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South Africa’s rich history dates back to some of the earliest human settlements in the world. Over 300 museums reflect this heritage in a range of places – from 18th century homes to mountain caves, from rural cultural villages to state-of-the-art urban facilities.

But nothing beats actually meeting people. South Africa’s many cultural villages offer a close-up insight into the country’s traditional cultures.
In the major centres, township tours will put you in touch with real South Africans and their history.

In the rural areas, community tours will help you get to know the country through the eyes of those who live there. You can discover ancient Setswana astronomy through the lens of a grandmother with an intimate knowledge of the ancient traditions. Also, how about being taught to cook line fish the traditional way by the fishing community in Kalk Bay?
Remember, no matter where you’re from, this is where your roots are. It’s pretty much accepted that human life started in Africa. Most people look at the world differently after a tour of the Cradle of Humankind near Johannesburg – one of the richest hominid fossil sites in the world.

Fossilised footprints near Cape Town, and the wealth of rock paintings and surviving shelters in KwaZulu-Natal’s Drakensberg mountains and elsewhere in the country, all testify to humanity’s origins on this ancient continent.
More recently, South Africa’s history has been one of conflict and confrontation, but also of reconciliation and restitution. You can explore the battlegrounds where the bloody events that shaped the country took place.

From Isandlwana or Talana in KwaZulu-Natal to Soweto in Johannesburg or Langa in Cape Town, our land tells a story – but one that can be difficult to interpret, so it’s worth doing a guided tour.
Go back to the past – visit the Women’s Monument in Bloemfontein, or the Apartheid Museum in Johannesburg.

Get a feeling of unity. A trip to Robben Island will show you how powerful that attitude can be. They have taken a place of oppression, isolation and despair and turned it into a symbol of forgiveness and hope. That’s what South Africans are doing with the whole country.

Other interesting cultural experiences:

Cape Minstrel Carnival:
The New Year and Tweede Nuwe Jaar (Second New Year) Coon Carnival dates from 1834 and the liberation of slaves. Every year about 12 troupes ranging from 200 to 1 000 men and boys dressed in costumes influenced by those of 19th-century American minstrels, march through Cape Town, performing as they walk. They finish by competing before an audience at Green Point Stadium.

Soweto:
Book a tour of this sprawling ‘township’ and see a different South Africa. Shacks built from any available material, regulation two-room houses, mansions, shebeens and road side stalls line the streets in this vibrant city, parts of which are often still shrouded by the smoke of coal fires.
The Pioneer Open-Air Museum, Pretoria:
The warm, yeasty smell of freshly baked bread greets visitors to this Voortrekker farmhouse, built from raw earth and anthill bricks, with dung floors. Staff dressed in period costume take you through the rudiments of butter churning, soap making and milking, and treat you to a “pioneer’s picnic” under whispering willows.

A Swazi picnic at Lupisi, White River:
A Swazi chief, his elders and their wives dressed in red, white and black cloth meet you when you arrive at this ‘picnic site.’ They lead you to the shady banks of a river, singing your praises as you walk, and place you before tables laden with traditional dishes cooked on an open fire. Singing and dancing entertain you while you eat.

The Basotho Cultural Village, Qwa Qwa Park
This collection of beehive reed-and-stick structures, and mud huts decorated with combed and painted patterns, is truly authentic in that it was built and designed by the Sotho people who work and act here. Your visit is announced to the headmen and you are invited inside the khotla, or courtyard, where you taste sorghum beer, watch men weaving large grain baskets and, have your fortune predicted by a Sotho traditional healer.

Shakaland:
A call from a lookout hut on high poles announces your arrival at this Zulu village, where you can watch spear making, beer brewing, beadwork, weaving an even traditional stick fighting. Then help yourself to dinner from three-legged pots and eat it from a wooden spoon. Thatched huts with electricity provide comfortable accommodation.

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