Here on the Shape of the Cape today you can see a little video clip of a tour I did a little while back into the hinterland. It was off my normal route and out of the way. Usually I’m on the coast of Africa, but this time I went slightly inland. From a town called George, we drove over a mountain pass and into the desert, which is distinctly different from the coast where I normally reside. And it looks like we have gone back in time.
The difference is quite remarkable between the two regions, on several levels. Obviously the climate shifts as does the vegetation and we find ourselves in an old, dry run down looking area. It looks like a cowboy wild west town. Fewer people live here and it is sparsely dotted with trees that spring up from the dry dusty desert floor.
The culture of the people here is that of farmers, mostly sheep since its dry, and they culture is more Afrikaner, which are the descendants of the “boers”. They are the original Dutch and French settlers or colonisers. This is a different community compared to the descendants of the British. I’m personally descended from a mixture of both so the cultural divide is not huge. However, they did have a war about 120 years ago – the Anglo-Boer war. Here the British fought against the Boers or Dutch settlers, who were here first.
Such is the colonial history of the Cape and the entire South Africa of course. The British took over the Cape from the Dutch who colonised it first. This was in the 1800s, when the Brits rose to power as the rulers of the high seas, and the Dutch dwindled in power. The trade routes and shipping lanes all passed by the Cape of Good Hope and so South Africa was considered a crucial refreshment point for them.
You really are reminded of the history of the place when you come to these old desert towns. They look as if they have been left behind in history as the world marched on toward the future. I see not many people actually watch video clips uploaded here, so I don’t expect much readership or viewers. The subject matter is also not particularly juicy, and may be quite dry, like a desert town in a remote and unattractive region.
The history of the people and the society here still lingers, and the languages are distinct in their relation to English or Dutch here, though there is little animosity left now among the white settler descendants. We are such a minority in the land, only 10% of the population and are united by our white skin compared to the rest of the black African society. So old enemies are united as the outsider minority, no longer in control of the land, as in the days of Apartheid.
Now the black African government run the nation and that’s for the best. Even they have multiple tribes and we have 13 official languages in South Africa, so the diversity is significant.
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