sculpture

Contemporary African art is carving a niche in the West African town of Ouidah, Benin. Known more for its slave trade and voodoo roots, the region is starting to draw visitors more interested in the arts and culture. It is also offering a space for expatriate artists to show their work at home for the first time.

Twenty years of freedom have transformed Soweto, once a sprawling dormitory dumping ground for Johannesburg's black workers, into a green and attractive city of its own, with housing, parks, shopping malls, efficient public transport and a vibrant tourist trade.

Sitting astride a ridge on the northern edge of Joburg's inner city, Constitution Hill is a symbol of how far South Africa has come. Once a notorious prison filled with anti-apartheid activists, it is now the seat of the highest court in the land, where freedom, democracy and justice are defended.

Led by the FNB Joburg Art Fair, South Africa is becoming something of a home for contemporary art from across the continent and the African diaspora. Joining it are another Joburg fair, as well as a Cape Town outing and a permanent gallery.

From the traditional artefacts of ancient cultures to the cutting-edge work of today's practitioners, South Africa's art museums and galleries offer visitors a rich artistic feast.

There's never a bad time to visit Cape Town, travel publisher Lonely Planet says in its latest guide, Best in Travel 2014. South Africa's Mother City comes in just behind Paris and Trinidad as the best cities in the world to visit.

By foot or by bus, there are several tours on offer taking in the rich history of Johannesburg. For the first time, the Johannesburg Heritage Foundation is going as far east as Bezuidenhout Valley, and as far south as Kliptown, site of the famed Freedom Charter gathering.
• South Africa's heritage is world class

By Yvonne Fontyn
16 August 2013

I used to be a bit of a quiet freak – if given the choice between, say, a disco and a Buddhist retreat, I would opt for the latter. So I would usually choose somewhere quiet for a holiday – a remote seaside cottage, a B+B in the country where I could relax and recharge my batteries which had been depleted by Joburg life. I have a retired mom in Durban so I head that way a couple of times a year, usually staying in nearby Umhlanga, which mostly moves along at a sedate pace. But this time I wanted to be closer to Mom, so I looked for places in North Beach, around there.

What about the Marine Parade? I took a chance and booked the Belaire Suites, which looked quite glitzy on their website. It’s a newly revamped high-rise – trendy, with a vibey coffee shop downstairs.

As I arrived, the staff seemed genuinely pleased to see me and after getting the key for my 10th-floor apartment I was soon piling into a lift with a festive crowd dressed in Hawaii shirts and sarongs. A little too festive? I wondered…

As I was letting myself into my apartment, a manager walked past jangling a big bunch of keys. He popped his head into one apartment then banged the door closed – Blammm! It resounded through the block. And then blam, blam, blam he went, down the passage. My heart sank and my anger rose – if those two things can happen at once. There was panic in there somewhere too. Had I signed up for three days in purgatory?

I could only survive, I decided, somewhere in my tired brain, if I ignored it, if I did not construe every banged door, every raised voice, as an act of inconsideration aimed at me. Egocentric, who, me?

And so I went down for lunch to the coffee shop, where a bouncy waitress came over and soon we were chatting about why I was there, the weather and so on. She wasn’t at all like most of the B&B owners I’d encountered on my travels – pretty reserved.

From the island prison where he lived for 18 years to his post-presidential archive in Johannesburg, from rural childhood scenes to a house in South Africa's busiest township, Nelson Mandela left a rich trail across the country for the discerning tourist to follow.

A pair of creative philanthropists has come up with the concept of iExist, through which the big questions are explored in art. But the driving force behind the project is to help the less fortunate through auctioning the works of art made under the iExist banner.