Khwa ttu San Heritage Centre

Khwa ttu was set up in 1999 on a farm north of Cape Town as a training and heritage centre for San people from across southern Africa, with San organisations and Swiss support, and its staff and guides are largely San - which is what separates it from a great many cultural attractions in the region. It opened to the public in 2006 on an 850-hectare reserve about seventy kilometres north of Cape Town. Trainees from San communities in South Africa, Namibia and Botswana come here for hospitality and guiding courses, and the guides who take visitors around are themselves San. The museum, opened in 2018, was developed with San communities and covers language, history, dispossession and contemporary life rather than presenting a frozen traditional past; the framing is deliberate and it is explained. Tours go into the veld to look at plant use and tracking. The farm itself holds fynbos, eland, springbok and bontebok, and in spring the coastal annuals flower across it.

What you'll find

• San staff - a centre run and guided by San people rather than about them.
• The 2018 museum - exhibitions developed with communities covering dispossession and modern life.
• The veld walks - plant use and tracking explained by San guides.
• The farm - fynbos with eland and bontebok, flowering in spring.

When to go

August to October for flowers; all year for the centre. Half a day.

Before you go

Tours run at set times and need booking, particularly for groups. It is a working training institution, so some areas are not open. The museum is text-heavy and takes time to do properly. It is on the R27, an hour from Cape Town.

Nearby

West Coast National Park is north; Yzerfontein is on the coast.

Key facts