Marching to Pretoria

[David Paul Appell]

Quick, what’s the capital of the Rainbow Nation?  It’s certainly understandable if you immediately thought Johannesburg. And if Cape Town came to mind, you’re partly right – it is, after all, the seat of parliament. But the country’s president and the rest of the executive branch and administration are based in a rather smaller city (pop. 742,000, metro area 2.9 million) just an hour north of Joburg.

Personally, I’d heard of Pretoria way before the other two, thanks to, of all things, a British army marching song from the Second Boer War of 1900, which we were for some reason made to sing as U.S. schoolchildren in the 1960s:

We are marching to Pretoria, Pretoria, Pretoria.
We are marching to Pretoria, Pretoria, hurrah!

Yet as popular as South Africa has become with travellers now in the 21st century, its administrative capital is often overlooked. If you have the time to spare, or are up for an interesting day trip from Joburg, or are contemplating a second visit, this largely gracious, still fairly sedate city is well worth your time. And its important to remember that in democratic post-apartheid South Africa it was reschristened Tshwane (from the Setswana language), since the name dating back to its 1855 founding came from Andries Pretorius – leader of the Boers (forbears of today’s white Afrikaners and a figure poorly regarded by this country’s non-white majority, to say the least). Nonetheless, most outside SA – and frankly, not a few inside, since the change was so recent, just over a decade ago – still know it as Pretoria.

But whatever you call it, it’s packed with historic architecture; fascinating museums and monuments; and also an increasingly vibrant, youthful, and multicultural scene that’s gradually been bringing Pretoria out of its traditional Afrikaner conservative shell over the past few years (and fun fact: the world’s most famous living Pretorians are one Elon Musk and one Oscar Pistorius).

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