February 2006) Is Cape Town as beautiful as the pictures?
Yes, Cape Town is a very beautiful city. It is often referred to as the Mother City, being the oldest city in SA. It is a city of huge contrasts, enormous extremes of poverty and privilege, degradation and conservation. The Table Mountain National Park is a world heritage site, as is Robben Island, with one of the highest concentrations of plant biodiversity in the world. Culturally it is a mix of African, European, and the East, spicy food and high tea, all mixed up together. It is also the least African city in SA, possibly because of the proportion of white and coloured people living here. All worth a visit. (February 2006) I’m reading a book called Africa and Africans . . . that is actually a pretty decent sociological introduction to the continent, although I suspect it is written for an undergraduate introductory course in African studies. Tell me about kinship among the Xhosa and Zulu. How much has it remained traditional? Is polygyny practiced, and if so, how does that affect l
