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Streets, Skollies and Coons in District Six

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Streets, Skollies and Coons in District Six Streets, skollies and Coons in District Six On narratives and identity related toan area of forced removal in Cape Town, South Africa Jonas Ursin‑Holm Lea Dissertation for the Cand.polit degree University of Oslo Department of Social Anthropology March 2007 ii Abstract In post‑apartheid South Africa there has been an ongoing process of renegotiating history since the abolishment of the white minority rule. South Africans are coming to terms with who they were, are and are becoming. As a part of the nation‑building project the Truth and Reconciliation Commission facilitated the narration of the gross violations of apartheid. Hence, former silenced voices could present their versions of the past. Critics, however, have called for a more positive shared history for the rainbow nation to build on. In this thesis I focus on another set of memories ‑ the memories of District Six. The multicultural urban area of inner city Cape Town was destroyed during apartheid and the residents were forcibly removed as a result of the Group Areas Act of 1966. Today the residents have the possibility to return following the land restitution process, and District Six has come to national fame as a symbol of hope. I look into the narratives of the former residents as they are presented on various arenas. In narrating their lives people are positioning themselves in history and in the same time negotiating identity. My focal point of study has been the District Six Museum, where the different representations of the past, as told by the former residents, have been organized to make up a pattern of “district sixness”. In scrutinizing these narratives I show that the stories are not merely nostalgic accounts of the past, but in them are also aspects of diaspora thinking, contestation of history, identity making, a critique of society today, and finally a vision for the future. Treating the human mind as having common underlying properties (Lévi‑ Strauss 1966) makes it possible to say that these narratives can have resonance with other South Africans that were victims of apartheid. iii iv Acknowledgements First of all I would like to express my gratitude to the people I met during the fieldwork in Cape Town. Thank you for sharing your memories, and hence lives, with a stranger from Norway. Without your stories this thesis would be impossible. My thoughts go to all of you at the al‑Azhar mosque, the people I crossed paths with at the pub in Darling Street and the David’s on Mitchells Plain. My special thanks go to the staff at the District Six Museum. You where always happy to answer questions, help me with written sources, or just be there for a chat. Your hospitality was tremendous. The coffee was always great Menisha! Further I must mention my supervisor, Knut Nustad, for setting me on the right track, and Eduardo Archetti for always being more than willing to discuss lived lives and narratives. Last, but not least, I can not describe the massive amount of support I have received from you, my anthropologist wife Solveig. You have been amazing in assisting me during a hectic spell. Thank you for having patience with me, and for taking so good care of our son Emil and me during the last few hectic weeks of this thesis. Thank you for smiling at me, Emil! v vi Contents Abstract .....................................................................................................................iii Acknowledgements...................................................................................................v Contents ................................................................... Error! Bookmark not defined. Prelude ....................................................................................................................... 1 Chapter 1: Introduction............................................................................................. 2 The homecoming ceremony................................................................................. 3 What is District Six? Aim and scope ................................................................... 5 History in the making........................................................................................... 8 The Rainbow Nation............................................................................................. 9 Theoretical framework ....................................................................................... 11 Memory and narratives ................................................................................. 12 Identity ............................................................................................................ 14 Nation, nationalism and myth ...................................................................... 16 Anthropology of museums............................................................................ 19 Diaspora .......................................................................................................... 21 Methodological aspects ...................................................................................... 24 The anthropologist’s horizon ‑ acts of reading and preparations .............. 26 The fieldwork.................................................................................................. 27 Yielding data................................................................................................... 29 Ethical considerations .................................................................................... 31 Map of Cape Town City Center .................................................................... 32 Chapter 2: Presenting the field............................................................................... 33 Historical overview of South Africa.................................................................. 33 Important dates in the history of South Africa and District Six................. 36 Historical background of District Six................................................................ 38 Forced removals.................................................................................................. 40 Life on the Cape Flats ......................................................................................... 42 The new South Africa ......................................................................................... 43 Reconciliation and restitution ‑ tasks of the Rainbow Nation ........................ 44 The area today: the District Six Walk................................................................ 48 Chapter 3: The District Six Museum – my focal point ......................................... 54 An anthropologist arrives ‑ a tough experience............................................... 54 The District Six Museum – Beginnings ............................................................. 55 Symbolic aesthetics and popular narratives – a framework for remembering 57 Engagement in the Streets exhibition................................................................ 60 Generative space ................................................................................................. 64 vii Chapter 4: Narratives from the museum arena .................................................... 66 The streets and stoeps ‑ Home........................................................................... 67 Community life revitalized ........................................................................... 69 District Six is still home.................................................................................. 71 Diaspora .......................................................................................................... 75 The gangsters ‑ Seven Steps and skollies .......................................................... 76 The good gangs of District Six....................................................................... 77 Contestation.................................................................................................... 79 Leisure life ........................................................................................................... 80 Music ............................................................................................................... 80 Coons............................................................................................................... 81 Bioscopes......................................................................................................... 85 Chapter 5: Other places of remembering .............................................................. 88 The Al‑Azhar Mosque ........................................................................................ 88 The Methodist Church........................................................................................ 91 The gumba........................................................................................................... 93 District Six ‑ the musical..................................................................................... 95 Chapter 6: Concluding remarks ............................................................................. 99 Questions answered ......................................................................................... 100 References .............................................................................................................. 106 viii Prelude SEVEN STEPS OF STONE IT WAS HERE YOU MUST REMEMBER OUR CHILDREN PLAYED THEIR GAMES AND THE SKOLLIE GANGS SMOKED DAGGA YOUNG LOVERS
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