During World War Two and the closing of the Suez Canal, Cape Town reverted to its maritime role as “the tavern of the seas,” the last point of Europe—albeit colonial Europe—before sailors entered the East, both mythical and actual. Troopships, battleships and supply vessels filled the great bay of the harbour, and soldiers being ferried from the European theatre of war to the East or Australians and New Zealanders heading for Europe poured off the transports and made free throughout the…
Vivian Rakoff
Vivian Rakoff is professor emeritus in the Department of Psychiatry in the University of Toronto. He has written plays, poetry and essays.