Khayelitsha

My friend Kristen and I spent the night in Khayelitsha, the largest township in Cape Town. The place is home to around 1.5 million people, about a quarter of the population of the city. Most white South Africans have never been there.

Townships are colorful places, full of hand-painted signs and murals.

Melissa

Joe Slovo

We visited the Joe Slovo informal settlement. Below are the inside and outside of one of the shacks. No matter how long I spend in South Africa, I don't really get used to seeing these places.

Melissa

Guga S'Thebe

The Guga S'Thebe community center in Langa provides various services such as computer classes and job counseling to residents of the township. Cool murals, too.

At the community center, local people learn to make and paint ceramic dishes. The center is also a venue for local craftspeople to sell work to tourists.

Melissa

Langa Township

Amber and Jeff and I took a tour of Langa township. Langa was a township created for black South Africans during apartheid, and the area is still almost entirely black today.

The townships are generally poor areas, so it was interesting to see a section of relatively upscale homes within Langa. The apartheid government built these houses close to the freeway because they hoped passing foreigners would think all black people lived in nice places.

It's common to see shops in shipping containers on the sidewalk. This shop sells telephone minutes.

They were selling chickens on the sidewalk, too.

Melissa