Cynthia's introduction to Cape Town

Cynthia atop Signal Hill with Lion's Head in the background.

Greetings from Cape Town! A week has gone by and I’ve learned so much about South African culture. When I first arrived in Cape Town at the airport I was very surprised at how diverse the atmosphere is here. I saw many different kinds of people and I quickly thought to myself “well airports are always full of people from different places.” To my surprise after we left the airport I still continued to see a variety of people here in Cape Town. This first week has been filled with so many memorable moments but one that stuck out to me in particular was a tour of the Slave Lodge by Lucy Campbell.  During the tour I learned many things about the Trans-Indian slave trade which involved South Africa and many countries along the Indian Ocean. I discovered that “blacks” were not the only people that endured slavery. In addition, for a number of years after slavery was abolished people were then separated by skin color in South Africa under Apartheid. Some similarities that I noticed with slavery in America and slavery in South Africa is that the people with the lighter skin tone were treated better than the people with the darker skin. Below is a picture overlooking only a portion of Cape Town, but I must add there is more to this picture than meets the eye. 

Cape Town as viewed from Signal Hill