Memory and Recovery in Times of Crisis by Fiona Larkan Fiona Murphy

Author:Fiona Larkan, Fiona Murphy [Fiona Larkan, Fiona Murphy]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9780367271787
Barnesnoble:
Publisher: Taylor & Francis
Published: 2019-03-21T00:00:00+00:00

p.101

Tracing narrative constructions of ‘colouredness’

This section examines collective memories through narratives and discourses around Coloured lives, and engages the conceptual framework outlined in the previous section in order to determine how these contribute to the construction of Coloured identity in post-Apartheid South Africa. Here, collective memories are discerned on the basis of a close evaluation of group representations through memorials they chose (or chose not) to erect. Building on Wilkinson’s (1996) assertion that ‘evidence is everywhere’ (pp.80–81), including idiomatic and artistic expressions of identity, this section follows three key strands of narrative. Each of these narratives surrounding Coloured identity converges at the former cosmopolitan locality of District Six and finds artistic expression through the historic District Six museum.

District Six

As early immigrants arrived to South Africa from as far afield as Russia, India, China, Australia, Scotland, Egypt, the Caribbean and Turkey, District Six served as a ‘doorstep dormitory’ (Hall, 2001, p.298) due to its close proximity to Cape Town harbour. At District Six, immigrants mixed with locals, freed slaves, descendants of Khoi and San peoples, and those that had migrated from other parts of South African, particularly the Eastern Cape. Originally, District Six was known locally as Kanaladorp, which, according to Soudien (2001b, p.99), is believed to derive from the Melayu-Portuguese word kanala meaning ‘an appeal for help’ and the Afrikaans word dorp meaning ‘village’.

Between 1960 and 1983 more than 3.5 million people were forcibly removed from their homes throughout South Africa, and resettled in segregated areas according to their ascribed racial classifications. In District Six these removals took place between 1968 and 1982 with over 60,000 members of the Coloured community forcibly removed and relocated at the Cape Flats – a barren, inhospitable landscape some 25 kilometres away from Cape Town. Unlike other Coloured areas de-populated under Apartheid, most of District Six was left undeveloped after the demolition of homes. Various organizations and amalgamations of residents associated declared the land ‘salted earth’ and sought to ensure that no development took place without the involvement of former residents. These combined efforts were partially successful, in that the churches and mosques remained, and the Cape Technikon (built later) occupies only a part of the land. In much the same manner as World War II memorials’ inclusion of ruins or shelled buildings to convey the shock of violence, District Six, in its mined state, remained testament to the devastation caused by the apartheid government. Indeed McEachern (1998) suggests that it is precisely this absence that makes possible the inscription of so many meanings and narratives onto District Six.

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