CAPE TOWN REVIVAL

PERCHED ON THE southwesternmost edge of the continent, Cape Town can feel like the tip of the African iceberg—and many visitors don’t realise how much depth lies beneath the surface. They sunbathe on its beaches, cage-dive with its great white sharks, sip its wine—but do they ever truly engage with its people?

A quarter of a century after the end of apartheid, a new generation of creative Capetonians demands to be seen and heard for the first time. Formerly ignored cuisines from the area’s Xhosa people and Muslimmajority Cape Malay community are coming to the fore; African contemporary art has finally got a museum that feels as vital as Paris’s famed Centre Pompidou; and even the townships are embracing their status as entrepreneurial hubs.

TO SQUEEZE IN as much of the region’s dramatic scenery as possible, I begin my visit with a half-day tour with Cape Sidecar Adventures, which offers rides on a fleet of 1950s and 60s