Gospel Tour in Langa - on foot and face-to-face

All praise to one of the most spiritual ways to experience townships in South Africa

I must confess, I haven't been to church in 16 years. Now I'm suddenly standing in a big hall in Langa, clapping and dancing to gospel tunes. What has changed? The political system, for one, and it didn't happen overnight.

South Africa made global news headlines when democracy came into power in 1994. In his inauguration speech to the country and the world, former president Nelson Mandela looked on the past, the present and the future with compassion, determination and hope. "The moment to bridge the chasms that divide us has come," he urged the country and the world.

Time travelling back to 2010, a company called Camissa is taking this sentiment to heart as the world again turns its eye on South Africa, this time for the scores to the FIFA 2010 World Cup. 

Spread the word - Langa is lovely

Camissa Travel And Marketing conducts tours through various townships, offering visitors a chance to learn about the lives and cultures of people.  This helps to develop a more realistic and empathic view on places that often appear different face-to-face than they are portrayed by local and international news media. With a little help from inspired, informed friends like tour guide Samantha Mtinini, new insights to new worlds are right on your doorstep.

Samantha's descriptive insight into the history and spirit of Langa combined with a sensory exploration of its offerings demonstrate that Langa is alive with humanity and ingenuity, celebration and reparation.

Sunday is a special day to visit. From uniformed ladies on their way to church to wooden food stalls lined with fresh free range chickens waiting for the roast to sidewalk stands selling just-cooked meat delicacies, one feels a sense of exuberance and organisation.

A visit to a hostel is sobering, as is a housing development and squatter camp. We then try a homemade beer I've dubbed the "umquombothi experience".  The beer, served in a single bucket for communal ritual and after-hours entertainment has a yeasty flavour that goes down easily.

This is balanced by a dynamic session in a charismatic church, with worshippers welcoming us to participate freely. Despite not knowing the words, I feel a strong sense of elation and exuberance, and am happy to get in line as we snake around the space to the rhythm and melody of charismatic gospel songs.

The journey concludes with a driven tour through a neighbouring township with different demographics, population size and mood to Langa, and we are dropped back where we started with a whole new perspective on where the real Cape Town really is.

What strikes me most profoundly of the whole morning is the extraordinary conditions that ordinary people live under. To see a hostel room with three single beds squeezed in and know that it sleeps up to 17 people nightly is an eye opener. To learn that the spirit of uBuntu prevails (a practical African philosophy which, roughly translated, means 'I am because you are') and residents often share financial burdens and personal joys is inspiring. To understand the challenge for an individual or an expanding family, for school leavers and job seekers seeking privacy and independence through informal settlements is humbling.

These hand-built shacks have no insulation, no foundations and no protection against fire or floods. But between their corrugated and cardboard walls, and in the streets of Langa and Khayelitsha, the spirit of the future is born and brought up to be strong, to be resilient, and most of all, to be brilliant, no matter one's standing in life.

A thought for the road

No longer is a township a no-go zone for any other than its residents.  In a land still effectively, if not politically, divided by perceptions of difference, a township tour is a secure way to explore the unfamiliar, and a sure way to begin to embrace its abundant cultural and religious diversity.

Through the lens of music, the words 'Langa' and 'celebration' are as synonymous as the words 'Cape Town' and 'beautiful'. With Camissa's help, my faith in a collective future has deepened.

By Jess Henson

Learn more about townships in Cape Town in our township tours section.