Lesser-known museums of Cape Town and surrounds

For all the advantages of unmediated, person-to-person cultural interaction while travelling, sometimes you do want to have a cultural experience that's mediated by an institution like a museum.

In and around Cape Town there are a plethora of smaller museums, some of which are well-known and some of which deserve to be. Here's a list of museums that have captured my attention - legitimate museums with an educational angle that aren't primarily commercial in nature. (They're in no particular order.)

Gold of Africa Museum: Besides having one of the best lunch spots in all of Cape Town, this museum also houses an exceptional pan-African collection of gold jewellery and artefacts, displayed in a stunning, stylish exhibition space in an 18th century home. Smack in the centre of town, this is a great place to spend an hour and then have tea or lunch. Good for gifts, too, with some exceptional design for sale. (www.goldofafrica.com)

Irma Stern Museum: Irma Stern was a major South African painter and artist whose works now sell for millions at auction around the world. I'm a big fan of her work and style. This museum was her house for forty years, filled with personal objects and artworks from her travels and visiting friends, as well as housing dozens of her exceptional paintings and other works. Lovely gardens and contemporary exhibition space round out the experience. You can easily spend an hour or two here, located on the Middle Campus of the University of Cape Town in Rosebank. (www.irmastern.co.za)

Bo-Kaap Museum: Better known now than it once was, this is an important place to help visitors understand Cape Malay culture, coloured history, Islam in South Africa and the complexities of an old, colourful, characterful neighbourhood. Located in the Bo-Kaap itself, just above the centre of town on the slopes of Signal Hill. It's being re-invigorated from a more traditional material culture display museum to a living social history institution, currently having both old and new style exhibitions. (www.iziko.org.za/bokaap)

Warrior Toy Museum: An idiosyncratic collection of toy cars and trains, dolls and lead soldiers. Includes many original "Dinky" toys, some still in their original boxes. If this is your thing, you'll be thrilled and delighted. Located in Simon's Town. (no website: Tel +27 21 786 1395)

Simon's Town Heritage Museum (Amlay House): One of my favourites, a family home in Simon's Town converted into a museum of Muslim and coloured culture and history in the Cape. Learn about Cape Malay traditions from weddings to cuisine, the anguish of forced removals under the apartheid system, and the triumphs of cultural giants such as Peter Clarke. Have tea with curator Zainab "Patty" Davidson and her husband - she's a treasure of South Africa. This is authentic, local, character-filled Cape Town, nothing like it anywhere in the world. A great place to stop when doing the Cape Peninsula tour, fifty metres from the main road and the Simon's Town waterfront and hardly known even to locals. Don't miss this one. (www.simonstown.com/museum/sthm.htm)

South African Jewish Museum: Jewish people and communities have been part of South Africa for centuries, and have played leading roles in some of the key moments of South African history. An interesting and contemporary institution (and a lovely building) located on the Company's Gardens in the heart of Cape Town. (www.sajewishmuseum.co.za)

Lwandle Migrant Labour Museum: The community of Lwandle is a township near Somerset West originally founded to house the migrant labourers brought in from the Eastern Cape to pick fruit on farms and wine estates. The museum tells the story of colonial and apartheid era labour system, pass laws, and hostel life in a very specific, personal and subjective way, through both permanent and temporary exhibitions. The only functioning museum based in a South African township, this is an institution that also helps the community shape its own ever-changing story. It's a powerful and important place, and I've written about other exceptional responsible tourism experiences they've helped make possible. (www.lwandle.com)

Afrikaans Language Museum: Tells the interesting story of how the Afrikaans language came to be, and came to be recognised as a distinctive one that remains inseparable from South Africa's identity. Located in the lovely town of Paarl 30 minutes east of Cape Town, it also shows how Afrikaans is kept alive today as a vital tongue - one of eleven official languages in South Africa. Not only spoken by Afrikaners, it is the home language for people of differing ethnicities from the Caprivi Strip in Namibia all the way down to Cape Agulhas and from Atlantic to Indian Ocean. Displays in English and isiXhosa, and many interactive activities. They also have a very phallic monument atop Paarl Mountain, but don't confuse this with the museum itself, which is located in the historic main part of town. (www.taalmuseum.co.za)

Heart of Cape Town Museum (first heart transplant): The first human-to-human heart transplant was done in Cape Town in 1967 by Christiaan Barnard and his team. This unique museum captures the drama of that event in what now seems like the medical dark ages over 40 years ago. Located at Groote Schuur Hospital, it's a three hour experience. You can also book online. (www.heartofcapetown.co.za)

Kleinplasie, the Worcester Living Open-air Museum: Smack on the popular R62 just an hour from Cape Town is this living museum of traditional 19th century farm life in the Cape, portrayed by costumed actors doing the real thing. See how they make soap, process tobacco, mill grain and much more. Displays are interactive, and there are donkey cart rides as well as seasonal activities such as sheep shearing (September), grape harvesting (March), and veld plant gathering (September). (www.kleinplasie.co.za)

Museum van de Caab: tells the story of the Delta Farm in Franschhoek, from pre-colonial Khoe pastoralists to the present (through grim, shameful, glorious, hard and fun times), sharing many diverse voices and perspectives in all their glorious, ambiguous, contradictory subjectivity. Uses photos, archaeological remnants, video and more - the real voices of real individuals. Not a paean to the Huguenots or a general history of the region, it's a particular, idiosyncratic place (like all places) through which to understand a great deal about South Africa that is otherwise hard to come by. The story of this farm is fascinating, past as well as present, and genuinely practicing responsible tourism. (www.solms-delta.co.za/main/overview.html)

Honourable Mention: Southern African Astronomical Observatory: The big telescope is up north in Sutherland (and well worth a visit), but there's a great telescope right in Cape Town, located in - of course - the suburb of Observatory. Visits from the public are permitted at 20h00 on the second Saturday of each month. It's a 2 hour affair and if the sky is clear you can do your own telescopic viewing. And it's free. (www.saao.ac.za/public-info/visits/cape-town)

Other Cape Town museums better-known include:

• The District Six Museum
• The SA Museum and Planetarium
  
• SA National Gallery
• Cultural History Museum
• Robben Island Museum
• Castle of Good Hope

(A more comprehensive listing of museums is provided here.)

Lesser-known museums of Cape Town and surrounds