The Slave Lodge is one of the oldest buildings in Cape Town, built by the Dutch East India Company in 1679 to house enslaved people brought from across the Indian Ocean world. Over its history it has been used as a slave quarters, a brothel, a post office, a courthouse and now a museum that confronts that history directly.
The permanent exhibition on the ground floor documents the slave trade and its consequences in the Cape. Upstairs there are rotating displays on aspects of human rights in southern Africa, and a collection of decorative arts. The building itself is sparse and atmospheric — its dark cells are part of the museum's argument. Closed on Mondays.