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MappingtheMemories:Politics,PlaceandIdentity intheDistrictSix Museum,CapeTown

CHARMAINEMcEACHERN Universityo fAdelaide

Introduction

Inpost- ,`the new South Africa’is the most obvious way in which people in all kindsoflocatio nsand structuralpositionsconfrontand seektogive some name tob oth the obviousandmassive politicalchanges which have occurredand the hopes forcu lturalandsocialchange whichhave accompanied them. 1 Thatthe label `the newSouth Africa’is perhapsthe dominant form ofa noverall identity forth is nationalpolity obscures the uncertainty, and precariousness, ofthis acto fconfrontation.Just whatis `new’in post-apartheid SouthA frica?And whatdoesit meanto be S outh Africanin the `new’South Africa?Howc anth is identity achieve some kindof stability, someform ofinte grity? Canthe past beu sedtoes tablish notju st the factof`ne wness’,butalso toth ink aboutwhatit is, or canbe,byreferenceto whatit is not.I nthe past andits struggles liesthe impetusforthe nation conceived asunity in diversity, the principle fork nowingor interpretingthe past thusbeingembedded in the present(Boyarin,1994,p.x).Thus also emerges the enormoussigni® canceof mem ory in SouthA fricatod ay. Memory is centralin socialthe orisingand critique in contemporary South Africatod ay(one couldc ompare this with the relationship between nation and memory in Israel;Young, 1993,p. 210,Huyssen, 1994).The Truth andRec- onciliation Commission is probably the most obvious andvisible manifestation, publicly engagingthe apartheid regimein termsofits oppressive strategies andhumanrights violations.Here,one is mindfulof B oyarin’sclose link between the role ofme mory and identity asnation-state (1994,p.iix).InSouth Downloaded by [University of Toronto Libraries] at 22:58 01 March 2012 Africath is processmustbecontextualised through other attempts toprov ide reconciliation and`truth’tom ark the endofoppressive regimesandsignalnew beginnings. Post-warGermany(see forex ample Geyer, 1996;Young, 1993, Chapter1)and Argentina’sreturn todem ocracy aftermilitary rule come immediately tom ind.SouthA frica’sownparticular Truth andReconciliation process certainly drew on otherattempts tohea lshattered nations, the public consultation andfactga theringprocess includinginputfrom South American andEast Europeancountries(see Boraine and Levy, 1995).Ultimately,some formssuchasElSalvador’sinternationally organised commission were rejected and,asAndre duToit putit, S outhA frica’sTruth Commission became a `project ofthe state’(1995,p .95),adecision which suitedthe factth athere rememberingandaccountingforthe past are also encompassedandcircum-

1350-4630/98/030499-23$7.00 Ó 1998CarfaxPub lishingLtd 500 CharmaineM cEachern

scribed within the negotiatedpoliticalsettlementwhich puta nendtothe apartheid regime. Yet, atthe sametimethatthe harrowing tales ofperson alsufferingtold to the Truth andReconciliation Commissionhearingsare beinggivenpublic form through daily mediap ublicity andcommentary, in myriadother locations apartheid is alsobeingengaged throughmemory, always partialandcertainly from the perspective ofthe present. Numerousexhibitions,seminars and conferencestestify toa ndprovide critiquesofthe plethoraof w aysin which apartheid operatedasacomprehensive systemofru le, reachingdownintothe very minutiaeof social life .Asanexercise ofrem embering,the new South Africa’sactof self-c onstruction is more thanthe willed action and rhetoricof anew governmentandstate.It also exists in these manyaccounts,allof w hich, though partialandoftencompeting(Young,1993,p.xi),have somethingtosa y aboutthe present, the `new South Africa’,through their acts ofre membering the past. These themes ofre memberingforthe understanding ofb oth the present andthe future emerge asacentral problematicin allk indsofrep resentation generally butalso in the livesoford inary South Africans strivingtoc ome to termswith whatwasdone tothem or in their name. They demonstrate the profoundwaysin whichallkind sofm acro-processestake form andpowerin the lives ofpe ople atthe most micro-levels (Abu-Lughod,1993).Toappreciate the signi® canceof this situatedness ofhistori calprocessesoftra nsformation (ComaroffandComaroff,1992),this paperconsiders acase studyofone ofthe placesof en gagement betweenpast, presentandfuture which characterise contemporary South Africa.The focusofthe studyis the District Six Museum in Cape Town,which wasestablished in December1994.The studyis basedon twoperiodsofpa rticipant observationin 1996and 1997.O bservationw as supplemented byandinterrogated through interviewsand informaltalkswith museumstaffandvisitors. The museum is apowerfulengagementwith SouthA frica’spast, partly because its rememberingis located in the very heart ofa partheid philosophy andsocialengineering,the construction ofthe apartheid city.Notju st an historicala ccount ofthe harm done through this vision topeop le andplaces, the museumalso providesforthe active construction andperformance of memory which is atthe same timeacritique ofap artheid itself.T he paper’s Downloaded by [University of Toronto Libraries] at 22:58 01 March 2012 studyofth is constellation ofcity construction, memory andcritique is facili- tatedusingthe work ofM ichel de Certeau(1988).The insights ofhis work on walking the city are particularly usefulfor a criticalu nderstandingofthe relationship betweenpastandpresentwithin this constellation asit is manifest in the museum.In particularde Certeauprovidesawayofth inkingaboutthe relationship betweenplace,people andpolitics in remembering. In turn, we canopen upalittle more the symbolicterra in ofthe `newSouthA frica’in these very transitionaltime s.

From DistrictSixto theD istrictSixM useum

District Six wasthe sixth DistrictofC ape Town,aninnercity area which from Politics,Placea ndId entityin theDistrictS ixM useum,CapeTown 501

the nineteenth century hadhoused people from the workingandartisanal classes,manyofwhom worked in the city andatthe nearbydocks.T he District extended from the harbourup into the lower reaches ofthe Devil’sPeakand from the commercialcentre ofthe city tothe edge ofthe suburbs.Asone would expectofsuchanarea,DistrictSix hadbeen very heterogeneousfor a very longtime,anintegrated area in which white,coloured andAfrican workingclasspeople all lived (Bickford-Smith,1992),though actualownership ofp roperty waslargely concentratedin the handsofwhite landlords(Western, 1981,p .155).There are clearindicationsthatsuch heterogeneity wasseenas problematicw ell before apartheid.Asearly as1901Africanpeople were removedfrom DistrictSix toa newtownship,, ostensibly because of the outbreakofp lague(G oldin, 1987,p.162).Inthe twentieth century, rapid population expansion (particularly under the in¯uen ceof ru ral in-migration) andthe general disinclination oflan dlordsand the Cape TownCity Council to maintain andimprove housingandgeneralamenitiesproducedw hatall researchers identify asagrosslyovercrowded and rundownareaÐa`slum’ In 1948the NationalParty cametopow erin SouthA frica,h avingrunon a platform which promised tode alwith overcrowded urbanareaswhich re- sulted from massive anduncontrolled migration into the citiesfrom the country. AsMabin says,`Insome respects apartheid wasa(racist)re sponse to previousfailure todevelo pcoherenturbanisation policy’ (1992,p.19).Popu- lation control thus became acornerstone ofap artheid policy asit sought to organise andchannelcapitalist developmentin South Africafo rthe bene®tof one sectorof the population,white South Africans, through whatMamdani calls `arti® cialdeurbanisation’(1996,pp .28,9).This meantthatthe colour segregation whichwasalreadyafeature ofpre-apartheid SouthA frica(Peche y, 1994,M amdani, 1996 2)wassystematisedandlegally enforcedasracebe came the factorin the distribution ofrig hts (Christopher, 1994,p.1).Centraltothe system ofe nforcementofra cially based rights which followedwasthe Popu- lation Registration Actw ith its classi® cationsofra cialide ntity andthe Group AreasActw hich sought comprehensively toen forcera cialdifferenceb y controllingnon-white populations in termsofre sidence.A partheid wasth us a spatialsy stem,which asChristophernotes, worked very muchat the local level. In particular,the city, the urban,wascentraltop olicy.The city wasseen as white,3 built bywhites forw hites,so thataccess tothe citiesbynon-whites Downloaded by [University of Toronto Libraries] at 22:58 01 March 2012 for whatever purpose,residentialor employment, hadtob estrictly controlled through the GroupAreasActin order tom aintain this correctre lationship between whitenessandurbanisation.Non-whites were tolive and work in the urbanareasonly on white terms. 4 The consequences Marksand Trapido record:

Overthe next25years nearly 4million people were uprooted, manyof themseveral times over, in pursuit ofthe policiesofa partheid.(1987, p. 22)

In 1948,C ape Townwasthe most integratedcity in SouthA frica(C hristo- pher, 1994).The Cape’sliberaltradition (Bickford-Smith,1992,Ross, 1992, Mamdani, 1996,p .69)a nd the relatively high colouredpopulation all meant 502 CharmaineM cEachern

that,tho ugheconomics producedseg regation ofa kind,namely,`civil in- equality’ (Mamdani, 1996,p.69),when it came tow orkingclass areasin particular residentialpatternswere characteristically integrated.Itw asthese areaswhich were torn apartasproclamation after proclamation declared areas white orcoloured (mostly the former) forcingall otherclassi® cationsofpeop le out. DistrictSix wasone sucha rea.Ithasbeen eulogisedasanin tegratedarea ofw orkers andsmall traders where people ofall races andreligionsand culturesmixed,lived togetherandshared the hardshipsofp overty and neglect.5 There wasa lso asigni® cantdegree ofinte rmarriage betweengroups, which prompted precisely the fearof b oth miscegenationa nd the bluntingof European`colourfeelings’ which Goldin (1987,p.170)argues fuelledthe NationalParty’sdetermination toreg ularise and codify the ad hoc and often economically derived formsofsegregationw hichwere alreadyin placein 1948. District Six thusexempli® ed the articulation ofideologicalprinciple andspatial organisation which underpinnedthe apartheid vision ofthe city lodged atthe very heart ofits regime and its wayofseein gSouth Africaa sawhole. Under the NationalParty, spaceitself wastob eracialised andtransformed,in turn transformingpeople. Though the GroupAreasActw aslegislated in 1950,District Six itself wasnotprocla imed white until 1966.Over the next15years the District was physically destroyed,bulldozed streetbystreet,to m ake wayfor white residents. All in allbetween55,000and65,000people were moved from District Six,usually relocated in the townships outon the , oftenseparated from closest kin andfriends. In manyways District Six and this history offorce dremovalhascometo overshadowthe many,manyotherareasofforced removalfrom the urbanarea ofC apeT own, like MowbrayandClaremont.It ha sbecome the symbol ofthe dislocation and harm causedbythe GroupAreasA ct.In part this must be because (asthe apartheid authoritiesrenamed the area)orDistrict Six todaywasnevereffectively redeveloped.Indeed,in termsofoccu pationit wasthe state which tookit over, building houses fors tatee mployeesand a Technikon,originally forw hites only.Hart reports thatb y1985`Zonnebloem comprisedsome3000±4 000pe ople,predominantly lower-middle class Afrikaansspeakers andoverwhelmingly stateem ployees’(1990,p.133).The Downloaded by [University of Toronto Libraries] at 22:58 01 March 2012 white residentialdevelopmentdreamed ofbyapartheid authorities never came tof ruition.This visibility ofthe state maintained District Six asapathological symptom ofa partheid andits cities, makingvisible the relationship between force anddislocation.The rest is emptinessandruin,in sharpc ontrast tothe overcrowded, urbanpast.It is awasteland, marked only bythe isolated, untouchedchurches andmosquesofD istrict Six and tracesofthe old cobbled streets amongthe weedsand rubbish. Asawasteland,District Six did notjust standasa`bloton the conscience ofthe entire nation’ (Hart, 1990,p.134).The spacecou ld still bede fendedby those whowaited forthe inevitable demise ofthe apartheid system.In the late 1980sthe HandsOffDistrict Six campaignformedoutof the FriendsofD istrict Six in ordertop rotectthe areafrom British Petroleum’s(BP)intendedredevel- Politics,Placea ndId entityin theDistrictS ixM useum,CapeTown 503

opmentusingthe private sector( see alsoWestern,1981,p.158).Although BP’s development plans speci® ed thatthe areawastobe open tope ople ofa ll races andindeed stated thatex-residents would begiven preference,there was strongcommunity opposition.Hart arguesofthe campaign, `Their guiding intention is thatDistrict Six bedecla red `saltedearth’ and leftu ndeveloped until the demise ofap artheid’(1990,p.136).AsYoungobservesofthe death camps leftb ythe Holocaust, such ruinscannoton their ownremember, it is people’s`will tore member’ which endowsthem with meanings and signi® cance(1 993,p.120).Still, left undeveloped,the wasteland could operate asaspaceon which such meanings couldb einscribed in the imaginationa nd produced asmemory. The District Six Museum hasbecome one placew here the sense ofa bsenceca nbelinked tothe District’spresence in people’slives andpopular memory. The District Six Museum is housedin the Buitenkant Methodist Churchon the centralbusiness district edge ofthe old District Six.The exhibition covers the ground ¯oor centre spaceof the church.Downone side are carrels of photographsgroupedaroundstreets andareasofDistrict Six. 6 Atthe altarend, high up,hang representations ofthe fourmain religionsofD istrictSix people; Hinduism,Islam,Christianity andJudaism,religiouspolyphonybeingpart of the message ofhe terogeneity aboutthe district thatthe museumseeks to convey, despite its housing in aChristianchurch.Below this, dramatically,a photograph ofthe skyline ofDistrict Six extendsacross the church,standing for andhelping people toen visage the whole District whichonce stood behindthe church.Atthe other BuitenkantStreet endis adisplayofs treet signs from the old District andpress clippingsand informationa boutindividuals and events in District Six (andthe museum)®ll the other wall. Visitors are welcomedatthe museum byof®cers whoare themselvesDistrict Sixers (the name giventoex -residents)an dwhowillingly talk aboutthe ir experiences. This makesthis museumreminiscentofthe PanPaci®c Park Holocaust Museum in the United StatesdescribedbyYoung(see also Mithlo,1 995,p.50) in these terms:

In fact,a sinstructive andpowerfulasthe photographic panels were, students andteachersagreed thatthe exhibition’sprincipalresource was the survivors wholedthemthroughthe museum.In their presence,the

Downloaded by [University of Toronto Libraries] at 22:58 01 March 2012 photom ontages camealive. (1993,p .304)

Infact,the presenceof District Sixers asvisitors also contributestoth is `coming alive’ in the museum. The Buitenkant Church hadbeen astruggle churchduringthe era of apartheid,asite in the politicalprotest history ofthe Western Cape.Various trusteesofthe museum recalledservicesand meetings top rotestthe apartheid regime, mentioningnames like those ofA lanBoesakandTrevor Manuel, in 1996agovernmentminister. Theytalked ofm archesfrom the church and of deliberately courted arrests. Partof the symbolicp ower ofthis particular church is thatit is also directly acrossthe roadfrom the security forces’ headquarters in the Caledon Square Police Station. Throughdisplayedmateri- als aboutthe church’sstruggle history, the history ofstrug gle in the Western 504 CharmaineM cEachern

Cape is made physically toen compass the museum’sexhibition in the form of the church,providingone very powerfulreadingor identi® cation,perhaps a preferredreading (Hall,19 80),forthe exhibition and its visitors.This creates aspacef or apossible continuity beingdrawnbetween the demise ofD istrict Six, remembering thatdemise andthe struggle itself,which enablesthe recasting ofthe relationship between the demise and the struggle. The museum itself emergedoutofthe HandsOffDistrict Six campaignof the late1 980s. The possibility ofa museum tokeep alive the memory ofthe District Six which the campaign wasdefendingwasdiscussed atthe very inception ofthe campaign (Soudien, 1990).Butthe museum,when it came, tookform in 1994,w hen apartheid hadendedanddemocracyinstated. Itw as establishedwithin the `new SouthA frica’andbears the marksofthis moment in time. This is clearfrom the wordsofa centralbannerwhich hangsfrom the rails ofthe upper ¯oor ofthe church which reads:

In 1966 DistrictSix Wasdeclared A`White’ GroupA rea Shortly afterward The ®rst bulldozers Moved in and set about destroyinghomes in which generations offa milies had lived.Intenton erasing DistrictSix from the map ofC ape Townthe Apartheid Statea ttemptedtoRe design The Spaceof D istrict Six, Renaming it Zonnebloem Today,only the scars ofthe Removals remain. In this Exhibition wedonotw ishto Recreate District Six asmuch Astore- possess the history of Downloaded by [University of Toronto Libraries] at 22:58 01 March 2012 the area asaplacew here people lived,lovedandstruggled.Itis ana ttempttota ke back ourright Tosignpostourlives with those Things wehold dear. Atone levelthe exhibition is aboutsignsof Ourpast.W ewould like toin vite you tow rite yournames andaddressesand Make comments in the spacesa roundthe Exhibits and in ourvisitors book.This is importantin helpingus totrace ou rpast. At another level, the exhibitionis also about Politics,Placea ndId entityin theDistrictS ixM useum,CapeTown 505

Pointers toour fu ture.We, all ofu s, needtodec ide, how asindividuals and aspeop le wewish tore - tracea nd re-signpostthe lines ofour fu ture.Such aprocess Isne ither easy nor straightforward.Itis notp redictable either.

Here wesee the museum’senvisaging ofthe possible connectionsbetween past, present and future,the connectionofa partheid South Africato the new South Africaa tatime when memory is still palpable, `still almost visceral’, providing forit asocialpower andauthority which the passingoftime erodes or transforms(Young,1993,pp.169±75).The paperwill show thatthe way these themes and connectionsare playedoutandgiven form is very much in the handsofthe visitors, manyofw hom experienced the destruction.And, very much in keeping with the state rhetoricsofempowerment, representation andreconciliation, this is howthe museumstaffwantit tobe .Atthis level,the museumis taking on board agendaswhichcoincide with those ofthe new South Africanstate.Butthe outcomeis not atallas suredin these terms. This is precisely because the actualplaying outofth ose processes ofempowerment is throughthe performances ofthe people.Asvisitors andnewSouth Africans, the people begin tota ke over andengage the rhetorics in their ownterms.This hasnever been the kindofm useumwhichseeks tod oall ofthe memory-work andserve it upto the people.Museumstaffcommenton howthey beganw ith atwoweek exhibitionin 1994butare still there because `the people wouldn’t letus close’.People came tolook atthe photographsand the old street signs which hadbeensaved from the destruction ofthe District andretrieved tobe puton exhibition here. Theycame tow rite their namesand old addresseson the longcalicoc lothshungupf or this purpose.Theymade the exhibition into aspaceof w hatPrattc alls `autoethnography’,representations `in whichpeople undertake todescri bethe mselves in ways thatengage with representations others havem ade ofthem’(1994,p.28).Forthe restofthis paperIconsiderjust one ofthe features ofthe museumasit facilitates this autoethnography.

TheM appingof Memory

Inthe centre ofthe church,coveringmuchofthe ¯oor spaceis ahuge mapof Downloaded by [University of Toronto Libraries] at 22:58 01 March 2012 the District. The mapis decoratedwith poemstothe life ofthe District aswell aslinocuts bythe artist, LionelDavis,himselfa District Sixerand apolitical activist whohadbeenjailed on . 7 Davis helped puttogetherthe exhibition with the mapatits centre. Visibly dominant, the mapis usedbythe museum’seducation of®cers to talk aboutthe history anddevelopmentofthe District,to ex plain different areas, where particular landmarks were and so on. There is someambivalence aboutthe map,with some trustees and others arguingthatit hasbe come rei® ed,settingDistrict Six in stone (orpa per andplastic).Certainly in some tours, it is pointed outth atthe map’simpression ofb oundedness wasnega ted bypeople,e vents andrelationshipsspillingoutinto surroundingdistricts (the harbour, the commercialareaofce ntralCapeT own,nearbydistricts like 506 CharmaineM cEachern

Walmer Estatea ndWoodstock,where some moved after1966).Fewofthe District Sixers who come express the same ambivalence. The director ofthe museumstressesthattheir ®rst priority are District Sixers,people whose history theyare showing. Andfor these people the map is very powerfulindeed.Itis one site in the exhibition where people tookove r andturned it into somethingelse, something living.Notjus tcontenttosig n their namesandputthe ir old addresseson the cloths, the ex-residents of District Six also wrote their names on the map.They marked in their houses, their family names, shops,bioscopes(cinemas),markets, bus stopsand so on. Insodoingthey wrote themselves intothe map;theyrendered socialthe map’s physicalrepresentation.The mapis thusimplicatedin the declared intentions ofthe museumtore sistapartheid’shistory byproviding the opportunity for people to`re -possess the history ofthe areaasa placew here people lived, lovedandstruggled’and to`a ttempttota ke back ourrigh ttos ignpost our liveswith those things wehold dear’.Through the map,D istrict Sixers make visible the histories which they have carriedwith them butwhich were rendered invisible in the destruction ofthe area. In his most famousch apter of ThePracticeo fEverydayLife ,`Walkingin the City’,Michelde Certeauargues thatwalking in the city canope rate as resistanceto of® cia l, authoritative constructionsofthe city Ðconstructit as placein which meanings slip authorised versions asw alkers ®ndnew ways through,attach placeto me mory Ðturningspacein topla ce.This is exactly whatDistrict Sixers walking over the mapdo.T he maphasapeculiaref®cacy in engagingwith apartheid.Itcan b eseen asacore symbolofap artheid given the centrality ofu rbanplanningtoa partheid’sparticularversion ofsocia l engineering (Smith,1994,Western,1981).AsChristopher(1994)hasdem on- strated, mapsare particularly suitable foran alysing the transformative and destructive impactofthe apartheid regime’spolicies andpractices.A ssuch,the mapin District Six Museumis aparticularly powerfulgroun don which District Sixers canengage with apartheid’sinterventions intotheir lives. The mapre presentationis aphysicalth ing,anof®cial te xtwhichbaldly lays down the basic topographicalfeatures ofthe district. Itis empty,devoid oflife, able tob emanipulated in the interests ofth ose in authority. Onthe basis ofsu ch a representation andarmedwith the of®cial n arrative ofDistrict Six which stated thatit wasaslum,degenerate,crim eandpovertyridden,`ab lighton the social Downloaded by [University of Toronto Libraries] at 22:58 01 March 2012 landscape’requiring redemption (Soudien andMeltzer, 1995,p .8),the author- ities could organise the systematicde struction ofD istrictSix,street bystreet (see Fortune,1996).The walkersuse exactly the same representation,which on the ¯oor ofthe museum also beganasan`empty’representation,buttheir articulation ofm emory andwalkingprovide forit atotally differentmeaning, one which resists the apartheid regime’sjudgement,w hile atthe same time criticisingits actsof de struction. People obviously use the mapin differentways.Somejust stand andstare, often with tears in their eyes,others are looking forspeci® csites, trying to rememberwholivedand worked where.They look for old haunts, locate the homesoffrie nds and kin,where they wenttosch ool,the swimming baths, placesof fu n,places ofw ork.Where they come in with others,usually kin, Politics,Placea ndId entityin theDistrictS ixM useum,CapeTown 507

conversation is intense astheyexchange memoriesofw holivedwhere,maybe evendisagreeing with each otheraboutplacesan dpeople.They maymee t others on the mapand talk about their District Six,trying to® ndconnections in people andplaces andoften®ndingthem in shared shop keepersor school teachers andprincipals.They maylook tosee from the marks on the mapwho oftheir old neighbourhood hasa lsobeenhere. In the summerof1 996±97the museumsawa lotof D istrict Sixers visit from new homesoverseasin Canada, the United States andAustralia.Many ofthe se used the maptosh owthe ir childrenwhohadneverseen District Six where theyhadlivedandwhatit was like.Many cometothe museumof®cers who are alwaysinterested,always encourage them tote ll oftheir relationship toD istrict Six,ton arrate their District Six.They swapstories, remember different aspectsof the same event or person’shistory.There is aconstantmovementhere;betweendifferentiated historiesand memorieswhich signifymanyDistrict Sixesand the more homogenised District Six,the symbolofahistory greater thanthe District itself. Both are present in the mapwalking andthe narratives, so thatSoudien and Meltzerare right toca ll these popularnarratives,the assertion of`hu manity, dignity and creativity (1995,p.10),buttheyalso seemtobe pa rticularnarra- tivesofide ntity. Obviously walking on the mapin these waysis adifferentexercise atmany levels from de Certeau’swalkingin the city.H espeaks of`w alkingrhetorics’ (1988,p.100)whereby`pedestrianspeech acts’ like takingshortcuts or detours or refusingtota ke particularroutesare appropriationsofu rbanspace,a tthe sametimebringingthis spaceinto being Ðasplace.Such anactof ap propri- ation andbegettingis nolongergiven toex -District Six residents.Though they dovisit andattendchurches andmosques in the District still, there is little left to`w alk in’in the waydeCerteauspeaksof.There are nohouses,shops,parks, just rankweeds,the oddgroupofsqu atters with little ®res andthe ubiquitous linesofw ashing,rubbish, ahuge Technikon complex andsomehousing on the fringes. Whatthe ex-residents dohave is the spatialrep resentation ofthe district, in the form ofthe map. Itis the mapthatallowsthe walkers tob ring `District Six’intobe ingagain asphysicalspace;butthis time it is not so muchin relation tothe intentions ofb uilders,architects andurbandesignersasdeCerteauhasit.Ra therthanthe creators ofth is urbanspace,the mapa llowsthemtoen gage with its destroyers. Downloaded by [University of Toronto Libraries] at 22:58 01 March 2012 Here the mapful® ls both ofthe roles ofthe modern museum which Huyssen (1994,p.15)notes make museums the paradigmaticin stitutionofm odernis- ation; collectingthatwhich modernisation hasdes troyed buta lso servingasa site ofposs ible resurrections.Certainly the discourse ofap artheid when it decreedthe destruction ofD istrict Six wasthatofm odernisation,progress whatever its politics, sothe museum `collects,salvages’ thatwhichapartheid as modernisation destroyed.But,a sHyssen also notes, museumslike memory itself,`constructthe past in the light ofthe discourses ofthe presentand in termsofp resent-dayin terest’,andin the light ofthis wesee thatthe walkers turn the museumintoa site ofres urrection in anactw hich directly counters apartheid meaningswith post-apartheid,regardless ofthe politicalpersuasion ofthe walkers themselves. Thewalkers’ practicesofa ppropriation andenunci- 508 CharmaineM cEachern

ation (de Certeau,1988,p.97)bringDistrictSix into beingassomething morally greater thansp aceÐ place.Rather thanspe akingthe possibilities of the space,the mapw orks asamnemonic,w hich both allowsthe recall ofthe placeb uta lsoputsthe rememberer back into it,as they literally have putthe ir namesbackin toD istrict Six bywritingthemon the map.Itproduces a re-identi® cation. The mapalso worksthrough andenables the playofsynecd oche and asyndeton andthe movementbetween them,forde Certeau,primary express- ive formsoperatingtop rovide the walkedthrough city with its texture and form Ðits reality.The mapofc ourse does stand forthe whole,butjust what thatwhole is, is providedbythe walkers (andthe otherexhibits ofcou rse).For each,D istrictSix starts from the epicentre of their home, their street, their place. Itis this thatthey alwayswrite in ®rst andthen move outfrom their ownplace in District Six tothe whole. Ifsy necdoche `replacestotalities byfragments’ (de Certeau,1988,p.101),then this toois the tropicproce sstocons tructDistrict Six asareality thatthe walkers go through.Asthey walk overthe map,pausing here or there, passing over whole blocks or retracingtheir stepstos topa gain, they speaklife andform backinto the destroyedDistrict ofthe map.T he map is transformed from agraphicrep resentationon twoplanesintothe repository ofex periences, relationships, life;another layer is laid downoverthe lines and shapes bythe walkingfeet andthe spokenmemories/storieswhich accompany them.Butthe life thatthis represents is in fragments, amosaicof spec i® cparts Ðthis shop,this bioscope, this street,p lacesand relationshipswhich come within the directorbit ofex-residents, sothatthe collective remembered whole is constructed outofo verlapping mosaics.T henthere are other fragments which all used tospe akthe specialcharacterofthe District Ðplaceslike the SevenStepsandthe Fish Marketwhich everyone relates toan dremembers. Proper names, like HanoverStreet especially,also have this power ofsynec- doche tobe farmore thansimply the nameofa topographicalfeature.Evenfor non ex-residentCapetonians visiting the museum,Hanover Streetseemsto connote DistrictSix asaniden tity, aplace.de Certeaua rguesthat`Synecdoche makes more dense: it ampli® esthe detail and miniaturisesthe whole’(1984, p.101).This is exactly whathappens tothe District Six ofthe walkers. Their strategies exactly make District Six more dense, which is probably whytheyare accusedattimesofse ntimentality andnostalgia. These processes which oper- Downloaded by [University of Toronto Libraries] at 22:58 01 March 2012 ate assynecdoche make the whole district accessible while focusingits identity powerfully through signi® cantparts tos tandfor thatw hole. Andin this process the foreshortening, the breakingofcon tinuity andselectingofp arts thatis asyndeton,enlarge andmake the chosenparts even more signi® cantand powerful.T he power ofa syndeton,even when District Six wasin existence, meantthatcertain parts ofit, like the SevenSteps, were broken upand taken bypeople whocould thentake DistrictSix with them.Thisis how the Museum wasable toa cquire the small pieceof one stepwhichis in its display. These are then all strategies tocon structthe metaphoricalcity outof the reimagining and re-memberingofthis particularuse ofthe representedcity Ð the map.Inasense they become centraldevices in ex-residents’ performance oftheir popularnarratives ofD istrict Six on the map.Throughthe operation of Politics,Placea ndId entityin theDistrictS ixM useum,CapeTown 509

synecdoche andasyndeton onthe map,events andrelationshipsin the memory merge intopla ces asthey are identi® ed or re-found cartographically, tobe re-createdin the vocalisation ofthose memories asparts ofthe narrativesofthe people wholivedin these places in the past.S uchtellings make District Six exist, nota gain or asit was,butw ithin alargerencompassingnarrative about identity and South Africain the 1990spos t-apartheid society;thatis in metaphoricalform which is politically in¯e cted in particular ways. Asigni® cant part ofth is metaphoricalf orm ofD istrict Six is in the characterisingofth is placea slost community. Thoughin asense wedoget differentDistrict Sixes in the mosaics ofthe visitors, there are strikingsimilar- ities in the kindsofthin gsthatpe ople sayaboutlife in District Six,life making District Six aparticularkindofp lace.

`Youknew everybodyin District Six;it waslike one big family,weknew whites andblacks,everyone. `Youw ere safein District Six Ðgirls could walk in the streets atn ight, the kidscould playon the street. `People respectedeach other, youcou ld discipline someone else’schild ifyou sa wit misbehave’(this alsowasoften linked tobe ingable tolea ve doors unlocked). `Street life wasim portantÐweusedtosit on the stoep and talk to people goingpast.

These are justafew ofthe kindsofc omments made overandoverin some form,constitutingthe museum asalocation forthe construction of`c ommon meaning’ (White, 1991,p.6).Whattheyseemtob edoingis clearly drawing District Six ascommunity. Theyare projecting from their remembered lives there outintothe entire district, characterisingit asacommunity. And,theyare certainly constructingthis asafavourable form ofsocialorganisation,which as Bozzoli (1987,p.5)notes, using RaymondWilliams’ work, is always the case with the conceptof`com munity’.Further, her insights aboutthis positive valorisation also seem applicable tothe above kindsofcom ments:

The good connotationsof`com munity’rest in its ability tocon jure up images ofsu pportiveness; ofa placeof kin ship ties, ofre standrejuven- ation;ofcross -classcooperation.

Downloaded by [University of Toronto Libraries] at 22:58 01 March 2012 People also used particularplaces and experiences toe voke asense of community assharedplace.Storiesaroundthe Fish Market abounded;®rst rememberedasa placew here youcou ld meet everyone else andwhich everyone shared in common,butsecond,articulating value andsynecdoche by recounting it asaplacew here the supportiveness ofthe District wasm ade manifest bythe Marketmaking scrapsavailable tothe poora tthe endofthe day. The bioscopesalso seemedtofe ature in manypeople’snarratives, often being the sites thatwere lookedforon the map.W hile this gave the bioscopes tooa synecdochalq uality,atthe sametime loyalty tod ifferent bioscopes also seemed tosign aldifferencew ithin the District. These evocationsofcom munity are in factofte naccusedofn ostalgia or sentimentality andcertainly it is hard tosee anythingculturally speci®c in the 510 CharmaineM cEachern

comments above.Theymightbeheard in amultitude ofp lacesa roundthe world,especially where the impacto fmodernisation andthe more recent fragmentationsofp ostmodern society are seen asdes troyingmeaningful collectivities, producing alienation anddislocation. Inaway,the cultural speci®city is offeredin the kindsofe xplanations which followfrom criticism s ofsu ch evocations ofc ommunity. Many people havea rgued thatsu ch evoca- tionsignore the negative aspectsof livingin the District.O neofthe few critical comments on the clothsaccused the museumofturn ingDistrict Six into a `myth’ because ofth is. 8 Critics pointoutthe existence ofg angs, ofcrim eand violence;they stress the poverty, the overcrowding; they demonstrate the divisions, the prejudices andthe inequalities; they question whether or not there was community in District Six.Dullah Omar,M inisterofJ ustice and himselfa District Sixer, hasta ken upthis issue in avariety ofcon texts, one of which wasa television talk programme, Felicia,aboutD istrict Six which was recorded in the museumitself duringits ®rst week.InanotherplaceO marputs his objection like this:

There hasbeenatendency toisolate District Six from its socialm ilieu. Toregard it asaspecialcase and tom ystify its history ¼There appeared tobe so me degree of`ra cialharmony’.Families livedcloser togetherwithin reach ofea ch other. Acommunity spirit built upover generations lived on. There wasthe life in Hanover Street, the ®sh market and the manyshopsa ndhawkers. Landmarkssuch asthe Star cinema,the Avalon,the Nationaland the British.Butthe re hasb eena tendencytorom anticize [the] life ofthatperiod.Eventhe gangsterismÐ the Globegang, the Jesters andthe Killers, etca re portrayed in a romantic lighttogetherwith `The Seven Steps’and the characters who graced District Six duringits lifetime. Andsohistory will wanttorec ord DistrictSix and its people ashaving beenapeople whoenjoyed life and who were carefree Ð`until the Nats came alonganddestroyed it all’. (Jeppie andSoudien,1990,p.192)

This toois the kindofscep ticism with which some people greet the narratives which emerge in walking the maporlooking atthe photographs.They will ask questions aboutelements ofd isharmony, usually crime or violencea sOmar suggests,butm aybealsocolla boration with the apartheid state. Downloaded by [University of Toronto Libraries] at 22:58 01 March 2012 Bozzoli argues thatone wayin which community formsis in termsof opposition tosome thingÐandit seemsclearthat,h owever illusory com- munity is, howevermuch one canpoint toseriou srifts, differences, evidence ofn on-harmony andso on,this oppositionalcon struction is exactly whatis happening.Inasense this is community post-facto (Western,1981,pp.163±2 01), community retrospectively ascribedtow ays oflivin gin DistrictSix in oppo- sition tow hatcameafter. Asit is evoked atthe museum(Western,1981)this maybe fa rless community asthe form ofrem embered socialorganisation and farm ore amoralcommunity brought into being ascritiqueof a partheid or at leastsom eofthe planningconsequencesofap artheid,giventhe divided politicalaf®lia tionsofth ose dislocated. 9 Clearly people were assertingtheir subjectivity and experiencein contrast toa timein which suchassertionswere Politics,Placea ndId entityin theDistrictS ixM useum,CapeTown 511

devalued,even impossible,makingidentity itselfprob lematic(W hite, 1991). And here Iwill ultimately argue thatpe ople are talking abouttheir identity andformsofsocia lity in relation to city asmuch asthe yare talking about community (Bickford-Smith, 1990,p .35).

TheC osmopolitanCommunity:a Politicsof Memory

The memories on the mapand the stories which people tell aren’tjust stories ofsome past, perfectpla ce.Rather theyare storiesofa people transformed, turnedintoso mebodyelse Ðfrom the criticalperspective ofwhothey feel they have become. The past recounted from the standpointofthe present is then a strategy ofide ntity construction (White, 1991,p.8)which here providesaway ofcritic isingthattransformation,narrativesbecoming morality tales asm uch astheyare history.Regardless ofho wromanticisedit hasbecome,DistrictSix seemsmost certainly toha ve been aplaceof ge nerationaldepth;Western claimsseven generations. The history which wassedimentedintothe District asplace,in partlived in the people asthe mapwalking reveals.Then too,m ost accounts suggestthatpeople did not live asisolatednuclearunits. Rather they all hadkin, aswell asfriends,livingclose-by.This is certainly borne outb ythe storiesand mapcommentarieswhere people will also pointoutwhere their aunties, uncles andgrandparents lived, with their childrenor others ofthe family andhowthe ycould asre adily andfreely walk intothese homes, sit downand talk oreatasin their own.This takeson very particularsigni® cance whenone considers thatpoverty alsoc haracterised the people ofD istrict Six. Kinship links were criticalin coping with this poverty ata dayto d aylevel (Pinnock, 1987,p.426;see alsoW estern,1981).Again this is embeddedin the help,support,re distribution andcare whichfeatures in manyofthe stories and it is alsoin part the contextfor the integratednature ofthe District. Asmany observersnote,integration in urbanCapeT ownwasafeature ofpoor, working class areasmore thananyother (Goldin,1987,Bickford-Smith, 1992).Sothe negative urban features many note,poverty, overcrowding, poorfacilitiesand soon are exactly those thingswhich seemtoh avegene ratedthe formsof sociality,the socialrelationships, whichpeople todayare representingas community. Then in memory, it is the sociality whichdominates ratherthan the structuralconditionswhichproduced it. Downloaded by [University of Toronto Libraries] at 22:58 01 March 2012 In keepingwith Bozzoli, the remembered community which people then build on these sociala ccommodationsofpovert yand selfhelp is also oppo- sition.Itis community asakindofcritique Ðaremembered community based on stories ofthe sociality which is broughtinto beingfrom the perspective of where they are now,in ordertocriticise the transformationsoftheir lives under apartheid.Twoexampleshelp make the point.First, it is clearthat,for manyofthe colouredpopulation,particularly those movedearly,the standard ofh ousinginto which theywere movedwassuperiorin manywaystothe ir District Six accommodation(W estern, 1981).Though small and very basic,the houses were clean, hadfull facilities,small plots ofla ndand people were able toh avem odern conveniences. Atthe same time,they remained poor,a ndnow they hadto spe ndmore moneyon commuting tow ork, aswell asthe often 512 CharmaineM cEachern

higher prices thatsh opsandservices with monopoliesin the townshipscould charge.But,be cause ofthe wayin which the GroupA reasBoard (often called `the Board’,see also Rive, 1989,p p.93±1 04)alloca ted newhousing,more often thannot people were now livingfara wayfrom kin andneighbours with whom they hadbuilt uplong-term networks ofsu pporta nd cooperation.Now they were isolatedin their poverty, made tofee lit much more,anddespair (see forex ample Adamsand Suttner, 1988,Chapters 15±18;Western,1981, Chapters 7±9).This wasparticularly hard on women left isolatedandsome women talked ofw alks ofse veralmilesthatthey made across townships to visit mothers and sisters similarly isolated.Soformsofsociali ty changed;as they recountit,to their impoverishment. The secondexample concernsthe mostcontentiousclaim ofthe map walkers,thatD istrictSix wassafe.This, asindicated,is the thing thatpeople most oftenpick up.Itis aquestionoftenaskedofthe education of®cers when they are conducting tours ofthe museum.Whatofviolen cea nd crime?What ofthe gangs?This is hardly asurprisingquestiongiven the amountofme dia attention tothis feature ofthe new South Africa,butit is very valid asan historicalquestio nalso(Pin nock, 1987).The position thatDistrict Sixers seem tota ke is that,yes there were gangs,butthe ywere mostly aproblem fore ach other or outsiders, notthe people ofthe District whocould mostly keepoutof their way. Further, theyfought with knives and ®sts rather thantoday’sfull arsenals. Nowpa rt ofthe contextforth is must bethe activitiesofthe organisation People Against Gangsterismand Drugs (PAGAD)which had greatly heightenedpeople’sawareness ofthese thingsin 1996and1997. 10 But, asPinnockrep orts, this alsoseemstobe the perception ofgangsters themselves atthe time.Hequotes Stone, the leaderofthe Mongrels gang in :

Itwastough then.Butyouknewwhere youstood.Youw ere nevershort ofkroon (money) or people who would pull in tohe lp you.Ja,wehad our® ghts, butthere wasn’tall the killing. The familieswere big,you know,andyouk neweverybody.Theywould all help youw henyoufell in the shit.(1 987,p.427)

Here gangs andcommunity (orcom munalfamiliesasPinnocka rgues) go togetherrather thanbeingincompatible. There seem tobe tw okindsofth ings being broughtoutin these accounts. First the narrativesseem toden yaplace Downloaded by [University of Toronto Libraries] at 22:58 01 March 2012 in District Six for the level ofviolen cethey experiencetod ay(HanoverPark wasone township oftenused toe xemplify this),for its randomness and the possibility ofbein gmurdered which meant thatn otf or the townships but the life on the stoep or the streets. People stayedinside and kepttheir children inside almost from the momentofm oving outinto the Cape Flats, testimony Ithinktotheir fears ofa placew here theydid notk now the people theywere living among, ana lienresidentialexperiencefor them (Fortune,1996,p.105). Their memories ofstree tlife then are notjustexpressionsofcom munity which wassymbolically constitutedon the street (Soudien andMeltzer, 1995)butalso seemtobe con structedwith the intention oftestify ingtoch angingsocial patternsofviole nce. Andthis is asmuch directed attoday’spost-democratic rule asit is atapartheid,particularly where the speakeris anti-ANC.Yester- Politics,Placea ndId entityin theDistrictS ixM useum,CapeTown 513

day’sviolenceh adakindofs ocialmea ningwhich forthem is denied in the experiences ofc ontemporary violencea ndcrime in the townships.Implicated in this, echoedin Stone’scomments in awaytoo,a re the changing formsof sociality which ultimately changed colouredsubjectivity andidentity. Life,and people,beca memore individualised. Insteadoflivin gin large communal families, they turnedinwards,intothe nuclearfamily,intothe house,not going out,not knowingtheir neighbours, isolatedasm any walkers said,`outon the Cape Flats’.Comments echo the wordsofa Mowbraycoloured resident forcibly removedtothe CapeF lats underthe GroupAreas, tow hom Western spoke: Iwasreally livingthen,nowI ’mnot sure Iam.Imean,Ilive form yjob. Thatis the money Icanm ake sowecanmake the home comfortable for the family andtoin vite people in and beprou dofit. B utit’svery rarely wecangetupaparty and go outd ancing or toa movie.In Mowbray there was too muchto b edone outside Ðpeople would participatew ith youÐ here welive too much in ourhouses. (1981,p.239)

This commenthasthe diasporic structure offeelin gwhich Small (1986,p.11) argues characterised District Sixers removed tothe townshipsofthe Cape Flats. These big questionsofw hopeople feeltheybecame underapartheid,are the cruxtob oth the narratives ofm emory andthe criticalengagementwith apartheid thatthe mapencourages. And here the relationship betweenmap andcity is crucial. The mapwalkers demonstrate that,f or them,both identity andhistory are space.This is verymuchasone would expect,g iven thatspace wascentraltoa partheid,its ideologyandits transformationsofS outhA fricain termsofthis ideologyandthe interests it served.The mapon the ¯oor symbolisesthe socialemptiness ofD istrict Six asinner city whichwasnecess- ary tom ake Cape Townintoa quintessentially apartheid city,the city which Christopher (1994)argueswasmost transformed under apartheid’ssocial engineering.Andthe people walkingthe maprespondtothis, criticising apartheid’spoliciesandactionsin makingCape Townanapartheid city,b y repeopling,resocialising, the innercity with their stories,their presencea s coloured people, however momentarily. Livingin District Six gave coloured people aniden tity located in two things; the inner city andCapeT ownitself,the Mother City. Itis the ®rst of Downloaded by [University of Toronto Libraries] at 22:58 01 March 2012 these thatWestern’sinformantseemstobe en gaging. Hewaslivingthen, on the Cape Flats he’snotso sure¼Whatpeople lostbybeingshipped outto mono-racespa ceswasthe experienceof city livingitself, anexperiencew hich hadbecome part ofthe ir very identity. They lost the heterogeneity,the openness,whatHannerz(1 992,Chapter1andp.173)calls the `cultural complexity’ofthe city andcity living,which hadshapedwhotheywere, as people.W eneed only toth ink ofthe short story `Moon overDistrict Six’,by Richard Rive (1989),awriter who did talk aboutDistrict Six asa`slum’,in which the same New Yearmoon shineson`the teaser-man’,the `youngbuck andhis girlfriend’,the `early celebrator’ drinkingfrom apapercupreading KISSMESWEETIEwhois chastised bythe `prim,light-brownladywholived in WalmerEstate and only spoke English ath ome’,the `dandyin pinksocks’ 514 CharmaineM cEachern

atthe cinema,the `housewife’ outon the town,the `Cheeky, yellow youth’ playingdice,a guitar-playing`cuuuuulid’serenader, the full cast ofa ®ght including the white policemanarmedwith revolverwho came tob reakit up andthe `street-cornerJesus-jumper’ preaching tothe drunks. Nowonder the CapeFlats seemedsoalien.Theydidn’tnecessarily like their co-residents in the District andthe mapwalkers showth attheycarvedouttheir ownspaces within the whole,butthese other lives, these other spacesa ndtimes (Pechey, 1994)of D istrict Six were alsopa rt oftheir District Six and part of them as District Sixers, anidentity which became all the poignant when theylost it. 11 These people were cosmopolitans, forcedintoa racialised kindofsu burbia,a mode oflivin gandanidentity which wasnotof their ownchoosing.Andin doingsotheylost asigni® cantelementoftheir identity asSouth Africans.They lost their righttode termine their ownidentities. And they lost their placein Cape Townitself.AsSmall says, from now on they lived in the diaspora,the Cape Flats. There is such astrongsense ofth is in many ofthe storiesvisitors andof®c ials tell, asthe yrecounttheir lives in District Six ascity,c osmopolitan lives. They talk abouthowthe yusedtou se the whole city,the harbour, Canal Gardens, the Mountain,the sea.All ofthese placesw ere theirs, part ofthe ir space,whotheywere. Astheytalk, it is clearthatdifferencew asalsoim portant in the city,th atstru cturalandcategory differences,aroundreligion and class for example, constituted partof the knowledge aboutpeople which they negotiatedin their socialrelationshipswith them (see Hannerz,19 80,p.149). They alsotalk oflife aroundthe harboura ndthe people from overseaswho cameintothe District from the ships.Some speakoftheir `colouredness’ asa result ofth is assea men andadventurers landedandestablished relationships with localwomen.Their whole `differentness’ is bound upin CapeT ownthe seaport,the cosmopolitancity connected tothe other side ofthe Atlantic bysea and ship. Cape Townis calledthe Mother City, the city oforig in forb oth whitesand coloured people, both ofw hom made it,de spite apartheid’sclaimstothe contrary whenit annexedthe cities forw hites.The location ofD istrictSix close-bythe originalcity centre with its monuments toc olonialism,the Art Gallery, the House ofP arliament,the Natural History Museum andso on elidedits identity with thatofC ape Townproper,while also drewthe twointoone, byencompassingthem both ashorizon. AsWestern Downloaded by [University of Toronto Libraries] at 22:58 01 March 2012 notes:

Byremoving ColouredsfromDistrict Six,the Whitesare doingmore thanclearingslumsor underpinningtheir exclusive claim toce ntral Cape Town’ssacred space. Theyarea lsodestroyingo ne ofthesymbolsof whateverColouredidentitym ayexist,a spacein partsa tleastse vengenera- tionsdeepandonewitha ssociationswiththeemancipationoftheslaves. (1981, p.150,italics in the original)

Inso doing the apartheid authoritiestransformed Cape Townastheyhad always intended,butatthe same time they diminished it historically, since they destroyedCape Town,the coloured city.They removedpartof the sedimentation ofh istory which was CapeT own. And museum people wantto Politics,Placea ndId entityin theDistrictS ixM useum,CapeTown 515

argue thattheywere animportantpart. One ofthe trustees expressed this through architecture. 12 Usingalso the photographson the museumwalls, he talkedofh owhis home,anold nineteenth century twostorey house,hadbeen destroyedandofh owa nimportantpartof C ape Town’shistory disappeared in this and othersuch demolitions. Obviously,its early establishment gave District Six adeep sedimentation ofh istoricalmaterialculture. Ascoloured people were diminished then, sotoow astheir city.T his theyare also saying in their storiesofthe lost jazzclu bs,dance halls andcinemas,the loststreet life, the colour,the noise,the vibrancy.They lost their cosmopolitanidentity,butso in awaydid CapeTown,sincew hite society did not replacethese things, these formsofs ociality,these kindsofrelation sand practices. This transformationof city and colouredidentity hasa lso tobe see nas betrayal,som ethingre¯ec ted in the storiesofh owpeop le felt in their interac- tionswith `the Board’ (see alsoR ive, 1989,Fortune,1996,A damsand Suttner, 1988).People talk aboutsh ame in beingtold thatthey hadtog o,of be ing told where tolive. Inpartthis is shameatthe interference ofauthority intothe lives ofpe ople whodeeply valued `respectability’.Manyanalysts (see Western, 1981,Ros s, 1992,G oldin,1987fore xample)haven otedthe importanceof respectability in colouredculture,andit is possible thatthis hadits roots in a mimetic response tod ominantwhite,particularly English,culture, where in Taussig’sterms(1993)mimesis is partofa nappropriation ofd ominantculture which is all aboutcopingwith domination(see also Ross, 1992).Within adeep need forre spectability, apartheid’sresidentialcontrol wasshaming, diminish- ing.Several people told with enormoussatisfaction how they hadgot together enoughmoneytores ist such controlbybuying ahouse ofthe ir ownchoosing. Further,the townshipswere places ofcon trol andsurveillance,b uilt in sucha waythattheycould bese aledoffa nd scrutinised in times ofu nrest (Christo- pher, 1994).The self-determination which accompaniesrespectability was undermined bythe GroupA reasAct.A tthe same time, the homeand family seemstoh ave beenacrucialsite ofre spectability so thatthe assault on respectability featuredparticularly in women’sstoriesandthe distinctions they made between themselves and others. Apartheid’sGroupAreasth usattacked coloured people atthe verysite ofrespec tability Ðtheir residence,their home. Anothercontextofperce ptionsofbetra yalis the privileging ofthe coloured population over the Africanp opulation,particularly in the Western Cape, Downloaded by [University of Toronto Libraries] at 22:58 01 March 2012 where colouredswere seen both asbeing more like the whites, and alsouseful asabuffer betweenwhitesandAfricans. speakingin the main, coloured people were cultivatedbythose whoin the 1950sappearedtoturn on them andcastthem out.T huswe®ndthingslike coloured people neverhaving toc arry passesasAfricansdid andin the Capejobswere reserved forcoloured people underthe Coloured EmploymentProtection Act(G oldin,1987, Humphries, 1992).Yet atthe same time thata specialrelationship between white and coloured wasbeing encoded in law,urbancoloured people were decreedathreatandforcibly removedtothe Cape Flats, asA fricanshadbeen before them. Apartheid’sbetrayalprovidesareconciliation function forthe museum, which criticisesapartheid atacollective and structural level through its focus 516 CharmaineM cEachern

on community. 13 Andinterestingly here, we®nd a®nalengagementwith the staterhe toricsofthe newSouthA frica. Atone level the museum does provideasite in which people mayex press arelationship ofiden tity between themselvesandanew South Africa.They often assert thatDistrict Six alreadywaswhatideologuesin the `new dispen- sation’argueS outh Africas hould strive tobe tod ayÐaunity in diversity. Here they stress heterogeneity and respectfor d ifferencesin culture,religion andrace.For themthe state rhetorics andnarrativesofn ation are given concrete form,reality throughmemory and District Six somehows tandsfor `the newSouthA frica’. Tounderstandwalkers in the museumasplayingoutstate rhetorics though is problematicif it implies necessary intention. For,even in the museum,but certainly outside, there is realambivalence, are realdivisionsamongcoloured people,a boutthe new SouthA fricaa ndparticularly the ANCgovernment. Particularly in the Western Cape,there are alsove ry realdifferences ofopin ion abouta ndsupport forthe NationalParty andits role in the apartheid past. Even among agroupofpeo ple whoshare the experienceof d ispossession and dislocation under apartheid,people have differenthistories ofres ponse tothe apartheid regime(James et al.,1996).Soit is also people with these different politicalhistorieswhowalk the map,constitutingtheir pasts throughsimilar processes. In many ways, it is the encompassmentofthe walking within the museum with its overarching critique ofap artheid which constitutes these actsa s politicalactsof re sistance.Itis this encompassment in apost-apartheid South Africaw hich re® gures the rememberingofd isruption and dispossession from within avariety oforie ntations towardsapartheid asan a ctof protes t.W ithin the overarchingcriticalnarrative suggested through the museum,apartheid is interrogated throughone ofits policies whichwascentraltoits entire ideologi- calproje ct.Yet this does notne cessarily accompanyor indeedconstitute afull, overt orradicalpoliticalcritique onthe part ofthe walkers.Itcertainly doesnot entail automatica pprovalofthe regime today.Andhere again,it is the Cape Townidenti® cation whichemerges ashaving potentialin anidentity politics which is characterisedthrough suchuncertainty, ambivalencea nd differentiation. ImaginingaSouth Africanidentity forthe mselves is radical, though not Downloaded by [University of Toronto Libraries] at 22:58 01 March 2012 necessarily thoughtofassuch,in the contextofapastin which aSouth African identity wasdeniedton on-whiteswhowere expectedtodevelo panidentity in termsoftheir racialcategory and `South African’wasreservedforw hites (again colouredswere somewhatam biguousin this regard,hardertosee asa separate nation,sincethey hadno separate spacew hich wasn ota lso claimed by whites). What is also radicalin the contextofa partheid’sdeclaration ofthe city as white is the wayin which some visitors andstaffa lsosawthe mselves asCapetonian,occasionally even privilegingthis over SouthA frican. Here identity involved areappropriation ofthe city which wastaken from them.But this is only one side ofsuc hana ppropriation. Itca ncertainly be m ade radical in the contextofthe exclusionsofthe past, butifone shifts the contexttothe Politics,Placea ndId entityin theDistrictS ixM useum,CapeTown 517

presentandthe building ofa nationalidentity, post-apartheid,this embracing ofa Capetonianidentity maya lso involve somethingdifferent, more troubling andprecarious. First, Capetonian mayob scure the very realdifferencesand con¯icts amongcoloured people, particularly aroundcurrentpoliticalalle- giances.Butsecond,andrelatedtothis, people seemed tobe su ggestingthat, within South Africa,the contentof`S outh African’seemedtobe u ncertain and that`Capetonian’wassomehowclea rer, less uncertain, easier. Giventhe massive obstacles in the wayofdeliver ingthe `brave newworld’,ofovertu rn- ingthe inequalities ofa partheid,justwhatis really `new’is still problematic. And the TRCitselfh ascon tributedtoth is,demonstratingclearly the different worldsandrealitiesinhabitedbythose todayw ho would beSouthA frican. Itis notclea rfrom the comments ofthe District Six walkers whetherall South Africanpeople canye timagine sharing history andmemory tothe point where they canem bracea clearnew SouthA frican identity.This leaves something lesser(ord ifferent) available aside ntity. Because ofthe exclusions ofa partheid,toe mbracethe identity ofC apetonian is new , is engagingwith presentandfuture in anew polity,so it is also attractive, andattainable,asa position.Itis radical, precisely because it is are-appropriation,ademandfor inclusion and the claimingofanidentity taken awaybyapartheid asa fundamentalprinciple ofth atregime. Maybehere toow ehave`C apetonian’ synthesisingthe work ofrecon ciliation whichmany feelis necessary before South Africac anb ecomeasingle nation.Here,asB oyarin (1994,p.2,see also Geyer, 1996)suggests, is a politics ofm emory in whichmemory actually constitutes the politicsofn ationalidentity, ratherthanonly the process ofm obilisingthe past forpolitica lpurposes, though ofcou rse this is also happeningin South Africatod ay.

C onclusion

GeoffreyWhite (1991)notes thatstories ofthe past are always discoursesof identity. Wesee this in the storieswhichpeople recountpromptedbythe map in District Six Museum,butwealso see operating White’scorollary, thatstories ofthe past actually constitute identity.This is apoliticalprocess,producing a politics ofm emory which is fundamentally aconstruction ofthe present throughanengagementwith the apartheid regime.Post-apartheid is asubstan- Downloaded by [University of Toronto Libraries] at 22:58 01 March 2012 tialdimension ofthe politics ofS outhA fricatod ay. Operatingasone locationin which South Africans contemporarily can make their ownmeanings andtheir ownaccommodations tosta te rhetorics aboutcountry andnation,the DistrictSix Museumsuggests thatwhatthe `new South Africa’is constitutedoutof a variety ofide ntities, avariety ofen gage- ments with the past, avariety ofpasts (Pechey,1994).Inthe politicsofmemory enabled,generatedbythe map,South Africanswho were ex-residents of District Six seem tob e®rst asserting the socialconstitution ofth is areathat apartheid managed tode ®ne in asocialterms, eitherasaproblem,adesirable position forw hites or simply aphysicalsp aceto be m anagedandredeployed. Secondtheycriticise,through recollection andcomparison,the formsofcollec- tivity andsociality which apartheid policiesandadministrators thought desir- 518 CharmaineM cEachern

able forn on-white people. Third,the retrievalofa more desirable past providesawayinto new identity forthem in post-apartheid South Africaa s they take back urbancitizenship,their identity asCapetonians. Whatis newis imagined in termsof,in engagement with, howthe yrecollectthe past.

CharmaineMcEachernmaybeco ntactedattheDepartmentofAnthropology,Division ofHumanitiesandSo cialSciences,Universityo fAdelaide,Australia5 005.Telephone (8)83035730,fax(8)83035733.

Notes

1.This article is basedon a10w eekperiod spent in Cape Townin the ®rst halfof 19 96andafollowu pvisit in December1996andJanuary 1997.I wish toth ankthe Department ofS ocialAnthropologyatthe University of Cape Townforh ostingmyvisit. Iwould especially like toth ankthe staff atthe District Six Museumfor their friendship,the ir generosity, kindness andenthusiasm.Withoutthem this studycould notha ve been done. Thanks also tothe anonymousreviewerwhose comments on ane arlier version ofthe paperh aveprove dinvaluable in rewriting it. 2.Mamdani argues thatthe focuson territorialsegregation in South Africa canbetraced backto S mutsa nd thatthe wayin which such policies were ®rst and foremost political, generated bywhatwassee nas`the native question’which wasaquestion ofm inority control over amajority popu- lation,linksSouth Africau nderapartheid toc olonialism in Africagener- ally, rather thand ifferentiatingSouthA fricafrom the restofthe continent. 3.Interestingly, in the case ofa much earlier Cape Town,1894,w hitestaking advantage oftheir generally greater wealth and movinginto the suburbs hadpromptedsome speculation thatCape Town’scity couldbe left for coloureds, so producingthe residentialseparation ofw hite andcoloured (Bickford-Smith, 1992,p.48). 4.Asmany writers have stressed(see fore xample Smith,1992,Lemon,1995, Marks andTrapido,19 87),this enforcement wasonly everimprecise,as non-white people resisted andevaded the controls, ultimately causing the breakdownofstrict in¯ux con trols and residentialsegregation which was Downloaded by [University of Toronto Libraries] at 22:58 01 March 2012 so central toa partheid’sconception ofthe city. 5.People classi® edascoloure dmade upthe largestgrouping,butthere were smaller populations ofw hitesand Africans living in the area. 6.The museumfrom time totime mounts exhibitionswhichrequire the modi® cation ofthis ®rst layout.T his initialformatis importantforthe way in which it made clearthe assumptions andaimsofthe museumcreators. 7.Whenin January1997RobbenIslandwasopened totou rists, asa one-time prisoner, LionelDavis wasone ofthe tourguidesappointed. 8.Another visitor expressedgreatangeratthe exhibition,seeingit asroman- ticism and declaringthatthis wasnotw hatthe struggle wasfor.H egave the poverty, overcrowdingandlack oflife chances forthe children as factors tocou nterwhathe sawasanoverly romanticvie w. Politics,Placea ndId entityin theDistrictS ixM useum,CapeTown 519

9.The similaritiesin the comments ofW estern’s(1981)inf ormants ashort time aftercoloured people were moved from Mowbray seem tocon ®rm this identi® cation ofc ritique asmuch asdescribedpast. 10.ACape Townmovementofm ainly the Islamiccoloure dpopulation, PAGADsetitselfup to opp ose the gangsanddrugpushers in the townships. Itsa ctivitieshave beenhighly visible in the mediaan dfull of controversyasgun relateddeathshave marked variousdemonstrations. Despite this, there hasbeen approvalthats ome action is beingtaken,the perception beingthatthe police are unable tocon trol violencea nd the possession ofgu nsanddrugsin the townships.InJanuary1997,aPAGAD demonstration which ended atthe Caledon Square PoliceS tation, outside the Museumcreated enormousinterestandsympathyamongvisitors to the Museum. 11.One womanexpressed this perfectly whenshe said thatshe hadnot really realised whatwashappening until the daythey hadtom ove and then she cried andcried. 12.Architecture wasvery topicalatthis time, sincethe Museum wasmounting anexhibition ofa photographicrecord made ofD istrict Six architecture as it wasbeing destroyed.Thisexhibition actually straddled the mapa ndwas asource ofsome contention,since forsome it undermined the powerofthe map.Certainly people hadtocra wlunderthe exhibited photographs to ®nd their streets on the map. 13.Here it speaks toan other dimension ofap artheid notmuchco veredbythe Truth Commission with its focuson humanrights violations toind ividuals.

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