The Cape Town Book presents a fresh picture of the Mother City, one that brings together all its stories. From geology and beaches to forced removals and hip-hop, Nechama Brodie, author of the best-selling The Joburg Book, has delved deeply into the hidden past of Cape Town to emerge with a lucid and compelling account of South Africa’s fi rst city, its landscape and its people. The book’s 14 chapters trace the origins and expansion of Cape Town – from the City Bowl to the southern and coastal suburbs, the vast expanse of the Cape Flats and the sprawling northern areas. Offering a nuanced, yet balanced, perspective on Cape Town, the book includes familiar attractions like Table Mountain, Kirstenbosch and the Company’s Garden, while also giving a voice to marginalised communities in areas such as Athlone, Langa, Mitchells Plain and Khayelitsha. Many of the images in the book have never been published before, and are drawn from the archives of museums, universities and public institutions. This beautifully illustrated, information-rich book is the defi nitive portrait of the wind-blown, contradictory city at the southern tip of Africa that more than three million people call home

Cape Town is a place between two oceans, between first and third worlds, between east and west. The majority of its citizens: a people between black and white, native and settler, African and European. How can we understand a city that is most assuredly in Africa, though not””seemingly””of it? By exploring this city’s tween-ness, we can begin to understand the soul of this town””haunted by its past, unsure of its future. A short book just over 100 pages, it allows readers to quickly identify the unique pulse of the city, its throbbing historical, social, cultural and political beat that underlies the transactions between all Capetonians. This is not a substitute for a traditional guidebook, but a perfect companion to one, filling in the intimate details that other books leave out.

The South African novel of identity that "deserves a wide audience on a par with Nadine Gordimer."

Simultaneously city and wilderness, Cape Town is a place of haunting natural beauty and captivating urban charm. This insightful portrait of the city's history, architectural heritage, scenic wonders, people and diverse cultures will appeal to all those who share an interest in and a love for South Africa's mother city.

The main body of this book is divided into seven day-tours in and around Cape Town. Following this are six itineraries - the West Coast and Namaqualand, Southern Cape Coast, Stellenbosch, Paarl and Franschhoek, and the Garden Route. A directory listing covers shopping, nightlife, cuisine, events and more.

This study provides a window into the lives of ordinary South Africans more than ten years after the end of apartheid, with the promises of the democracy movement remaining largely unfulfilled. Catherine Besteman explores the emotional and personal aspects of the transition to black majority rule by homing in on intimate questions of love, family, and community and capturing the complex, sometimes contradictory voices of a wide variety of Capetonians. Her evaluation of the physical and psychic costs to individuals involved in working for social change is grounded in the experiences of the participants and illu-minates two overarching dimensions of life in Cape Town: the aggregate forces determined to maintain the apartheid-era status quo, and the grassroots efforts to effect social change.

"The overriding strength of this book is that it places people--ordinary people--at the centre of memory, at the centre of historical and contemporary experience, and thus at the centre of reimagining and owning the city of Cape Town. It is as they speak--what they choose to say, what they choose to remain silent about--that we become aware of the possibilities of the city, if it really did embrace all its people, in all of their diversity." --Mike van Graan, from the foreword Cities are not only made of buildings and roads, but they are also constructed through popular imagination and memory as evidenced in this collection of oral and visual histories drawn from the people who live, work, and creatively express themselves in Cape Town, South Africa. The collected works move beyond apartheid history to analyze the reflective ways in which people are coming to terms with that history through memory work, performance, and memorialization.