Cape Town - Ever wondered what it was like growing up in the Bo-Kaap, one of Cape Town’s oldest suburbs, or wanted to know what really happens when the sun sets in Simon’s Town?
Finding out from the people who know it all is now just a click away.
VoiceMap App, a first of its kind location-aware audio application, offers guided tours through 10 Cape Peninsula sites.
Capetonians Lauren Edwards and Iain Manley created the app to relay local people’s stories.
Manley and Edwards met last year while creating new content for the operators of the city’s open-top tour buses.
“Open-top buses worldwide use location-aware systems that play commentary at specific GPS locations. Most tell a city’s story with only one or two voices, which doesn’t allow for diversity. Attempting to relate the story of the Bo-Kaap in the same way as that of the colonial Company’s Garden or the Grand Parade – where Nelson Mandela addressed thousands of ecstatic people after his release from prison – was an immensely frustrating task,” Manley said.
“We struggled to capture emotion without the personal opinions, anecdotes and sense of ownership reflected in the words ‘I love’, ‘I remember’ and ‘I hope’.” He said the app would be available for download on iPhone today and for Android at the end of October.
Edwards said all routes incorporate prominent local landmarks and the little-known histories surrounding them. The storytellers plan, narrate and publish routes of their own.
“Shereen Habib’s Bo-Kaap VoiceMap is a great example. Her route is historical, but it’s her story. She was there as a young girl, screaming down those steep hills on her bike, while apartheid gained momentum. She was a part of the fight against it as a young woman. And she’s still there, watching her grandchildren scream down the hills…,” said Edwards.
To download the app visit https://voicemap.me/
Cape Times