The amazing colors of cultures, traditions history wide spread from one corner of Cape Town to the other, are the outcome of both the excruciating and electrifying history of South Africa. To know the Cape, as Africans know it, lets see how this rocking city of today emerged and battled with what destiny prevailed to be the path to glory for South Africa!

It started, long before the Dutch East India Company (Vereenigde Oost-Indische Compagnie; VOC) established a supply depot in the area today known as Cape Town, “San” and “Khoikhoi” were the known settlers collectively known as the Khoisan. In those days of high partisanship, the indigenous people refused to deal with the Dutch intruders, causing the VOC to import slaves from various countries including Madagascar, India, Ceylon, Malaya and Indonesia to deal with the colony’s unremitting labor shortage. This beautifully woven history and colorful nation was seeded by intermarriages among the colony’s settlers, slaves and the Khoisan due to shortage of women in the locals.

Although it solves the secret of today’s “Cape colored population” and also helps explain the unique character of the city’s “Cape Malay population”. However, the reputation of “Tavern of the Seas” is another interesting tale from the precious chapters of Cape History. During 150 years of Dutch rule, Kaapstad, as the Cape settlement became recognized, flourished and gained a wider reputation as the "Tavern of the Seas", for being a hedonism port used by every sailor traveling between Europe and the Orient. The revolution began by the end of 18th century, when the Dutch East India Company (VOC) was nearly bankrupt, making Cape Town an easy target for British imperialist interests in the region. Following the British defeat of the Dutch in 1806 at Bloubergstrand, 25 kilometers north of Cape Town, the colony was ceded to the British monarchy on 13 August 1814. The slave trade was abolished in 1808, and all slaves were emancipated in 1833 making it the end of chapter.

Another, historical attraction of Cape Town was the discovery of “Diamond”, this aspect of the history is very well portrayed in the movie “Blood Diamond – 2006” staring the Titanic star “Leonardo Decaprio”. The exploitation of diamonds and gold in the Transvaal region of South Africa in the 1870s and 1880s led to rapid change although mostly in the disadvantage of the common and largely in the advantage of the foreign bodies. Cape Town was soon no longer the single dominant metropolis in the country, but as a major port it too was a beneficiary of the mineral wealth that laid the foundation for an industrial society. The same wealth led to imperialist dreams of grandeur on the part of Cecil John Rhodes, the premier of the Cape Colony in 1890, who had made his millions at the head of De Beers Consolidated Mines.

Another great yet sadistic event that hit Cape, following a plague; Africans were moved to two locations, one near the docks and the other at Ndabeni about 6 kilometers east of the city, an early introduction of racial segregation. In 1966, the District Six area close to the city centre was declared a Whites-only area. This and many similar declarations under the Group Areas Act resulted in whole communities being uprooted and cast out to the Cape Flats. The government tried for decades to eradicate largely Xhosa squatter camps, such as Crossroads, which were the focal point for black resistance to the apartheid regime. In the last attempt between May and June 1986, an estimated 70,000 people were driven from their homes, and many killed. Even this brutal attack was unsuccessful in eradicating the townships, and the government accepted the inevitable and began to upgrade conditions.

The beginning of a new era for South Africa heralded, when only hours after being released from prison on 11 February 1990, Nelson Mandela made his first public speech in decades from the balcony of Cape Town’s City Hall. The days had finally changed coloring the horizons of Cape Town with richness, freedom, equality and forming a new today reckoned around the world for its uniqueness, hospitality and friendliness equal for all black and white.

The rich history has contributed a lot in the improvements of Cape Town both economically and socially. Cape Town, as today we know it has emerged as a prosperous and impressive country making South Africa the only “Tourism Capital of the world”. To pay homage to these splendors of South Africa, to know the heart of South Africa as only Africans know it and to be amazed by the stories of raise and falls visit South Africa and see it to believe it! You can book cheap flights to South Africa online, over the phone or email, there are a million gateways available and a million faces waiting to greet you with the friendliest of smile and bestest of hospitability. For more details visit South Africa flights – TravelHouseUK