More than an Apartheid loss: Recovering and Remembering Fairview, a ‘lost’ Group Areas history Inge Salo SLXING001 A dissertation submitted in fulfillment of the requirements for the award of the degree of Master of Arts in Environmental and Geographical Science Supervisor: Associate Professor Sophie Oldfield Faculty of the Humanities University of Cape Town November 2014 University of Cape Town i The copyright of this thesis vests in the author. No quotation from it or information derived from it is to be published without full acknowledgement of the source. The thesis is to be used for private study or non- commercial research purposes only. Published by the University of Cape Town (UCT) in terms of the non-exclusive license granted to UCT by the author. University of Cape Town COMPULSORY DECLARATION This work has not been previously submitted in whole, or in part, for the award of any degree. It is my own work. Each significant contribution to, and quotation in, this dissertation from the work, or works, of other people has been attributed, and has been cited and referenced. Signature: Date: ii ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS I would like to thank my supervisor, Sophie Oldfield, for her supportive and insightful supervision of my work over the last two and a half years. She guided me throughout the proposal and research phase as I grappled with a methodology, a body of scholarship and field site that I was not familiar with. Sophie worked with me through the analysis phase and helped me shape this thesis into what it is today. In addition, with her encouragement and support I was able to branch out further into the world of academia when I presented this work at the 4th Annual Apartheid Archive Conference in May 2014 at the University of Pretoria. During the final drafting and redrafting of this thesis I immensely appreciated her patience and hard work wherein she generously shared her inputs on my writing style which aided me to nuance arguments. Lastly, I would like to thank her for her confidence in me, and state that throughout this long haul I have always been confident in my decision to work with her. This research project would have not been possible without Samuel Houlie and his family who provided me with an interesting and thought provoking research agenda. I am also very thankful for his financial contribution and generous invitation to attend his father’s memorial service, where the importance of this research was solidified. In addition I would like to mention the National Research Foundation (NRF) who also financially supported my Masters at the University of Cape Town. Thank you to the staff of the Port Elizabeth Municipal Archives and Port Elizabeth Municipal Library for their assistance in helping me source through archival material which has allowed me to enrich the historical record of Fairview. Also thank you to the staff of The Port Elizabeth Land and Community Restoration Association, The South End Museum and Dr Siona O’ Connell at the Centre for Curation at the University of Cape Town, for sharing their knowledge with me regarding the Group Areas Act and consequent forced removals in different contexts. Most importantly, thank you to the former residents of Fairview who shared their homes, memories and insight – without your generous participation and hospitality this research would not be possible. I hope that this thesis reflects the beloved Fairview you remember. Finally, thank you to my friends and loved ones, particularly my Mom, who never stopped believing me in over the past two and half years – I appreciate all your support and encouragement. iii ABSTRACT Against the background of the Group Areas Act (1950) and the consequent forced removals this thesis recovers the history of Fairview, Port Elizabeth. I examine how this neighbourhood is remembered through oral histories, family photographs and memory maps, alongside archival, media and literary representations of the area at the time. I demonstrate that despite the forced removals of its residents and the physical destruction of a neighbourhood, Fairview continues to be actively re-imagined, in the present, in varied unpredictable ways. I draw upon earlier research about Apartheid forced removals and how the places affected are remembered by people who lived the trauma of forced eviction on racial grounds. I also draw upon my own qualitative research conducted in 2012 and 2013 to explore, the representation of place in both personal memories and archival material. Through this mix I present Fairview’s history of dispossession as a result of the Group Areas Act, and highlight the violence exercised through Apartheid-era legislation. However, I also present rich family and community histories comprised of meaningful relationships that were nurtured around enduring institutions which provide insight into the ‘everyday’ makings of a neighbourhood and its residents. By allowing these interconnected narratives to shape the memory of Fairview I demonstrate that recovering this history is about more than remembering an Apartheid loss. This work contributes to a broader project of refiguring and expanding the archive in post-Apartheid South Africa, a body of materials, that recognise its character as being plagued by colonial and later Apartheid biases (Hamilton, Harris and Reid, 2002: 9). I focus on broadening memories of places in which Apartheid- era Group Areas removals and its destruction were imposed. To explore the multiple dimensions of these types of spaces I understand them as embodied social contexts which provide structure to inhabitants through multiple layers of community (Till, 2012: 9, 10, 2008: 108). This approach assists me to explore responses to acts of trauma like forced removals and demolitions, highlighting the various place-making activities through which people attempt to reconnect with their former neighbourhoods and lives, expressed in recollections, images and rituals which are central to how places of memory are remembered and reimagined (Till, 2003: 297). In the context of Fairview the mix of public and state archives with family repositories was central to recuperating and recovering a fuller history of Group Areas Removals and highlighting its meaningfulness in the present. iv TABLE OF CONTENTS Plagiarism Declaration ……………………………………………………………………………...ii Acknowledgements …………………………………………………………………………………iii Abstract ……………………………………………………………………………………………...iv Abbreviations ………………………………………………………………………………………vii List of figures …………………………………………………………………………………….. viiii Appendix A…………………………………………………………………………………………..ix Appendix B…………………………………………………………………………………………x Chapter 1 Introduction………………………………………………………………………............1 Chapter 2 Group Areas Removals and Dispossessions: The Challenges, Recovering and Documenting Painful Histories ……………………………………………………………………..6 Introduction………………………………………………………………………………………..6 Broadening and Deepening the Archive of Apartheid ……………………………………………8 Documenting Experiences of Dispossession ………………………………….............................11 Recovering the intimate: Alternative discourses that recuperate ……………………………….13 Conclusion …………………………………………………………………………………….....17 Chapter 3 Recovering and Remembering Fairview: Methodology ……………………………..18 Introduction ……………………………………………………………………………………...18 From ‘formal’ archival repositories to living memories………………………………………...18 My research journey …………………………………………………………………………….22 Introducing the people of Fairview ……………………………………………………………...24 Recovering Fairview …………………………………………………………………………….30 Remapping Fairview …………………………………………………………………………….32 Conclusion ……………………………………………………………………………………….33 Chapter 4 “I was the one that switched off the lights…because we were all told to move out” The Fairview Story of Group Areas Removals …………………………………………………..35 Introduction ……………………………………………………………………………………...35 Fairview declared for ‘whites’ only ……………………………………………………………..35 Making sense of Group Areas Removals: Residents’ Reflections ………………………………39 The redevelopment of Fairview …………………………………………………………………47 The possibility of Fairview being opened to all ………………………………………………....51 Conclusion ……………………………………………………………………………………….54 Chapter 5 “Fairview was to us a Fairview”: From beautiful ‘blommetjies’ to Chinese shops and church bazaars, Fairview as a place of memories ………………………………………………..55 Introduction ……………………………………………………………………………………...55 v ‘They say you come from the bush [but] you didn’t live like [that]… [there were] well educated people, living good lives really’ ………………………………………………………………....55 ‘On every block there was a Chinese shop’ ……………………………………………………..61 The Entertainment and Entertainers in Fairview ………………………………………………..62 ‘Those bus services, we were really spoilt’: Moving around Fairview …………………………66 ‘You so glad to go to church or to go to a function because…you are going to meet people there’ …………………………………………………………………………………………………...69 Conclusion ………………………………………………………………………………………..76 Chapter 6 “When I go past 55 Willow Road, then I remember my birthplace, I can see it in my mind”: Family histories, community networks and memory in relationships …………………77 Introduction ………………………………………………………………………………………77 ‘Everybody is like your family’ …………………………………………………………………..77 ‘It was mixed…we had the different people’ ……………………………………………………..85 ‘Out of that Fairview there were very good people’ …………………………………………......87 Conclusion ………………………………………………………………………………………..92 Chapter 7 More than an Apartheid loss: Recovering and Remembering Fairview, Port Elizabeth ……………………………………………………………………………………………93 Introduction