Cape Town, South Africa’s legislative capital, was founded by Dutch settlers in 1652. Called ‘The Mother City’ for its role as South Africa’s first city.This immense metropolis courted by giant Table Bay and the heights of Table Mountain, it is a chaotic and fascinating agglomeration of neighborhoods and townships. The city is lined with skyscrapers and colorful cottages, but also with crowded districts that are unsafe for venturing out with a backpack on your back and a camera around your neck. Here, the marks of Apartheid are still open wounds, despite the extraordinary example of resilience and peace represented by Nelson Mandela. After all, seventy years of ruthless segregationist policy cannot be erased in a few decades. The road to equality is still long, but South Africa’s Nobel Peace Prize laureate and first black president was able to point in the right direction. And the rainbow nation pauses to honor him on the centenary of his birth on July 18, 1918, under the motto of ‘Be the legacy’ (a call to keep his political and cultural legacy alive).
