East London (KuGompo City), South Africa

Hello Everyone,

Today (31 Mar 2026) we arrived in East London, South Africa. As of about three weeks ago, the town was renamed KuGompo City as part of an ongoing post-apartheid push to rename cities. The name comes from “Gompo”, referring to the sound of waves hitting rocks near the coast, an indigenous Xhosa reference tied to the area’s history.

East London Background

East London, in South Africa’s Eastern Cape, started as a British colonial port in the 1800s and grew around the Buffalo River as a key shipping and military outpost. Under apartheid it expanded with segregated areas like Mdantsane, which still shapes its demographics today. It’s now a diverse coastal city of roughly 700,000 people, predominantly Black African (mostly Xhosa-speaking), with smaller White, Colored (mixed race), and Indian communities. Its economy blends industry (like automotive manufacturing), port activity, and tourism along its beaches. The largest single private employer is Mercedes Benz.

The Eastern Cape region, including East London, was one of the true heartlands of South Africa’s anti-apartheid struggle, producing a remarkable number of its most influential leaders, including Nelson Mandela, Oliver Tambo, and Walter Sisulu. The region has a long tradition of political activism, fueled by mission schools, universities, and tight-knit rural and township communities that fostered debate and resistance. Places across the province became centers of organizing, protest, and labor activism, while figures like Steve Biko helped shape new movements such as Black Consciousness. In short, the Eastern Cape wasn’t just involved in the struggle—it was one of the key regions where its leadership, ideas, and momentum were born.

Today's Shore Excursion - East London History

Today's tour was a motorcoach tour through East London with stops at a few significant sites. During the drive through town, I saw a city that was modern and developed, but not quite to the extent of our previous two stops. The population here is smaller and the vibe seems a bit more laid back. Our guide was very informative and willingly answered our questions regarding life in post-apartheid South Africa and the current political situation.

Our first stop was at the Mercedes Benz Marine and Coastal Education Center. The center isn’t a large formal museum. It’s more of a compact interpretive space with several themes.

Sand Dunes on the Coast

• Marine and coastal life: displays on local ocean ecosystems, fish, sharks, shells, and coastal biodiversity, aimed especially at students and visitors learning about the Indian Ocean environment
• Marine archaeology & shipwrecks: the Wild Coast near East London is notorious for wrecks, so exhibits highlight historic shipwrecks and maritime history in the area
• Ancient human history: information about prehistoric human footprints found nearby, dating back ~124,000 years—evidence of early humans on that exact coastline
• Khoisan heritage & middens: displays explain early coastal peoples and their use of marine resources
• Local culture: there are also lighter exhibits on things like the history of surfing at Nahoon, tying the natural setting to modern life

I'm not this really qualifies as "lighter", but they had a preserved jaw of a juvenile great white shark on display, along with a surfboard that had a big chunk bitten out of it by a different shark. 

Juvenile Great White Shark Jaw

Something's Missing...

Curiously, nothing in the exhibit told the fate of the surfer...

Outside the center there was an extensive boardwalk that went out over the sand dunes nearby. Although the day wasn't very sunny, it was nice to get out there, smell the salt air, and see the beauty of the sea. 

As I was walking along I spotted a rock hyrax (locally known as a "dassie") lurking nearby. The hyrax is a small, stocky mammal about the size of a rabbit, with short ears, a stubby tail, and dense brown-gray fur. Despite its rodent-like appearance, it’s actually more closely related to elephants. They’re herbivores, feeding on grasses and shrubs, and are known for their surprisingly loud, sharp calls.

The first time I saw one was on my second trip to Tanzania back in 2018. There was a large group of them living in the rocks by our cabin. They're actually quite cute, but very shy.

Rock Hyrax

We left the Marine Center and headed to the East London Museum. The museum is best known for housing the coelacanth (SEE-luh-canth), a prehistoric fish once thought extinct until a living specimen was discovered off the nearby coast in 1938. The discovery made the museum internationally famous.

The museum also has displays featuring the famous Nahoon fossil footprints (~124,000 years old), some of the oldest evidence of modern humans. These footprints were found in a limestone cave in the dunes just outside the museum.

Preserved Coelacanth

There were a large number of other natural history exhibits, displays featuring artifacts from shipwrecks along the nearby coast, and cultural and ethnographic displays such as traditional Nguni beadwork and local heritage artifacts.

I thought this cross-section of a tortoise was particularly interesting. The body cavity was much more open than I pictured in my mind. That's because the spine of the tortoise is part of the top shell, leaving the interior of the body largely open.

Cutaway Tortoise

After spending time at the museum and getting a superbly informative tour led by the museum's curator, we spent some time driving around the city looking at various sites.  We saw a statue of Steve Biko, an activist who's considered a martyr in the anti-apartheid movement in the 1960s and 70s. I couldn't get a picture though because I was on the wrong side of the bus.

And as I've noticed virtually all the places we've visited so far, KFC and McDonalds are ubiquitous. Generally though, the architecture of the restaurants varies, and they rarely resemble the locations in the U.S.

KFC in East London

McD's in East London

Back to the Ship

Today's stop in East London was brief and so our visit here was short. There wasn't much to see in the vicinity of the port, so I just elected to go back to the ship after the shore excursion.

Tomorrow we'll dock in Gqeberha (formerly Port Elizabeth) South Africa. It's known as a jumping off point for safaris at the many private game reserves in the area, and almost all the shore excursions, mine among them, includes some type of safari. I'm excited about that, as I love seeing the animals.

Until then, all the best,
Jim