Township Cultural Tour from Cape Town

Sightseeing  :  South Africa  :  Western Cape  :  Cape Town  :  Day Trips

Learn about the rich cultural history of Cape Town, while visiting the Bo-Kaap, Bontehuewel, Langa and Gugulethu townships in the Cape Flats, an area which from the 1950's became home to people that the then apartheid government deemed as non-white. Visit the District Six Museum and experience a walking tour in Langa before visiting an arts and crafts centre, a sangoma (traditional doctor), a local market and a shebeen (tavern). Also drive through Gugulethu and visit the Amy Biehl Memorial before driving through Bonteheuwel on your journey back to Cape Town.This tour not only takes you to some of the townships in the Cape Flats (an area in Cape Town which from the 1950's was designated for non-white people by the apartheid government) but also provides an insight into the cultural history of the city. Go back in the past as you begin the tour with a visit to the District Six Museum, District Six is a former inner-city residential area in Cape Town established in 1867. Historically home to former slaves, immigrants, merchants and a large number of Cape Malay brought into the country by the Dutch East Africa Company that ruled over the Cape Colony at the time. It became the scene of forced removals, as its inhabitants homes were destroyed when it was declared a whites only area in 1966. Learn more about Cape Malay culture as you drive past the brightly painted houses and cobbled stoned streets of Bo-Kaap, formerly known as the Cape Malay Quarter.

The journey continues towards the Cape Flats, an area that reminds you that even in less luxurious surroundings people can still be friendly and welcoming. Visit Cape Town's oldest township, Langa, established in 1927 as one of the many areas that were designated for Blacks Africans before the apartheid era and the setting for many protests and resistance against the apartheid government. Here you will get the opportunity to do a walking tour while interacting with the predominantly Xhosa community and learn more about their culture and way of life with visits to an arts and craft centre, local market, sangoma (traditional healer), shebeen(tavern) and local church if your tour is on a Sunday.

Proceed with a drive through Gugulethu, established in the 1960's due to overcrowding in Langa which was the only black residential area in Cape Town at the time. Inhabited by many migrant workers who moved from the Transkei region in the Eastern Cape this was also the stage for many protests and clashes with the apartheid forces. Here you will drive past the Amy Biehl Memorial as the journey closes with a drive through Bontehuewel, a predominantly coloured township, before heading back to Cape Town city centre.