Cape Muslim to Khayalitsha

On the slopes of Signal Hill -- the arm that stretches out of Table Mountain to overlook the city and harbor -- is the suburb of Bo-Kaap. Home to a section of the Cape's Muslim community (often referred to as the Cape Malays, despite the fact that only 1% of their forefathers, skilled slaves imported by the Dutch, were born in Malaysia), this is one of the city's oldest and most interesting areas, though its character is somewhat under threat from property speculators and foreign investors keen to own a piece of the city's quaintest suburb. Narrow cobbled streets lead past colorful 19th-century Dutch and Georgian terraces and tiny mosques; try to visit at sunrise and sunset when the air is filled with the song of the muezzins in their minarets, calling the community to prayer.

Start at the Bo-Kaap Museum, 71 Wale St. (tel. 021/481-3939; Mon-Sat 9am-4pm; R5/70¢/35p adults, R2/30¢/10p children). The museum gives some idea of the furnishings of a relatively wealthy 19th-century Cape Muslim family. One block south, at Dorp Street, is Auwal, South Africa's oldest mosque, dating back to 1795, and said to be where Afrikaans was first taught.

The protected historic core of the Bo-Kaap ranges from Dorp to Strand streets, and between Buitengracht and Pentz streets -- the best way to experience them is on foot, with a local guide, like Tana-Baru Tours (tel. 021/424-0719). A 2-hour tour ends with tea and traditional Malay cake at a private home (R15 ($2/£1 per person). (Its 3-hr. "Route of Many Cultures" tours is also recommended as one of the most authentic ways of understanding how segregation tore communities apart, with guides providing personal accounts while visiting the nearby area of District Six, before setting off for the Cape Flats.)

Alternatively, head up steep Longmarket on your own and stop for tea and traditional melktert (milk tart) at the Noon Gun Tea Room and Restaurant, 273 Longmarket St. (tel. 021/424-0529). The name "Noon Gun" derives from the Signal Hill cannon fired by the South African Navy daily at noon -- a tradition that has informed Capetonians of their imminent lunch break since 1806. The tearoom features magnificent views of the city and mountain, and serves authentic Cape Malay fare.

The charm of the Bo-Kaap provides some measure of what was lost when District Six was razed; opposite the Bo-Kaap, and clearly visible from any raised point, this vacant land is located on the city's southern border. When bulldozers moved in to flatten the suburb in 1966, an estimated 60,000 Cape Muslims (referred to as coloureds) and other "nonwhites" were living in what was condemned as a ghetto by the apartheid hardliners. Much like Sophiatown in Johannesburg, District Six housed people from every walk of life -- musicians, traders, teachers, craftsmen, skollies (petty criminals), hookers, and pimps -- and was one of South Africa's most inspired and creative communities, producing potent poets, jazz musicians, and writers. When the bulldozers finally moved out, all that was left were a few churches and mosques -- in a weird attempt at morality, religious buildings were exempt from the demolition order. The community was relocated piecemeal to the Cape Flats -- a name that accurately describes both the geography and psychology of the area. Many argue -- quite sensibly -- that Cape Town's ongoing gangster problems, spawned in the fragmented, angered, and powerless Cape Flats communities, are a direct result of the demise of District Six.

Renamed Zonnebloem (Sunflower), the so-called white area of District Six remained largely vacant, as even hardened capitalists spurned development in protest, and only the state-funded Cape Technicon was ever built on the land (purchased, incidentally, for R1/(15¢/10p). Restitution is underway, with a "homecoming ceremony" held in November 2000 and construction of 1,700 homes for some of the wrongly evicted resumed in April 2003. It's weighed down by bureaucracy and in-fighting, and life will never be the same here again, but most hope that by returning the stolen land to the original families, the damage done to the national psyche can be reversed. Until then, the scar on the cityscape is a constant reminder.

Most organized tours of District Six include a trip to Gugulethu and Langa, two of Cape Town's oldest "townships," as black suburbs are still referred to, and the shantytowns of Khayalitsha. While you can self-drive to crafts centers like Sivuyile Tourism Centre in Gugulethu, to get an in-depth understanding of how "the other half" of Cape Town lives, a tour is definitely recommended. Other than Tana-Baru , you could book a tour with Grassroots (tel. 021/706-1006) or IliosTours (tel. 021/697-4056); most kick off from either the Bo-Kaap or District Six museums, then head for a short visit to the townships to visit a crafts center, an "informal" home, a shebeen (traditional drinking house), and a housing project; both can extend the tour to include Robben Island, though you really don't need a tour guide to visit the latter. A more specialized and personalized approach is offered by Footsteps to Freedom (tel. 083/452-1112) and new kids on the block Andulela Tours (tel. 021/790-2592; www.andulela.com), with a small passionate team offering a wide variety of new experiences, from the Cape Town Jazz Safari, which kicks off at District Six Café before a visit to the home of Mac McKenzie, the "king of Goema" (a fusion of jazz, samba, and traditional drumming), and ending at a restaurant in Landsdowne, to the Cape Malay or African Cooking Safari, in which a guide gives you some background information on the cuisine, then takes you into the community where you'll prepare a three-course meal. One City Tours (tel. 021/387-5351) offers the usual 3-hour tour (includes a visit to a traditional healer, a shebeen, and lunch), but it is on the weekends that they get interesting: On Friday and Saturday you can take the "Shebeen Crawl and All That Jazz," a nocturnal pub crawl through the townships, while the Sunday tour "The Gospel Truth" takes you to different church services in the townships. With prior arrangement (and a group of at least eight), they also offer Township Music Tours, which specialize in introducing visitors to the sounds of Mbanqanga, Afro-jazz, and marimba and percussion; after eating at an informal township restaurant, guests are taken to a shebeen for a session of live music.