Cape Town, certainly one of the most beautiful cities in the world. I would like to say the most beautiful but I know you won’t agree with me unless you are firstly a Cape Townian or secondly a South African.
Cape Town is a trilingual city although you would find that some people can speak up to seven or eight official South African languages. This beautiful country has got eleven official languages. (We certainly have the most inclusive constitution. That is not always a good thing but I’m not going to discuss that here.)
The three main languages that we speak in Cape Town are Afrikaans, English and Xhosa. Afrikaans is by far the dominant language in Cape Town but people tend to speak more English when they outside there homes. So we could say that Afrikaans is most people’s home language with English second.
The reason for the three languages is the different groupings that Cape Town is made up of. To talk about that I’ve got to refer to the race issue and a little bit of history. I know people, especially is South Africa just don’t want to talk about the race issue because of our history.
Cape Town is made up of three main groups; “Coloureds, Whites and Blacks”. The “black” group is known as Xhosas. This group has always been part of South Africa and Africa as a continent. At the moment they are the minority because most Xhosas live in the Eastern Cape. Cape Town is in the Western Cape. You would find that a lot of them understands Afrikaans and can even speak it but because of apartheid refuses to speak it and sometimes even pretends not to know it at all. During the apartheid years all groups were forced to speak and be were taught in Afrikaans. Their mother tongue were ignored.
The middle group are just called whites. This group is descends from Europe (The Netherlands, Germany, France, and England). According to history the first “whites” landed in South Africa and specifically Cape Town in 1652 under the leadership of Jan Van Riebeeck. They were Dutch and the other countries followed later.
With this different groups came Malaysians as their slaves.
Imagine the melting pot of languages that were brought to South Africa. People could not understand each other and a new language had to somehow come out of all of this. The Malaysians, as slaves, were the first people to speak Afrikaans. A big chunk of Afrikaans was taken from Dutch. The “whites” would later claim Afrikaans as their language.
People start to sexually “mix”, in secret of course. “Blacks” and “whites”; Malaysians and “blacks”; Malaysians and “whites”; out of this mixing was born the group that people referred to as “coloureds”.
The “coloureds” and “whites” adopted Afrikaans as their main language. Population wise the “coloured” group became the dominant group in the Western and Northern Cape provinces. (This is the group that the politicians target in the Western Cape and specifically in Cape Town for obvious reasons. The political parties are at the moment electioneering for the elections in April this year and the “coloured” group, not surprising, the targeted voter.)
Apartheid or segregation for those who does not know what it is brought separate suburbs with it. People in countries like the United States of America would know what I’m talking about.
English is the common language or the in-betwener but some people made it their home language. English became the business language and some people speak it because it makes them feel “superior”. (I personally think this is because of the legacy of apartheid. The so-called black grouping detested Afrikaans and some people, the “coloureds” –to be precise- did not want to associate themselves with Afrikaans. ) Yet Afrikaans is still the dominant language in Cape Town.
Cape Town, a western cultured city, is infused with Malaysian and Xhosa culture. This makes it an interesting city to live in. The people are friendly, warm and kind. The rest of South Africa calls Cape Town the Sleeping City because we are never in a hurry. Business people can be frustrated by our pace. Holidaymakers love Cape Town.
With its beautiful beaches, mountains, vineyards and friendly people you cant help to love this place. What can be miserable is the winter rains and from time to time when the southeaster is blowing us away.
Cape Town is nestled at the foot of Africa, where the Indian and Atlantic oceans unite. In the winter you would stay away from the beaches on the Atlantic side because the water is very cold, but some of our most beautiful beaches are on that side. I’m talking about Camps Bay, Blaauwberg and Clifton; with Clifton and Llandudno as the playgrounds of the rich.
The warmer waters are on the east side, the Indian ocean side. Four of South Africa‘s biggest cities are on that side. They are Cape Town, Port Elizabeth, East London and Durban (also one of the top holiday cities).
The mother city, as Cape Town is referred to, is waiting on you and with the Soccer World Cup 2010 at hand, why not book now?
Reserve now while our currency is weak, it will definitely safe you money.
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