Who do you trust?

I have been busy with the school programs and painting workshops in Khayelitsha as well as starting the mural project in Woodstock. On Wednesday we did a bicycle trip to the Lion's head mountain, 600 meters high to see the beautiful sunset of Cape Tow.

In Cape Town there is a strong fear towards townships and poorer neighbourhoods which are struggling with gang violence. People I met in Stellenbosch as well as residents here in Woodstock and Salt River would never enter to these neighbourhoods with thrilling reputations. There is a difference between the residents and non-residents of these neighbourhoods: the people living in these areas don't have so strong reactions of their living areas as well a the crime and fear is not so dominant discourse in everyday discussion. It seems that the fear of crime (so now we are not talking about the crime itself) is grasping stronger rather to the people who have a choice not to live in these areas than to the residents of these neighbourhoods. 

It is interesting how there seems to be big difference of the feeling of safety between Khayelitsha (mainly a black neighbourhood) and Lotus River/Ottery area (colored). My colleagues and friends who can be said to be colored wouldn't go to the townships, but still they agree with my feelings that the colored areas with gang violence feel more dangerous than townships. When I was explaining my personal feelings of safety while driving in the city, my housemates agreed with me "Here in Salt River and other coloured neighbourhoods has a lack of feeling of community. People don't trust each other and there is a lot of crime. In Khayelitsha they have stronger feeling of community."

On the other hand, still the seriousness of the criminality in Khayelitsha cannot be overlooked. In our last meeting my colleague opened her speech by saying :"I heard you guys have had hard time in Ottery". Everyone started to laugh. She was referring to the shootings that have been happening in Ottery around two months ago, and it was so funny because compared to the more random occasions in Ottery, shootings is everyday reality in Khayelitsha.

In general, my colored friends wouldn't enter alone to the black neighborhoods (and other way around) because of hostility towards "different groups". This is why people choose to live in the neighborhoods of the "same color". My colored friend tried to explain it to me: "If I would live in a black neighborhood, I wouldn't feel fo comfortable. I would be an outsider there, I couldn't relax and trust." Also the tips that I get about going to these areas is to go always with some local instead of by myself.

It seems that there is a lack of trust between different communities in the city of Cape Town. Instead of focusing to only prevent gang violence, more profound question in urban policy planning could be how to increase the trust between these groups of people as well as between individuals. Few days ago I saw a beautiful scene dealing with these issues in a local theatre in Khayelitsha:

Shack teathre, Makukhanye Art Room in Khayelitsha