Great Architecture or Homage to the Barbarism committed by the dutch in South Africa?
"As the oldest city in South Africa, Cape Town boasts a number of historical buildings, many of which are still in use today and open to visitors. The city’s architecture is a testament to the many varying influences in South Africa’s unique history." - (Quote from a Cape Town, South Africa, Afrika Tourist Site) Do you agree with the wording?
Example of dutch Architecture in Cape Town, South Africa, Afrika
Given the factual history of Afrika during the 1500s until the near present, atrocities have been a way of life. From apartheid (jim crow in the west) to supposed equality (though the money many claim is still not equally distributed) we ask the question. Is colonial architecture strictly seen as "architecture" or former trophies by various grades of europeans for their barbaric treatment of fellow hueman beings? How do the originial inhabitants of what is now "South Africa" feel about these structures?
Residential Cape dutch architecture in South Africa, Afrika
Do they marvel at the colors and the use of gables (seen in cape dutch architecture in the west cape) or do they see the buildings that their once and still glourious ancestors died building never knowing freedom? Or even worse having known freedom and having it taken. Long series of questions but to find the answer would be worth it.
We will make efforts to ask african architecture enthusiasts, citizens and students their thoughts. We wonder if the generation gap between student and elder will generate a very different response. Feel free to answer yourself and let us know your thoughts - respectfully.
Let us also say that the quote in the opening of this article was found on a tourist site and answering our own question - we find the wording odd. The architecture is NOT a "testament" to any influence; present day South Afrikaners were forced to build this style of architecture because the foreign invaders needed to remember home. Similar to the 1953 Bantu Education Act, Dutch architecture did not assimilate into the true Afrikan culture it was forced upon it.
