- Next, we go from top to bottom, all the way down to Cape Town, South Africa's beautiful Mother City and one of my favorite places on the planet.

My buddy Charlie's gonna give us a whirlwind tour of the region by car, including some of the most spectacular coastline in all of Africa.

And we'll eat more than once.

Let's have a go, shall we?

I'm Ernest White II... storyteller, explorer.

I believe in connecting across backgrounds and boundaries.

- I mean, look at us.

We're chasing the sunset.

- Join me and my friends... What's going on, boy?

♪ ...and discover that, no matter the background, no matter the history, the whole world is our tribe.

♪ Come with me.

Whoo!

"FLY BROTHER."

- Major funding for this program is provided by... Marie Roberts De La Parra -- personal coaching, executive leadership, and self-empowerment.

Courageous Conversation Global Foundation.

Promoting racial justice, interacial understanding, and human healing.

MetalShake by Sweden.

Additional funding provided by the following.

♪ ♪ ♪ - Cape Town -- It's a bustling city of business and pleasure at the southern tip of Africa, a place where cultures have come together for centuries and not always harmoniously, but where the melding of music, food, and celebratory traditions have made for an eclectic mix of urban life.

It's winter in Cape Town, when the rain and fog can chill you to the bone.

But the city's welcoming vibe always shines through, even when the weather is gloomy.

♪ A few years ago, I called Cape Town home for a little while, and I connected deeply with the place.

It's always good to be back.

♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ Situated almost at the southernmost point of Africa, Cape Town is South Africa's legislative capital and second-largest city.

Centuries ago, the original nomadic Khoikhoi and San peoples inhabited the semi-arid area at the base of what is now called Table Mountain.

The Portuguese were the first Europeans to arrive in 1488, rounding -- and naming -- the nearby Cape of Good Hope, followed by the Dutch in 1652, who established Kaapstad as a way station for ships passing between Europe and Asia.

As agriculture expanded, the Dutch established slavery, bringing in people from their colonies in southeast Asia, as well as clashing with and enslaving local Khoikhoi, San, and Bantu peoples.

Racial mixing occurred in the colony over the next two centuries, as wars between the Dutch and the English, who eventually captured the region, created rancor and wealth as Cape Town became the major port of departure for gold, diamonds, and other goods from the colony.

The 20th century brought independence to South Africa but also the system of racial segregation called Apartheid.

During this time, global hero Nelson Mandela spent 27 years imprisoned mostly on nearby Robben Island, becoming South Africa's first black president in 1994 and leading the country toward the 21st century and a new era of reckoning, reconciliation, and hope.

♪ This afternoon, still a little jet-lagged, I head out to the funky-fresh Observatory neighborhood for some food at Big Momma's Home-Cooked Food, one of my favorite spots in town for, well, home cooking.

♪ Hey, Tawanda.

What's going on man?

- Ernest!

How you doing?

- Good to see you, brother.

- Good to have you back.

- All right, man.

Thank you.

So, let's get some food going, my man.

- Yeah.

This is the place.

- So tell me what we're gonna eat, man.

- Well, our food is mainly traditional home-cooked food.

- Okay.

- Okay?

So, it's simple food, home-cooked, and at affordable prices.

That's what we're really aiming for.

- Okay.

- So, what I had ordered for you is some steamed bread, and that's a Xhosa dish.

It's bread basically prepared not in the oven, but steam is used to bake the bread itself.

- Okay.

- And lamb curry and some butternut.

- Okay.

Nice.

- Yeah, yeah.

So, I hope you will enjoy it.

And, yeah.

- I'm from the south.

I <i> know</i> I will enjoy it.

Fantastic.

Fantastic.

- Why Cape Town?

- Cape Town feels like home.

It's a nice relaxed atmosphere.

It's -- People are very friendly, welcoming.

It's a multicultural mix.

It's fantastic here.

In Observatory alone, you have so many different cultures.

It's got a Bohemian sort of feel to it, so it is an exciting place to sell a product and appeal to a different spectrum of people here.

So, and our main reason for opening is, if you'd look down the road and see, there are three Chinese shops, there's an American burger bar, there's a Mexican place and nowhere we can get, like, African home-cooked food.

- Right.

- Yeah.

So, like, when this place became available, like, "Let's try something different here.

Let's try and see if the neighborhood would like it," and I think our clients have enjoyed it.

It's been an exciting year.

- Nice, man.

That is exciting.

- Yeah.

Like I said, it's simple.

It's nothing fancy.

It's home-cooked food, what your mother would make, what my mother would make, what her mother would make.

It's -- Yeah.

- Right, which means we got all the mamas watching over us, so don't mess up, now.

- Hence the name Big Momma's, yeah.

So, that's the result, yeah.

- True, nice, nice.

♪ - Yeah, your food is ready now.

- Nice.

Okay.

- Simmered beans with chicken curry and creamy spinach.

- Okay.

- And this is for you.

Butternut, lamb curry, and steamed bread.

- Oh, my God.

Mama, thank you.

- You're welcome.

- Thank you, Mama.

Thank you, Mama!

[ Laughs ] ♪ ♪ ♪ I shouldn't be eating this, but... [ Laughs ] Mmm, just like home.

♪ Later this afternoon, I reconnect with my good friend Charles Walters to roll through a few old -- and new -- haunts.

Charlie!

What's going on, boy?

- Hey, Ernest!

Good to see you!

- Hey, man!

It's good to see you, too!

- Welcome back!

- Thanks for coming to pick me up.

- Fantastic!

Shall we go on an adventure?

- Indeed, let's do it!

- Let's go!

- All right.

- Don't you love all these trees, like, hang a little to the left?

- Yeah.

Or they lean towards the ocean.

- Right?

- Now, what are those mountains called?

- They're called the Back Mountains.

- The Back?

- Back Mountains, yeah.

Yeah.

- That's very original.

[ Laughing ] Creative.

- Right?

But they're unofficial names.

'Cause, like, there's Table Mountain, and those are the Back Mountains.

- Right, but what's the official name?

- So, on the right, that'd be Sir Lowry's Pass.

- Okay.

- And then, on your left, that's your Blouberg Mountains.

- Yeah, the Front Mountain, the Back Mountain.

[ Both laugh ] - Charles -- well, Charlie -- was one of the first people I met when I moved to Cape Town.

He's smart and funny and knows math really well, which I don't, and we just hit it off right away.

We laugh, we argue, we laugh about the argument.

Definite besties.

♪ ♪ ♪ One of our hangouts is the V&A Waterfront, a vast shopping and dining complex with plenty of people-watching opportunities, even in Cape Town's winter chill.

And, yes, it's so cloudy right now, you can't see an inch of world-famous Table Mountain.

When people think of Africa, they usually think of heat, of deserts and jungles, of steamy cities with bustling street life.

South Africa has all that, but it's also got a cold-water ocean current running north from Antarctica along its Atlantic Seaboard, keeping temperatures in Cape Town generally pleasant all year-round.

But winters, from May to August, bring the rain.

♪ Charlie and I head indoors for a little souvenir shop talk.

♪ Oh, wow.

- Yeah, there's quite a bit here?

Yeah, no, it is, quite.

Hello.

Hello.

- I'm good.

How are you?

We're just looking around.

Is that Okay?

- Yeah.

- Awesome.

- What -- Is that an egg?

That's an ostrich egg?

- Yes.

- That's a big egg.

I've never seen an ostrich live.

What's the name of the place?

And what's the address?

Long Street.

- Okay.

- [ Laughs ] It's Okay.

- Cape Town.

- Cape Town.

- Cape Town.

All right.

- That's the one.

- Cape Town, South Africa.

- There we go.

There we go.

- Cape Town, South Africa.

The one and only.

- The one and only.

- All right, thank you very much, ma'am.

I can't buy anything from anybody else.

Now, I can only get one thing.

- Yeah.

- Yeah, but I only got... - He'll come back to Rosa.

- ...one section of money.

[ Laughter ] So, Miss Rosa... - What's your name?

- Charlie.

- Charlie.

Nice to meet you, Charlie.

- Nice to meet you, too, Rosa.

- And the camera?

- Pedro.

- Pedro.

Nice to meet you, Pedro.

- Nice to meet you.

- Thank you.

Welcome to South Africa.

- Thank you.

- Thank you so much?

- So, dude, like, what's the significance of these kinds of markets?

- All right, so you'll find that Cape Town, particularly, has had a growth and increase in African arts-and-craft markets and mini-markets.

- Okay.

- You know, one, it represents and reflects a lot of the creations that come out of Africa.

And I like the diversity out of it, as well.

You've got your South African arts and crafts.

You've got your big five, which is a big tourist pull and, obviously, presents a lot of our wildlife.

- Okay.

- And, at the same time, you also have African arts and crafts from all around Africa -- West Africa, East Africa -- so it's quite diverse.

- Okay.

- Which also reflects Cape Town.

Because you'll find Cape Town has a larger diversity of African cultures... - Okay.

- ...foreign African cultures foreign to South Africa, that is.

- Right, right.

Other parts of Africa.

- Other parts of Africa.

In Johannesburg, it's limited mostly to, say, for example, our Zimbabwean neighbors -- Zambian and Lesotho and Swaziland -- whereas Cape Town's got a wider variety.

- Okay.

People from Angola, from Congo.

- That's correct.

Nigeria, Congo, and so forth.

- Right, right.

- And even in the languages, the African foreign languages that they speak here, your French, your Swahilis and so forth.

You will come across that here, a lot more of the diversity, which is great.

- Okay.

Got it.

- And in the last few years, that sort of African market gentrification has -- oh, it's been on a boom, on a rise... - Okay.

- ...which is great, because, you know, it's empowering, it's representative, as well.

And it's interactive.

It's great for tourism.

- Right, right.

- It's great for the locals.

And, locally speaking, the Capetonians, you know, they've really bought into it, which is really great.

- Okay.

That's cool.

- Perhaps, right now, being winter, might not seem as busy.

But, like with anything Cape Town, it's mostly seasonal.

- Right, right.

- Anywhere, right?

Yeah.

- Absolutely.

- All right, so, on a personal -- Personally, with regards to my background and the history that I have, as you know, being biracial, coming from two different cultures, and you'll find that, post-1990, that's become more of a common occurrence.

You have more and more biracials since then, of course, the end of Apartheid, meaning that you could have white folks engaging with black folks on a romantic level.

- Right, legally.

Yes.

- Legally.

That's correct.

Myself, you know, being born in 1989, it would have been before the legislation and the law allowed it, but it was still happening back then.

- Certainly.

People were getting down in all kinds of ways.

- Exactly.

In all kinds of ways, yeah, whether it's creating art, whether it's on a romantic.

- So your mom's, like, Xhosa, right?

- Xhosa.

Close enough, close enough.

You got the three clicks.

You got the Cs, the Qs, and the Xs.

So, being Xhosa, yeah, with a Xhosa background.

- Okay.

- Obviously, that bases a lot of the culture and how I was raised up, traditionally speaking.

- Okay.

- And you'll find the Xhosas are from here, as well -- Western Cape and Eastern Cape.

- Okay.

- So, out of the African, the local or South African cultures, Xhosa would be the most prominent one here and then followed by your Zulus and your Sothos and so forth.

- Okay.

But then your dad's Scottish.

- And he's Scottish, that's correct.

So, I mean, he can speak a little Xhosa and a little Zulu.

- Okay.

And you can speak a little Scottish brogue there.

- Well, yeah, a little.

- Man, I love it.

I mean, South Africa, they talk about it being the rainbow nation... - Yeah.

- ...but, like, you embody that.

- Sure, certainly, certainly.

And you'll see that a lot, I mean, even here in the arts and crafts, and what we create, our art and so forth.

For example, Trevor Noah.

Even though he's not, you know, the pinnacle, but he is a reflection of who we are.

- Okay, all right.

All right.

Cool.

- Yeah.

♪ ♪ - Charlie and I have worked up an appetite, so we head to the cheeky little eatery called The Dog's Bollocks, just a short drive away.

So, this little garage kind of in the middle of this warehouse district is -- You know, you've got a lot of people here eating sandwiches and nice, hefty food.

Like, why'd you choose this place?

- So, the place kind of chose me, I guess.

- Okay.

That's how the universe works.

- Yeah, exactly.

- Yeah.

- This is my business partner's property.

- Okay.

- It was, once upon a time, his garage, where his cars lived.

So, back in the day, we used to have to pull all the tables in, like, so he could pull his cars in at the end of the night.

- Okay.

- It's -- He just kind of started making burgers in his garage.

There was -- Then, I used to come here as a customer, actually, in those first, like, few months.

- Okay.

- And I fell in love with it.

And I always wanted my own restaurant.

But, you know, you deal with so many, like, people that you don't really enjoy in the industry, and I just -- I was, like, contemplating whether it would be the right choice, and when I walked in here, I was like, "If I was ever to have a restaurant, this would be it."

- So, you're originally from Cape Town, right?

- I'm actually -- originally Johannesburg.

- Okay.

- That's where I get my ambition and drive from.

- So, what about this place calls you?

What about Cape Town keeps you here?

- Cape Town, you know, even when I was living in Johannesburg, everyone always used to say to me, "You're from Cape Town, right?"

And I just love -- You know, I love the nature, the ocean, the mountains.

Cape Town has everything.

But what I love about coming from Johannesburg is that there's a lot of energy in Johannesburg.

Everyone's going somewhere and doing something, and, you know, whereas Cape Town is a bit more of, like, a beach bum lifestyle.

- Okay.

- Far more laid-back.

- Yeah, so every day, I'm still trying to find the balance between the two, because sometimes I start leaning more towards the beach bum side.

- And then, when I'm, like, stuck into my work, I'm more towards the work side, so it's constantly finding that balance of working hard but not working too hard and playing hard but not playing too hard.

- So I guess, then, let's order, huh?

- Yeah.

I recommend some tacos, definitely.

Maybe a Philly cheesesteak, seeing as you're from the States.

- Come on.

- Like, I can't not order that.

- Certainly, right?

- Exactly.

- It's kind of a South African twist on a Philly cheese, but it's really good.

- All right, I'm hype.

Let's do it.

- Awesome.

Cool!

Come on up!

- Let's do this!

Okay.

- Cool.

- So, I reckon one of each taco.

- Okay.

- And Philly cheesesteak.

You want a half a cheesesteak or...?

- We can do full and take half with us?

- Yes, you can.

- All right.

- Cool.

- Hey, nothing more American than too much food.

- Do you want extra bacon?

- Extra bacon?

- What?!

- Nothing more American than extra bacon.

- And jalapeños, yeah.

- Yeah!

♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ - Yo, Charlie!

Grub's up!

♪ ♪ - This is Charlie's food.

These are Charlie's tacos.

But we're gonna talk about them at the table.

- Tuck in, boys.

- All right.

- Yeah, let's go in.

- You don't have to say that twice.

- Right?

- Oh, my God -- extra bacon?

- Mm-hmm.

- Mmm.

- Mmm.

- This is good.

- Oh, yeah.

- Oh, my God.

I mean, you knew this, though.

[ Laughter ] - You can taste the love, right?

♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ - After that grub-down, Charlie and I head to one of our old Capetonian stomping grounds -- Sea Point.

With its Art Deco architecture and busy seafront promenade, Sea Point always reminds me a little of Miami Beach or Rio de Janeiro.

There's always something to see and do in Sea Point.

♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ So, dude, we're here in Sea Point, my favorite part of town... - Certainly mine.

- ...your favorite part of town.

- Yeah, right?

A lot of great memories here.

- True, true.

But also some crazy history, huh?

- Tell me about it!

I mean, if you look just over there, you've got Robben Island, which housed a lot of political prisoners.

- Mandela.

- Nelson Mandela being one of them.

And he was released in 1990, which is a year after I was born.

- Okay.

- And, therefore, you know, individuals like myself are termed to be Born Frees, in the sense that we were born in the democratic South Africa.

- Right, right.

After Apartheid.

- Even if it was before -- - After Apartheid.

Yeah, the end of Apartheid.

And so anyone who was born in the '90s is termed as a Born Free, which is an interesting concept.

- Right, right.

- Where the rest of the world, you know, considers themselves as millennials, so to speak.

- Like, it was five years after you were born when people of color could even come out here.

- Could even come out here.

But even so, socially speaking, the dynamics weren't as accepted or open.

- Meaning it wasn't, like, an automatic changeover.

- That's correct, that's correct.

It was a transition.

It took a while for even, you know, people of color to start owning property in places like Sea Point.

- Oh, wow.

Okay.

- Yeah.

So, there were very much white-owned, white-governed areas.

And, perhaps, even still now today, however, they're not as exclusive or not as exclusive as they were back then.

- Okay.

- And at the same time, you've got access to the ocean, to the beach.

The Sea Point Promenade is a great place for kids to come play.

You walk your dogs, ride your bike, you know, skateboard if you like.

You get a lot of social activities.

It's a great space to be, and it's very inclusive.

It's open.

You've also got the public pool, as well, down that way, if you don't want to swim in the cold ocean.

And, yeah, I mean, Sea Point really is a great place to be.

- Well, man, you know, part of the reason why I love it so much is because the sunsets are spectacular, bruh.

- Yeah.

No, they certainly are.

It's beautiful.

And what's nice about the Atlantic Seaboard is that you catch the sunset, you know, because it's facing west, and you catch it as it dips into the ocean.

And, I mean, it's absolutely beautiful.

All right, we can go ahead to Camps Bay and catch the sunset.

- Word.

All right, let's do it, man.

- Awesome.

- Okay.

♪ - That's great -- "Imagine."

♪ - Charlie and I continue to talk about culture, about relationships, about politics, about music.

We can talk, and I love it.

♪ ♪ ♪ Sea Point is just the first of a line of oceanfront neighborhoods stretching south along the Cape Peninsula.

And Charlie and I stop periodically to take in the sweeping views and to keep the conversation going along the way.

♪ - I mean, look at us!

We're chasing the sunset.

And it's beautiful.

Yeah.

- Beautiful.

Yeah.

♪ On the back side of Table Mountain, the beach at upscale Camps Bay is where we end the day.

♪ ♪ I always say that what I love most about travel is the people you meet.

Charlie's just one of those good people who teaches and challenges me, who keeps me on my toes and keeps me honest.

That's what true friendship is about, and it's a gift to have another soul brother to share the journey with and a blessing to have connected with him in Cape Town.

♪ ♪ ♪ - Major funding for this program is provided by... Marie Roberts De La Parra -- personal coaching, executive leadership, and self-empowerment.

Courageous Conversation Global Foundation.

Promoting racial justice, interacial understanding, and human healing.

MetalShake by Sweden.

Additional funding provided by the following.

To join the "Fly Brother" travel community or to order your own copy of this episode, visit flybrother.net.

♪