Our education continued on Thursday when we took a delightful tour of the Bo Kapp neighborhood, where many Muslims live, and we shopped in the aromatic spice shop and learned about the incredibly fresh and delicious ingredients of real curry. Even better, we then visited the home of Faldela Tolker, who gave us a hands-on lesson in the art of forming, rolling, and frying roti, and spicing chicken curry. Better yet, we sat down to eat it and it was utterly scrumptious!
Our wonderful guide, Nazaam, was born in 1980, and gave us his first-hand experience of being a ‘colored’ person under Apartheid (‘colored’ is not an insulting or derogatory term, he assured us). Nazaam told us he had very little idea of the institution and its actual impact on his life. In the strictly stratified society he said he knew and interacted with only colored people. The white, Indian, colored, and black people lived separately until Apartheid was dismantled. It seemed a bit of a tidy explanation, but Nazaam may not want to be viewed as a victim, or perhaps he prefers to downplay his country’s recent history. Tourism is his business, after all. Or maybe Nazaam’s parents just did a good job of protecting him.
