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Place Based Culture and Identity: the Threat of Gentrification to Bo-Kaap and Woodstock in Cape Town, South Africa

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Place Based Culture and Identity: the Threat of Gentrification to Bo-Kaap and Woodstock in Cape Town, South Africa Anthropology Symposium Department of Anthropology 29 April 2016 Danielle K. Propst Place Based Culture and Identity: The Threat of Gentrification to Bo-Kaap and Woodstock in Cape Town, South Africa Abstract: The Group Areas Act of 1950 was a tool used by the apartheid Bo-Kaap: The Malay Quarter government of South Africa to separate people geographically by racial • Declared Malay Group Area during Group Areas Act and was exempt from forced classifications. Most neighborhoods and suburbs of Cape Town were removals impacted by this act either through forced removals or the establishment • Islamic elements serve as a distinguishing factor from the rest of Cape Town and the of new townships. The two areas exempt this act were the Muslim area receives many tourists because of the scenic views and unique architecture neighborhood of Bo-Kaap and the racially mixed suburb of Woodstock. • Increase in both the number of property transfers and the average amount of each transfer between 2000 and 2007 These neighborhoods are now experiencing an increase in property • Previous residents can no longer afford rising property values and are forced to leave values, an outward migration of working-class and lower income the area households, and an influx in the number of wealthy young professionals. • Older residents fear that the neighborhood will lose its culture that was resilient during The aforementioned indicators are all signs of gentrification and apartheid changing residential composition. In the past, the culture and identity of • Gentrification may also jeopardize the amount of tourism in the area if the cultural these neighborhoods was largely influenced by their residential identity is compromised resilience against the apartheid regime and exemption from the displacement caused by the Group Areas Act. The gentrifying process is now threatening this identity and the place based culture of the residents who live there. Woodstock: Formal Industrial Area • Racially and ethnically mixed from the beginning because places of industry were race neutral • Undergoing gentrification since 1980s, has sped up in the past decade • Increase in both the number of property transfers and the average amount of each transfer between 2000 and 2007 • Displacement of black and colored residents and an influx of white residents; most famous case is Gympie Street • Conversion of old industrial spaces into creative industries; most notable is the Old Biscuit Mill • Mixed-race identity is now threatened by the influx of wealthier individuals and the conversion of former industrial spaces Booyens, Irma. “Creative Industries, Inequality and Social Development: Developments, Impacts and Challenges in Cape Town.” Urban Forum 23 (2012): 43-60. Garside, Jayne. “Inner City Gentrification in South Africa: The Case of Woodstock, Cape Town.” GeoJournal 30.1 (1993): 29-35. Robins, Steven J. "Spicing Up the Multicultural (Post)-Apartheid City." Kronos 35 (1998): 280-93. Onishi, Norimitsu. "Multihued Muslim Enclave, Forged in Apartheid, Now Faces Gentrification." The New York Times International, March 1, 2016. Teppo, Annika, and Marianne Millstein. "Chapter 21: The Place of Gentrification in Cape Town." In Global Gentrifications: Uneven Development and Displacement, edited by Loretta Lees, Hyun Bang Shin, and Ernesto Lopez-Morales, 419-40. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2015. Visser, Gustav and Nico Kotze. “The State and New-Build Gentrification in Central Cape Town, South Africa.” Urban Studies 45.12 (2008): 2565-2593.
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