Witnesses of Change

Our story

Few countries have a history as rich as South Africa. This is where our forefathers were living as hunter-gatherers more than 160.000 years ago. Evidence still suggests that all modern humans are descended from an African population of Homo sapiens that spread out of Africa about 60,000 years ago.

South Africa became the battlefield of European colonial powers and African tribes. Control of the Cape was vital for Europeans venturing into Asia. The first inhabitants were the Khoi-San people. Over the centuries they were pushed back by stronger African tribes and Europeans.

The discoveries of gold and diamonds led to immigrants coming in from all corners of the world. South Africa became the battlefield for fortune hunters and empire builders who wanted their share of this magnificent country.

The mines and emerging industries needed cheap labour, and people from all over southern Africa came looking for work. European colonisers wanted these riches for themselves, and townships started to emerge. The black workers were confined to restricted areas where they were allowed to live.

This grew into what we today know as Apartheid. After the election in 1948 the National Party came into power and signed this politic into law. This injustice sparked an uprising that slowly caught the world’s attention.

The ANC became the spear edge of the struggle, and no others became the symbol of resistance like Nelson Mandela. Imprisoned for life with his comrades in the Rivonia Trial in 1964. It took a long time for Europe and America to see what was going on in South Africa. One incident more than others became an eye opener for many. The Soweto uprising in 1976. It culminated with the murder of children on 16th June 1976. Also known as the Day Apartheid died.

Since 1980 students from Scandinavia has travelled to Germany and Poland to witness the atrocities of the Nazi regime. Survivors of the camps have told their stories to the youth, hoping they will learn from history. The survivors of the death camps are gone now, but the history of inhumanity must not be forgotten.

Nelson Mandela was released 11th February 1990, and South Africa could start on its way towards democracy and equal rights. This is a process that will take time. Democracy does not evolve over night. Even countries in Europe and America is stumbling along, hopefully in the right direction.

These Witnesses of Change all played their part in the transition from Apartheid toward democracy. They all have important stories to tell the youth and adults of today. In today’s world with fake news and split societies they must be heard. We all know that meeting different cultures and getting to love and understand each other’s, the world can become a better place for all humanity.

We can organise lectures, tours, events etc, and you can let their story become part of your journey.

Who are we?

Abigail Mbalo

Founder and Creative Director of 4Roomed eKasi Culture is a Dental Technologist by profession. Her dental technology career spanned 17 years in the profession having worked in academia, the military, a state dental lab and a private dental lab.

She swapped her laboratory coat to follow a passion in food, art and home décor design culminating in the birth of her company 4Roomed eKasi Culture, after partaking on Master Chef S.A. season 3 competition.

The dental technologist-turned-chef behind 4Roomed eKasi Culture is drawing international tourists and homesick suburbanites to the province’s biggest township for her take on traditional cuisine by providing Bespoke Culinary Experiences under the banner “Dining with Chef Abi at home eKasi”.

After swapping her lab coat for a chefs’ jacket, she made it her mission to get Khayelitsha and other townships on the tourism map in a bid to improve the socio-economic challenges S.A townships face.

Abigail also embarked on the company’s CSR Program that promotes township and rural tourism named 4Roomed eKasi Culture Township and Rural Tourism Development -DRIVE.

Her business concept stems from the eKasi four-roomed homes of yesteryear, in which houses in the country’s oldest townships comprised a kitchen, living room, and two bedrooms. A narrative of a life lived in these 4Roomed homes is shared with guests to bring about an understanding of how the townships have evolved over time from backyard gardening and Ubuntu that was shared in the community. She immerses locals and international tourist who had left home to be close to the places of work called the city to a journey of nostalgia.

She also encourages a cohesion of diverse cultures to the space of townships by including
meals inspired by the influences of other cultures to these marginalized peripheries of the
cities. She evokes emotion that will inspire to bring about change that helps develop and
improve our spaces.

Lica Blomerus

My family left South Africa in 1993, when I was 5 years old. Although race affected everything and was prevalent in all interactions in my childhood, it was never discussed. When I asked my parents why Esther, the live-in domestic worker who had a huge hand in raising me, wasn’t allowed to sit on the same bench as me, they had no clear answer to give me. I believe this is because there was no explanation that would make sense to a child, to someone too young to have swallowed an elaborate system of justifications. 

When I returned to South Africa in my late teens, I found a country where race (and the country’s racist history) were openly discussed, where people of different races intermingled, and where earnest attempts were being made to understand and move away from the terrible deeds of our past. 

Nonetheless, too much still seemed to be dictated by race: the part of town you lived in, the school you went to, the economic opportunities available to you, and the assumptions people made about you. South Africa has made great strides in casting off the legacy of Apartheid and Colonial systematic racism, yet I hope to one day see a country that doesn’t reveal the missteps of the past in the continued economic and cultural segregation of the present.