Some Thoughts on Mowbray and My Usual Cape Town Neighborhoods

Well, I should probably begin with the place I slept in and spent a lot of time. The above is the house where I was over-charged by that horrid white woman from Johannesburg. It's quite beautiful though, as were the majority of the houses on that small block. If I remember correctly, the houses on my street were part of a Cape Dutch style with multicolored houses connected to each other and somewhat reminiscent of Mediterranean and colonial Spanish architectural styles in Latin America. With five large enough bedrooms, 2 bathrooms (unfortunately, only one shower though!), and a spacious kitchen (well, large enough), the house was perfect (besides being charged a fortune by that horrid woman!). 

The neighbors on the block seemed to be mostly white homeowners or students from at the University of Cape Town. The rest of the neighborhood, besides some other student housing in Mowbray (dormitories) and UCT properties, was mostly homeowners (often white, especially on the other side of Main Road and closer to the University of Cape Town), mostly black apartment dwellers, students, and an assortment of various peoples. I think Mowbray used to be much whiter back in the day, but after apartheid went through some tough years of crime, burglaries, and muggings. Oh, and one could never forget the call to prayer from that small mosque only a few blocks away, so there is definitely a Muslim presence.

Beautiful city, Cape Town, despite all its flaws. The natural landscape makes it beautiful much more than urban layout or architecture. Indeed, perhaps Cape Town truly is a bit of paradise. 

From what I could tell, Mowbray was mostly black and with its gritty and filthy streets, far less affluent than the nearby posh Rondesbosch or Claremont. There is not too much in terms of entertainment or interest in Mowbray. The house I resided in was very close to the Mowbray train station so there were a lot of minibuses and trains passing through, some restaurants and take away joints (but nothing fancy or upscale), a plethora of homeless people (mostly Coloured and black, including some who will ring your front door bell and beg for money), and some rather poorly lighted side streets (that could be somewhat frightening when I was walking around late at night solo, but nobody ever tried to rob me or anything). I also lived right next to the Cape Peninsula University of Technology, so several students from there passed through the neighborhood (and some primary school students who appeared to come mostly from the townships and attended school in what, though better than 'mud schools,' was quite inferior to the infrastructure, equipment, and spaces alloted to white students in wealthier neighborhoods. 

I did not talk much to the neighbors, but went to a house party hosted by one house at the beginning of the semester. It was, as to be expected, mostly UCT students and nothing special (and wow, it took forever to use their filthy bathroom because of some inebriated fool taking his time and messing it up). The other neigbhors consisted of a gay couple (white, I believe) who complained about noise, some postgraduate students who could be very annoying but had an adorable cat, Shadow, who often slept in our house and was a 'people person.' Besides these folks and some other international students living ont he other side of the block, I did not spend much time talking to folks in the neighborhood. There was the cool Congolese manager of a sub-par restaurant/take away place by the train station I spoke to often, and some of the Somali-owned cornerstores I stopped by could be quite gregarious, I did not particularly care too much for Mowbray.

In retrospect, Mowbray was probably a better place to stay than, say, Rondebosch, or wealthier southern suburbs further away from the city centre. I was close enough to them that if I wanted to or needed something from upscale shopping centers (such as the mall in Claremont), restaurants, expensive supermarkets, or just plain bourgie spaces, I could get there easily. In addition, it was very close to UCT's campus, there was a lot of public transportation, etc. If only there was safe, affordable public transportation at night, then Cape Town would've been even better! 

Other benefits of the neighborhood was exposure to some of the working-class and lower middle class enclaves and environments of Cape Town, as well as the stark class inequality. I think I only saw one white homeless person or beggar, and he was a gay beggar who appeared in some documentary project on homelessness. The rest were mostly black or coloured, though I suppose the neighborhood is mostly black, too. In addition, the dirty streets and probably overexaggerated fear of crime aided me in learning to watch my back and keep it real about my surroundings at all times. Furthermore, I was close to Observatory and Main Road, so I could get to more 'nightlife-friendly' spots, restaurants, internet cafes, and even Woodstock, if I wanted to. Indeed, there is a weekly event (held every Saturday or Sunday morning) in Woodstock that illustrates the pervasive gentrification of that neighborhood), the Old Biscuit Mill.

This was taken at a Muslim cemetery in Observatory, a walkable distance from Mowbray. There was not much to do there (unless you're into necrophilia, maybe?) but it was interesting to read the names and see some of the history of the area. 

Woodstock was a perfect example of gentrification in an urban context where wealthy and middle-class whites (the market is overwhelmingly attended by whites, and they even hire private security to guard the area, if I remember correctly, so that mostly white folks could purchase overpriced junk, food, etc. The food was delicious though, probably the best or second-best falafels I ate in South Africa.) 'revitalize' and takeover urban spaces in a mostly Coloured and Black neighborhood. Indeed, I wish I had spent more time in Woodstock outside of that mall and some evening walks (including one unsuccessful trip for plantains that ended with delicious, fresh grapes instead!). 

What fascinated me about Woodstock, however, besides how close it was to Mowbray (the neighborhoods are separated by Observatory) was the prevalence of dilapidated houses, urban decay, African markets, and poverty (I once saw a homeless man sleeping in a structure composed of several boxes on the street) juxtaposed to wealthy bastions of whiteness at the Old Biscuit Mill or the young, 'hipster-like' white folks establishing themselves in the area. Like Observatory, which Woodstock resembled quite a bit in the designs and exteriors of private homes, the history of the area being a 'gray area' where housing segregation was not as strict as other areas of Cape Town made the area multiracial. Indeed, if I remember correctly, Mowbray always had a large Coloured presence before and during apartheid, largely to house domestics and industrial laborers for the white middle and upper classes.

All things considered, I actually like Mowbray. I miss the somewhat 'gritty' feel of the neighborhood, the large numbers of people from all over in that one place and the surrounding neighborhoods all somewhat well-connected to each other. The neighborhood itself was not amazing by any means, but the proximity to the city centre and other interesting neighborhoods, as well as the large number of black-owned barbershops, the decent KFC, Indian-owned corner stores selling meat-heavy versions of samosas (not as good as real Indian samosas by any means, but delicious), and a mixture of students, workers, middle-class professionals, an assortment of neighborhood characters (such as the nice Coloured beggar who actually asked me to give him a sip of my can of Coke one day and once followed me half a block over it, which of course I had to refuse and start walking faster!), and the lively streets as students from UCT, CPUT, and that primary school all walked the streets and added to the cacophony of street noise. It was, in its own peculiar way, magical. Mowbray lies, quite literally, between privilege and peril as the suburbs further south were increasingly whiter and bourgie while the other direction, toward 'downtown' Cape Town, was poorer, more Coloured or Black (yet, these neighborhood were of course better off than most of the Cape Flats, because it was integrated into the public transportation system, closer to the city centre and wealthy suburbs, etc.). 

Now, if only Mowbray and some of these other neighborhoods could quit with the walls, barbed wire, and extra security measures. That, in my opinion, made the neighborhood seem more dangerous than it really is (as well as fuel fear of public streets at night, etc.). Oh well, I didn't see anything as bad as some of the gigantic walls I noticed in parts of Johannesburg or the hiring of neighborhood private security, a path pursued by wealthy areas like Claremont to monitor and 'police' the area.