District Six in Cape Town: Lost but not Forgotten

The Victims - by Willie Adams (June 1976)

To us you will be more

than just another memory

A living example to follow

since we have lost your bodies

but gained your spirit

In addition to visiting the F.W. de Klerk Foundation (see other post), earlier in the day, I met with Mahererah Gamieldien and Mandy Sanger - educators from the District Six Museum - one of the finest museums of memory in the city and internationally. While the District Six Museum celebrates life in District Six, a mixed area of 3 million inter-connected coloreds, Christians, Muslims, Jews, other whites, artists, poets, musicians, etc. that were forcibly removed to various townships depending on the race of the individual during Apartheid (February 11, 1966), it, in reality, attempts to use the memory of District 6 in helping youth to address contemporary issues around forced migration, national identity as opposed to just individual cultural identity, human rights, peaceful reconciliation, etc. and is a member of international museums of consciousness. (As a side note, many District Six residents were moved to Mitchell's Plain - the area where I am shadowing a high school principal.) Discussion of these issues will become increasingly important as Cape Town, the geography of which had largely been determined by the Group Removals Act under Apartheid, begins to integrate its multiple ethnic groups in its leafy suburbs once the exclusive reserves of whites.

It works with students internationally through student exchanges and allows students to participate in exhibitions creation and/or photography and design. It also provides local and international teachers with seminars on tolerance. In an effort to move the country beyond its current difficulties with violent crime, which the museum sees as a result of the low self-esteem and dignity that often comes with poverty, the museum hopes that its tolerance education programs will lead people to see worth in themselves and others.

The museum sees the process of collecting memory through stories as more important than facts as the sharing of memories promotes dialogue, discussion, and ultimately social interconnection between generations. Indeed, the district map on the main floor was created, collectively, by former residents who were also encouraged to include side stories and poems alongside the map. Depending on when one visits, one can also participate in a tour of the museum that is led by a former District Six resident. While many museums worship the past, Sanger adds that the D6 museum also engages current voices. The museum hopes to add to its programming by expanding its online/distance learning programs with international students and human rights scholars. I hope to engage my students in this process.

As an interesting sidebar highlighting the diversity of South Africa, Ms. Gamieldien is a direct descendent of Sheik Yusuf, an Indonesian Sheik imprisoned by the Dutch, on Robben Island, for his political activities in Indonesia several hundred years ago. Sheik Yusuf is noted for rewriting the Koran, in full, from memory, while on Robben Island. He never returned to Indonesia. Ms. Gamieldien's family, which was forcibly removed from the Constancia area and sent to a colored township, recently was awarded restitution for their lost land in Constancia. Ms. Sanger was also detained in isolation, during Apartheid, for being a student activist/teacher and wanting students to explore history. She sometimes also shares her story with students who visit the D6 museum. The Amazing Race was also at the D6 Museum today picking up clues.

The F.W. de Klerk Foundation: Dedication to the new Constitution

Today, I met with Mr. Dave Steward, Executive Director of the FW De Klerk Foundation and Former South African Ambassador to the United Nations and Chief Counsel during the de Klerk Presidential Administration. (I missed Mr. de Klerk by five minutes but have a nice signed photograph). We discussed the priorities of the Foundation, the continuing impact of history and diverse memory as well as South African/United States relations during the Apartheid era. During the meeting, we discussed different perspectives on issues of race, nation building, and diversity than in other meetings that I have had with NGOs, township educators, and museum curators.

At its core, the Foundation is committed to promoting the core values of ex-President de Klerk. Namely, the organization is concerned with the continued peaceful resolution of disputes, in a country still grappling with a myriad of cultural interpretations on the country's history, and the protection and promotion of the new Constitution that guarantees human rights for all South Africans - the formerly oppressed as well as the advantaged. This is accomplished through the convening of conferences where leaders of all minority and other communities can engage in continued dialogue on issues such as the formation of a national identity while, concurrently, maintaining individual cultural identity. Also, the foundation educates the public to its rights under the new Constituion and monitors legislative threats to constituional democracy in the new South Africa. This is no easy task as, according to Steward, education and the media need to work together in helping citizens to form new loyalties to the state rather than to any particular ethnic group as the one thing in common shared by all South Africans is the new Constitution.

Last year, the foundation also inaugerated the Centre for Constitutional Rights which 1) supports the values/rights inherent in the Constitution, monitors legislative developments that affect the Constitution (this led to an interesting conversation on the Bush Administration and Congress), participates in Parlimentary committees that deal with issues of constitutionality, and conducts studies that assess Constitutional developments in broader society.

Of particular interest and complexity are issues of childrens versus parent rights, language rights, cultural rights, and local versus Federal educational rights (particularly concerning the local governance of schools through school governing bodies). One case, in particular, on which the Foundation voiced an opinion concerned the ban on Western Cape police from using Afrikaans, even if this was their first language, and on the policy that all police business would be conducted in English. In the end, this policy was found to be unconstitutional, by the Constitutional Court, as it was deemed to be a violation of cultural/language rights under the new Constitution. The foundation has also become involved in issues surrounding land restitution and redistribution.

Public education is seen as a particularly important emphasis by the foundation. While it and the Federal government are trying to work with affluent school governing bodies/school districts to accept more disadvantaged students, supported through funds acquired from trusts and school fees, which are significantly higher than in the former townships, Steward fears that many parents will opt for private education and/or leave the country if pushed too intensely. Indeed, since 1994, up to one million whites have left the country for better employment/other opportunities.

Complicating progress on reconciliation remains, as Steward argues, the "elephant in the room" - i.e. different interpretations of the past and expectations for the future - and we are all prisoners of history. Many disadvantaged and disenfranchised want the government to do more in terms of social restorative benefits - i.e. recent strike - and perhaps to even nationalize industries while those more affluent argue that they have succeeded, not because of white priority, but because of hard work and cite recent financial gains of affluent blacks/coloreds resulting from minority empowerment schemes. This community also asks to what degree should they be held accountable for the sins of their parents. Indeed, to punish the affluent today, including whites, would undermine the concept of reconciliation and have consequences for continued progress towards a national identity. Yet, at the same time, the large differential between the rich and poor is fueling the recent spike in domestic crime and violence and threatens the booming economy - especially the tourism sector - and contributes to the international flight of those with marketable skills. The foundation does, however, work with organizations in identifying disadvantaged students who exhibit talent in various artistic/academic areas.

On a side note, as former SA ambassador to the UN during Apartheid, Mr. Stewards' comments on why it took as long as it did to end Apartheid were very interesting. As Afrikaaners (not all) opposing an end to Apartheid were not immigrants, had been in-country for more than several generations (1600s), and had fought Britain in an effort to establish a unique South African identity, their voices needed to be heard and the one man/one vote and right for self-determination could not be overlooked. There was also a fear on the part of the Apartheid era governments that since the African National Congress was aligned to communist parties that, after national liberation, a communist society would be formed in South Africa. Lastly, the government looked at the disasterous results of independence movements in the rest of Africa that led to widescale bloodshed and dictatorships.

While Steward stated that SA wanted to be rid of the "tiger" of Apartheid, they were not sure how to accomplish that. However, with the collapse of the Soviet Union, the government was in a better position to move towards democratization as communism ceased to be a threat. (Mandela and the ANC was also in a mood of compromise). Further, many Afrikaaners initially opposed to integration, had moved from blue collar, union-protected positions/trades to white collar professions , with the growth in the domestic economy from the 1960s to 1980s, and were not as threatened by the abolition of Apartheid.

Robben Island: Committed to Educational Outreach

I just heard that Cape Town is expecting four separate winter storm systems this coming week. I am beginning to understand why the Cape is also called "the Cape of Storms". As such, it is not looking promising that I will be visiting Robben Island as my time in South Africa is winding down.

Besides, if I understand correctly, the Robben Island maximum security prison - where Nelson Mandela, anti-Apartheid leader and former SA president, was held for 18 years before being moved to Drakenstein Prison on the mainland for the last three years of his incarceration is being renovated. As an aside, Mandela was moved to the mainland because this made negotiations for democratic change between the SA government and Mandela's African National Congress (ANC) easier to conduct. In exchange of Mandela's release, the SA government wanted Mandela's commitment through negotiation that a peaceful transition would occur.

Today, Robben Island is not only a world heritage site, due to its association with Mandela and other pro-democracy leaders such as Sebukwe, but also a nature reserve. Although I have yet to visit the island, I have had the opportunity to meet with education program officer - Thotoane Pekeche- to discuss Robben Island outreach K-12 and educational focus.

Robben Island is committed to working with schools in SA in order to share/teach the importance of heritage education in the process of democratization in the country. Besides trained heritage educators, some of whom are ex-prisoners, leading group tours of the island, there is often special programming for school children. This includes but is not limited to a "knowledge hunt" on which students must locate and understand the significance of certain key sites on the island. Following this, Robben Island educators visit schools to evaluate the learning experience while on the island. There is also a primary school on the island for children of Robben Island educators with which the organization pilots various educational programs.

For students 18 and below, Robben Island provides schools with an "apple box" which includes primary source materials such as fascimiles of personal objects of ex-prisoners. Students can then analyze these materials. Working with school-based educators, prior to planned visits, Robben Island educators can tailor these learning kids to the specific interest area of teachers be it the anti-Apartheid era of Mandela and/or the time when the island was used as an isolation area for those with leprosy. Island educators have also used prison conditions to discuss the spread of illness which often segways into a discussion on the methods of contraction for HIV/Aids.

I was particularly intrigued to learn about Robben Island's innovative "Road Shows". Collaborating with the education departments within each of the country's nine provinces, Robben Island works to identify local artists and writers who can relate to students in the locally preferred native language (English, Afrikaans, Zulu, Xhosa, etc) and help students to role-play the history of Robben Island and the significance of the island to national identity. The island also collaborates with regional tolerance and youth heritage centers such as the Hector Pietersen Museum in Soweto (Jo'bg), as well as the Cape Town Holocaust Centre in providing tolerance/diversity programming to law enforcement officers/SA Police Agency and other adult educators. Robben Island also works with local universities to provide an advanced degree in museum studies that includes coursework on conservation, collection, and public outreach.

Through this programming, Robben Island is able to identify students who exhibit leadership capabilities and then invites these students to either participate in a week-long Spring School (September) Program on the island or to involved in the Young Leaders Academy. As Robben Island was also used for political prisoners from Namibia (once controlled from SA as Southwest Africa), Namibian students also participate. This is used as an opportunity to discuss contemporary issues in SA such as crime, HIV, domestic abuse, conflict resolution, gender equality, etc. Issues are discussed in deeper terms and connections are made to other world leaders who advocated peaceful resolution of issues such as Mohatma Gandhi and an evaluation of the SA Truth and Reconciliation Trial Process is undertaken. It is hoped that through this process that participating students would go back to their communities to faciltate conflict remediation.

As a point of reference, Sebuwke was a leader within the Pan-African Congress whom the Apartheid government put in prison isolation for fear that he would influence the other prisoners through "political education".

South Africa and Italian POWs

While touring wineries today, I came across the small, non-descript winery of Zanddrift. In fact, if I was not specifically looking for it, I would have easily passed it (which I and my taxi driver still managed to do several times). In fact, the winery itself is closed on Sundays. However, I came for a specific purpose; this was to see the chapel built by Italian prisoners of war during World War II. According to some very preliminary research that I conducted, there were over 100,00 Italian POWs held by the British in South Africa during the war.

The British feared holding their captives in North Africa so close to where they were fighting both the Italians and Germans. It was also difficult to ship prisoners to England and/or Canada and the United States as German ships and submarines were patrolling the Atlantic Ocean. As such, the British felt that the safest route for transport of POWs was southwards down the East Coast of Africa towards South Africa. Transporting Italian POWs to South Africa was also a convenient way to keep prisoners occupied with community service projects such as the building of buildings and/or mountain passes. While the vast majority of POWs returned to Italy after the war, some eventually relocated to both Britain and to South Africa building an expatriot community. There was also somewhat of an Italian community in South Africa, prior to the war, as skilled trades people such as scupltors, builders, marble importers, masons, etc. were needed for other building projects in this British colony of the time. Indeed, several Italian companies were involved, for instance, in the building of the Voortrekker Monument, outside of Pretoria, during the 1930s.

"C'est Le South Africa": The Country's French Past

Today, I again took advantage of some fine weather to visit the wine producing region around Cape Town which is centered around the interior towns of Stellenbosch, Franschhoek (French Corner), and Paarl. Franschhoek, just in case it's name nor the imposing 1948 Huguenot Monument of a woman standing on a globe with her feet touching France does not give it away, has a significant connection to France.

While the Edict of Nantes of April 1598 bestowed equal religious rights for French "Protestants" following Martin Luther, A German monk protesting against the corruption within the Catholic Church, violence and persecution of French Protestants in predominantly Catholic France continued. Indeed, in 1685, the Edict was officially revoked through the Edict of Fontainebleau. On fear of execution and/or imprisonment, many French Huguenots, as French Protestants were now being called, left France for more tolerant and/or other Protestant nations. Many were welcomed openly in the Netherlands. In an effort to encourage immigration to their new Cape Colony (now the Western Cape Province of South Africa), the Dutch East India Company offered these Huguenot refugees land and loans of farming equipment with favorable terms of repayment. Eventually, by 1720, some 270 French Huguenots would come to the Cape Colony settling around the area of Franschhoek. Given that the Dutch government was firm in demanding that the children of French refugees learn Dutch, as part of their education, and only temporary allowed church sermons to be conducted in French, by the mid 1700s, the Huguenots were fully intergrated into the Dutch community in the Cape colony. Although only 270 in number, many Afrikaaners and others now carry surnames that were originally French.

Some of the Cape wineries were started by French Huguenots but, as elsewhere, were very much developed on the labor of indentured servants and local mixed slaves and those from East Asia. Today, I visited, for example, the winery of Boschendal (Wood Dale) which lies half-way between Stellenbosch and Franschhoek. In 1685, it was one of the first deeded properties. Started by Jean de Long, a Huguenot, it was then purchased by fellow French refugee Abraham de Villiers and remained in the de Villiers family until 1879. After this, the property was purchased by mining magnate and philanthropist Cecil John Rhodes to be run as an agricultural pilot program. Having changed hands many times, today, the estate is run by a consortium of companies and cooperates with the national government in ensuring that the historical legacy of this farm will remain intact.

Southern Suburbs: Groot Constancia, Kirstenbosch Gardens, Irma Stern House and Table Mountain

For a bit of educational leisure and to take advantage of a forecasted sunny day, rain is on the way again, I decided to dedicate my saturday to the exploration of Cape Town's southern suburbs near Table Mountain. This ended up including a tour of the Groot Constancia dutch-style winery/estate, the Kirstenbach National Gardens, the Irma Stern Museum, and a cable car ride up Table Mountain.

Many of you may have seen photos or even have visited Groot Constancia as it is a well-touristed historical site. Groot Constancia (Great Constancia) is South Africa's oldest wine producing estate. Originally built in the late 1600s by the Dutch East India Company and given to the Cape's first governor, the estate, one of the best preserved examples of colonial dutch architecture, changed hands three or four times before being ceded to the South African government. As previously discussed, Groot Constancia, as with other industries, relied on slave labor from other parts of Africa, India, and Indonesia as well as on Cape born coloreds. Even after slavery was abolished by the British in the 1830s, Groot Constancia continued to use "apprentice laborers/tradesmen"; individuals who had been seized by the British from illegal slave traders. Groot Constancia continues to produce award-winning wine and is even known to have been consumed by Napoleon when he had been exiled to Saint Helena Island. The house also hosted dignitaries, during the era of the British Empire, en route from England to assume posts in the then still remote and distant Australia. The main house remains open for tours and is furnished in the Dutch style. Some of the furniture, however, was made locally of stinkwood - a tree indigenous to South Africa. The original bachelor's quarters is now a restaurant while the slave quarters now houses the museum orientation center. The original wine celler now houses a collection of wagons and other historical materials used in the production of wine. There is also a modern wine-tasting center.

Following this, I was lucky to have visited some of the most beautiful gardens that I have ever seen. Kirstenbosch National Gardens rivals the best gardens in the world even, perhaps, besting Kew Gardens in London in some regards. Kirstenbosch, a local center for the conservation of indigenous plants, does, indeed, consist of mostly indigenous plants to South Africa and currently cultivates some 9,000 out of 20,000 native species of plants including those in danger of extinction due largely to human error brushfires. The only part of the garden not indigenous to South Africa remains the alley of trees planted by Cecil Rhodes, over 100 years ago, each representing a different area of the then far-flung British empire. Cecil Rhodes also donated the land to create Kirstenbosch. As South African winters are more mild than those in the Northeast of the United States, and is like that of California, there is always something blooming such as Proteas. However, the garden is apparently best viewed in early/late spring (August to October). As a reminder to my 9th grade learners, as South Africa is in the southern hemisphere, the seasons are reversed to that of the United States.

It only being two-thirty at this time, and wanting to visit Table Mountain closer to sunset, I took the advice of my guidebook to visit a lesser-known house museum nestled in the suburb of Rosebank. Now owned by the University of Cape Town, the Irma Stern Museum remains a testament to the creative artistic talents of its namesake. Ms. Stern, a South African artist of German-Jewish background, had a leaning towards portraiture painting and vivid colors. Albeit, some of her works are realistic in nature while others were influenced by the likes of Picasso or, perhaps, Matisse. Ms. Stern, herself always grappling with issues of identity and isolation as a white, Jewish African woman, was consistently drawn to creating images of the "other". Indeed, in South Africa with its diversity, in some ways, every one is "the other". The house is covered from floor to ceiling with Ms. Stern's paintings of individuals be they African or European as encountered during Ms. Stern's long sojourns to pre/post WW I era Germany. While I think that the only paintings in the home were solely created by this committed artist, indeed she married and quickly divorced, in part, because of her creative passions, the home is also abundantly filled with artifacts from Ms. Stern's travels throughout Africa and the world. The front door, for example, was collected by Ms. Stern during her travels to Zanzibar. The studio in the home remains as it did on the day when Ms. Stern passed away and her paints/brushes seem as if they remain ready for use once again. The house itself is also a cornicopia of color. All in all, this was a very interesting museum that left me wanting to know more about this artist.

The views from the top of Table Mountain were spectacular and worth the cable car trip. Of particular note, I found the role of the mountain itself in the creation of Cape Town interesting. As the mountain is tall, it captures moisture from the sea winds/mist which settles on its scrub bushes and rocks. This moisture collects in small pools and eventually descends down the mountain, through cracks and fissures, to produce fresh water for the city below. This is especially important during the dry, hot summer months.

The Slave Lodge and Robben Island

Today, July 20th, 2007 was a miserably rainy and windy winters day in Cape Town. Much like the climate of Southern Europe, Cape Town winters tend to be wet as opposed to other areas of the country which, while cool, tend to be sunny and even warm in the afternoon. While this should not be a problem in turns of moving around, it does preclude boat rides to Robben Island, and/or cable car visits to the top of Table Mountain. Oh well, hopefully tomorrow.

I took advantage of the day by stopping by the Slave Lodge. As previously discussed, the Dutch East India Company needed slave labor to keep the economy of the Cape going. Indeed, during parts of the 1700s, there were more enslaved people than free. Untold numbers of slaves were shipped, in conditions of misery, to the Cape from a myriad of locations - West Africa, Mozambique/Madagascar, India, and/or Indonesia (Batavia) from the 1600s until slavery was abolished by the British in the 1830s. Sexual relations between slaves and native peoples as well as relationships between slave women and male colonists only increased the number of mixed-race slaves in the Cape. To this day, one can still see this racial intermixing in the faces of the colored population which is not seen, as clearly, in other regions of South Africa.

If not sold off to private parties upon their entering of the Cape, slaves would work for the Dutch East India Company by day and would be locked up in crowded, disease-ridden, and poorly-lit cells of the slave lodge by night. At the height of its use, the Slave Lodge housed an average of 500 to 1,000 people , including native Khoekhoe with venereal disease, prisoners and the mentally disturbed. One of the oldest 17th century buildings in Cape Town and the only remaining Dutch East India Company slave lodge in the world, the Iziko Slave Lodge Museum is now in the process of converting all of its space to the celebration of the heritage and legacy of the enslaved. One can, however, still see ancient Eqyptian artifacts on the second floor of the museum. The museum also hopes to soon be included on the UNESCO and WTO International Slave Route Project, which was begun in 1995, and continues to excavate items related to the lives of slaves changing human wrongs to human rights.

I also had the opportunity to meet and talk today with Robben Island education program officer - Thotoane Pekeche. As many of you know, Robben Island housed a maximum security prison for both criminals and political prisoners during Apartheid. Now, it is also known as a nature reserve and is a world heritage site. I will write about this conversation when I have an opportunity to visit the island. I was supposed to visit today but, due to bad weather, all boats to the island were grounded.