

Shamwari Game Reserve gets right to the point. From the moment you arrive, your energies are focused on three activities: thrilling game drives, gourmet eating and sleeping in luxury. Over the course of a two-night stay, you are treated to five game drives and are assured of seeing at least three of the Big Five. (This guarantee is no small feat. There are some game parks where you could spend your three days learning about the dung in your path without ever actually seeing the animals that dropped it.)

Shamwari's experienced rangers not only take you in open Land-Rovers through the wilderness; they also dine with you, answer your questions and attend to your needs. To personalize the experience, one ranger is assigned to you during your stay, and he gets to know your preferences (how late you like to sleep in the morning, whether you need tea or orange juice to get you started). He also keeps track of which animals you've already seen and which ones you refuse to leave the country without seeing.

On Shamwari's game drive, you reach incredible heights, where you feel as if you're on top of the world, surveying God's remarkable creatures--striches playfully chasing one another, zebras jetting away from your clunky vehicle, a caravan of elephants ambling far off in the distance.

You also descend to depths where the temperature drops into the low 40s. You may not see the baboons, but you can hear them baying in the hills above you. And then, when you creep up on a white rhinoceros and her 3-month-old baby, you coo in awe.

This response contrasts sharply with the glee that you express upon encountering lions sinking their teeth into fresh kill. They're eating, so they're not much interested in you, with your bold self, rolling down the window to take a better photo.

After five hours scanning the landscape (a sometimes arduous task, as you must always be alert) on a drive that began at 3 p.m. (when animals are likely to be found at their favorite watering holes) and that ended way after dark, you're ready to eat and then plunge into bed. The setting at dinner back at the lodge feels like an international murder mystery. with fellow diners from Germany, the United Kingdom and South Africa. There are 10 to a table, dining together in a rustic, dimly lit room, furtively deciding what aspects of their lives to divulge and what to be secretive about. Ah, but you're not likely to be too provocative: In the relaxed and friendly atmosphere that Shamwari encourages, doors to your rooms are left unlocked and room keys are left on a table downstairs.

At Addo National Park (a 40-minute drive from Shamwari), the dung beetle has the right of way. (This may seem absurd, but the poor, flightless insect is facing extinction.) Addo is a public park that was established in 1931 with 11 elephants. It has grown to hold a herd of 260 elephants on 30,000 acres of rolling hills, grasslands and ponds, making it the most concentrated elephant reserve in Africa. The park is a great venue for finding elephants engaged in any number of activities--playing and spraying in the water, mating, eating, fighting, caring for their young.

You may drive through Addo yourself or go out in an open Land-Rover with a field guide. Your best bet is to join the field guide; he can get you close to the other animals in the park, which include the only herd of Cape buffalo to survive into the 20th century in the Cape province, the endangered black rhinoceros, antelopes, ostriches, zebras, tortoises and hares.

Townships are where it's at. They're where you find soul-food shebeens, cool but not trendy dance clubs, hair salons and barber shops, youth centers, and a whole lot of activity on the streets. You might think that after the relatively peaceful transition to democracy three years ago, the black and colored (mixed-race) populations of South Africa would scramble out of the townships. Some have, of course, but many others prefer to remain where their community and livelihood are.

A drive through townships in Port Elizabeth reveals triumphant sights that are a result of the government's vision to transform South African society and improve standards of living--piped water where before women carried calabashes of water on their heads, electricity where paraffin heat once posed significant fire hazards, and brick homes replacing tin shacks.

Another uplifting sight is the release of creative potential. Calabash Tours extends the benefits of tourism to Port Elizabeth's townships by stopping at artists' homes and studios where their works, such as wire sculptures, linoleum-block prints and handmade wool tapestries, are for sale.

The 3-year-old company pairs a white South African, Paul Miedema, with a black South African, Maxwell Nogaya, who together conduct sensitive, insightful, well-researched tours of the townships. As the two guides begin their tour, in areas from which blacks and coloreds were forcibly removed, they describe the history of the region, reaching back to before the days of apartheid. Because Miedema and Nogaya come from vastly different backgrounds, they often defer to each other for clarification.

Miedema's strengths are his educational background, his research skills and his anti-apartheid activities, which allowed him easy access to the townships even before he established Calabash Tours. It's important to him that tourists see not only the squalor of the townships hut also the progress that's being made in them.

Missionvale, one of the poorest townships, is fighting against floods, unemployment and illness. But in addition to Sister Ethel's Mission Centre, which provides garden plots, a clinic and a day-care center, the area now has mailboxes where before no mail was delivered. It's a small advance, but one that connects residents to the rest of society.

Van Der Kemp's Kloof township is about to test the value of this tourism that Miedema keeps talking about. Its residents are putting together a proposal to promote the township's assets: one of Port Elizabeth's oldest churches, a monument and a slave bell.

Nogaya, who is studying to become an accredited tour guide, isn't as experienced or talkative as Miedema, but his intimate knowledge of township life and his willingness to share it with tourists makes him Miedema's indispensable partner. When tourists ask to stop to take a photo of women cooking a local delicacy, smileys (cheeps' heads with eyes, tongue and brain still in place), over open fires in the street, it's Nogaya who negotiates in Xhosa with the women so that they agree not to charge.

It's also Nogaya who describes Xhosa rites of passage and how urban life has modified them from their rural origins. Nogaya lives in the Kwazakhele township in a small house with his parents and brothers and sisters. He's the Maru Youth Club leader, and their traditional song-and-dance performances are another stop on Calabash's tours.

South Africa's tourism industry is still largely white, but Africans are making inroads and including aspects of their culture (such as village life and townships) that might otherwise be ignored. By being inquisitive and showing our interest in all aspects of South African society, we, as aware consumers, can impress upon tourism magnates that this trend needs not only to continue but also to be more fully integrated.

Africa--land of our forefathers, continent of our beginnings--has a powerful allure for black Americans that makes it an almost holy place that we all must visit in our lifetime. Even though few of us can trace our roots to present-day South Africa, the country nevertheless has won a special place in our hearts as we have witnessed its journey into multicultural democracy.