This article was downloaded by: [University of Toronto Libraries] On: 01 March 2012, At: 22:58 Publisher: Routledge Informa Ltd Registered in England and Wales Registered Number: 1072954 Registered office: Mortimer House, 37-41 Mortimer Street, London W1T 3JH, UK Social Identities: Journal for the Study of Race, Nation and Culture Publication details, including instructions for authors and subscription information: http://www.tandfonline.com/loi/csid20 Mapping the Memories: Politics, Place and Identity in the District Six Museum, Cape Town Charmaine Mceachern Available online: 25 Aug 2010 To cite this article: Charmaine Mceachern (1998): Mapping the Memories: Politics, Place and Identity in the District Six Museum, Cape Town, Social Identities: Journal for the Study of Race, Nation and Culture, 4:3, 499-521 To link to this article: http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/13504639851744 PLEASE SCROLL DOWN FOR ARTICLE Full terms and conditions of use: http://www.tandfonline.com/ page/terms-and-conditions This article may be used for research, teaching, and private study purposes. 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Downloaded by [University of Toronto Libraries] at 22:58 01 March 2012 SocialIdentities,Volume4,Number3,1998 MappingtheMemories:Politics,PlaceandIdentity intheDistrictSix Museum,CapeTown CHARMAINEMcEACHERN Universityo fAdelaide Introduction Inpost-apartheid South Africa,`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 mean tobe S outh Africanin the `new’South Africa?Howc an this 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).T he 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).U ltimately,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. Italso exists in these manyaccounts,all ofw 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 all kindsofrep resentation generally butalso in the livesoford inary South Africans strivingtoc ome to termswith whatwasdone tothem or in their name. They demonstrate the profoundwaysin whichall kindsofm 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).T he 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 nd Identityin 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).T here are clearindicationsthatsuch heterogeneity wasseenas problematicw ell before apartheid.Asearly as1901Africanpeople were removedfrom DistrictSix toa newtownship,Ndabeni, ostensibly because of the outbreakofp lague (Goldin, 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).T his meantthatthe colour segregation whichwasalreadyafeature ofpre-apartheid SouthA frica(Peche y, 1994,M amdani,