Cape Town - Did you know that Table Mountain was once over eight kilometres tall?
Or that Cecil John Rhodes introduced grey squirrels to Cape Town?
Or that the forest in the Hout Bay valley was completely wiped out in about thirty years in the late 1600s?
I learned all this on an unusual bus tour of Cape Town, conducted by Nechama Brodie who has just published The Cape Town Book.
The tour took place on a fresh and very windy Cape Town morning, and followed City Sightseeing routes through Cape Town central, Kirstenbosch, Hout Bay, the Atlantic seaboard and back to town via the Waterfront.
As we held on to our hats on the upper deck of the red tour bus, Brodie painted a picture of the growth of the city from its geological past through to colonisation and apartheid. We were being given a living demonstration of one the book's themes, which is to understand history by looking at geography.
As we drove, the book was passed round for us to have a quick look. I liked the look of it but didn't have long enough to digest it all. So I rely on the press release to report that its14 chapters trace the origins and expansion of Cape Town – from the City Bowl to the southern and coastal suburbs, the vast expanse of the Cape Flats and the sprawling northern areas.
“The book includes familiar attractions like Table Mountain, Kirstenbosch and the Company’s Garden, while also giving a voice to marginalised histories in areas such as Athlone, Langa, Mitchells Plain and Khayelitsha. Many of the images in the book have never been published before, and are drawn from the archives of museums, universities and public institutions, “ says the press release.
On the bus tour, Brodie said that one of her aims was to paint a picture of city that had essentially been black and integrated and had been divided in just fifty years of apartheid rule - and that certainly came vividly to life as we drove.
Sadly, you can't do such a tour with Brodie as your guide, but with the book in hand you could visit city landmarks and learn about their history. It would be a boon to travellers with a yen to learn more than just the tourist information, and for locals it might help to an understanding of how much has changed in the city, and how much has been lost over the years.
The quick glimpse I had of the book looked fascinating, and I will be wanting one in my Christmas stocking.
It costs R395
Renee Moodie, IOL
*Nechama Brodie has worked as a journalist, magazine editor, publisher and talk-show host. Nechama is the editor and co-author of the best-selling The Joburg Book and Inside Joburg. She is currently completing her MA in journalism, and is head of Training, Research and Information at Africa Check, an independent fact-checking agency.
For more information, visit www.randomstruik.co.za