Today, July 20th, 2007 was a miserably rainy and windy winters day in Cape Town. Much like the climate of Southern Europe, Cape Town winters tend to be wet as opposed to other areas of the country which, while cool, tend to be sunny and even warm in the afternoon. While this should not be a problem in turns of moving around, it does preclude boat rides to Robben Island, and/or cable car visits to the top of Table Mountain. Oh well, hopefully tomorrow.
I took advantage of the day by stopping by the Slave Lodge. As previously discussed, the Dutch East India Company needed slave labor to keep the economy of the Cape going. Indeed, during parts of the 1700s, there were more enslaved people than free. Untold numbers of slaves were shipped, in conditions of misery, to the Cape from a myriad of locations - West Africa, Mozambique/Madagascar, India, and/or Indonesia (Batavia) from the 1600s until slavery was abolished by the British in the 1830s. Sexual relations between slaves and native peoples as well as relationships between slave women and male colonists only increased the number of mixed-race slaves in the Cape. To this day, one can still see this racial intermixing in the faces of the colored population which is not seen, as clearly, in other regions of South Africa.
If not sold off to private parties upon their entering of the Cape, slaves would work for the Dutch East India Company by day and would be locked up in crowded, disease-ridden, and poorly-lit cells of the slave lodge by night. At the height of its use, the Slave Lodge housed an average of 500 to 1,000 people , including native Khoekhoe with venereal disease, prisoners and the mentally disturbed. One of the oldest 17th century buildings in Cape Town and the only remaining Dutch East India Company slave lodge in the world, the Iziko Slave Lodge Museum is now in the process of converting all of its space to the celebration of the heritage and legacy of the enslaved. One can, however, still see ancient Eqyptian artifacts on the second floor of the museum. The museum also hopes to soon be included on the UNESCO and WTO International Slave Route Project, which was begun in 1995, and continues to excavate items related to the lives of slaves changing human wrongs to human rights.
I also had the opportunity to meet and talk today with Robben Island education program officer - Thotoane Pekeche. As many of you know, Robben Island housed a maximum security prison for both criminals and political prisoners during Apartheid. Now, it is also known as a nature reserve and is a world heritage site. I will write about this conversation when I have an opportunity to visit the island. I was supposed to visit today but, due to bad weather, all boats to the island were grounded.
I took advantage of the day by stopping by the Slave Lodge. As previously discussed, the Dutch East India Company needed slave labor to keep the economy of the Cape going. Indeed, during parts of the 1700s, there were more enslaved people than free. Untold numbers of slaves were shipped, in conditions of misery, to the Cape from a myriad of locations - West Africa, Mozambique/Madagascar, India, and/or Indonesia (Batavia) from the 1600s until slavery was abolished by the British in the 1830s. Sexual relations between slaves and native peoples as well as relationships between slave women and male colonists only increased the number of mixed-race slaves in the Cape. To this day, one can still see this racial intermixing in the faces of the colored population which is not seen, as clearly, in other regions of South Africa.
If not sold off to private parties upon their entering of the Cape, slaves would work for the Dutch East India Company by day and would be locked up in crowded, disease-ridden, and poorly-lit cells of the slave lodge by night. At the height of its use, the Slave Lodge housed an average of 500 to 1,000 people , including native Khoekhoe with venereal disease, prisoners and the mentally disturbed. One of the oldest 17th century buildings in Cape Town and the only remaining Dutch East India Company slave lodge in the world, the Iziko Slave Lodge Museum is now in the process of converting all of its space to the celebration of the heritage and legacy of the enslaved. One can, however, still see ancient Eqyptian artifacts on the second floor of the museum. The museum also hopes to soon be included on the UNESCO and WTO International Slave Route Project, which was begun in 1995, and continues to excavate items related to the lives of slaves changing human wrongs to human rights.
I also had the opportunity to meet and talk today with Robben Island education program officer - Thotoane Pekeche. As many of you know, Robben Island housed a maximum security prison for both criminals and political prisoners during Apartheid. Now, it is also known as a nature reserve and is a world heritage site. I will write about this conversation when I have an opportunity to visit the island. I was supposed to visit today but, due to bad weather, all boats to the island were grounded.
No comments:
Post a Comment