The tour at the slave lodge
museum was such a moving experience and it is definitely one of the best things
I’ve done since been in Cape Town. I
think what the made the experience so amazing was our tour guide, Lucy Campbell. She was
AMAZING! When we first arrived at the
museum, I really thought that the tour was going to be like any other tour
where we would have a tour guide giving us their prepared speech about what was
in the museum and what it was all about. But it was the complete opposite, Lucy
was able to talk about the history without being biased and she didn’t leave
any details out. She spoke with such emotion and vigor that it really made the
tour something that I would remember.
Before the tour began, I noticed that she
had a toolbox and I wondered how she would incorporate regular tools into the
tour. After she gave the general information
about the tour and everything, she began to bring out all the things that were
in the toolbox. Some of the things included a small bottle of wine, a pack of
hair, a tree branch, dirt from the land, etc. Each of these things had a major
impact in slavery. For example, Lucy said that slave masters would give their
slaves wine in order for them to develop an addiction to it. She then said that this was one of the roots
that contributed to alcoholism. This made me realize that a lot of the negative
things in the world, such as alcoholism began during the times of slavery.
Throughout the tour, I learned new things about slavery that I never even knew
or would have even thought about.
The one piece of information that stuck with me
throughout the tour was that slaves didn’t come from just Africa, they came
from China, Indonesia, India and other countries close to Africa. Another new
thing that I learned was that the slaves created their own language in order to
communicate with each other and hid what they were saying from the Dutch. In
order to have to understand them, the Dutch had to learn their language.
Everything that I learned was information that I never learned in school which
where it’s expected to receive this type of information.
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| Lucy Campbell of Transcending History Tours unpacks her toolbox as she explains the story of slavery in the Western Cape |
One of the best parts of the tour was when
Lucy brought us to the actual site of where slaves were sold. When we got there I didn’t even know that’s
what it was and I could barely read the writing on the post. I was amazed to
see something that was apart of Cape Town’s history treated with such
disrespect. I expected the post to be something that would be sectioned off and
maintained in order for people to remember history, but it was the complete
opposite. The slave lodge museum tour was amazing and taught some valuable
lessons. I appreciated this tour and it gave me a new perspective on history.
Lucy was an amazing tour guide and it contributed to amazing experience.
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