History of colour and harmony

Published Dec 10, 2014

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Cape Town - District Six, with its bustling streets was a colourful community where people of all races and religions lived together with a deep sense of community.

And that was the problem for the apartheid government, says Noor Ebrahim, a former resident and founding member of the District Six Museum, which marks its 20th anniversary on Wednesday.

“We were proof that people from all races could live together in harmony,” says Ebrahim.

“It was unbelievable how we didn’t look at colour or what religion a person was. We were just happy together, and we loved and respected each other.”

Ebrahim, 70, was born in a double-storey house, 247 Caledon Street, in the heart of District Six, he says. He lived there until 1975 when he and thousands of others in the area were forcibly removed by the apartheid government.

We met Ebrahim at the museum in Buitenkant Street, where re-telling the stories of this once vibrant area is his favourite thing to do.

“The air and the streets used to smell like curry, samoosas and koeksisters, and the sound of music followed you everywhere you’d go,” he recalls, closing his eyes momentarily.

“I was one of the best twister dancers… we waltzed, we did the quick step to all kinds of music. There was never a dull moment.”

Ebrahim says his family was the biggest in District Six. His grandfather had four wives and his father was one of 30 children.

“We had some hard times, sometimes we had no food on the table. But for me it was always happy days.”

Ebrahim, now a father of two – Mariam, 43, and Isgaak, 46 – was forced to start working at 10 years old and has been working for the past 60 years.

While the museum celebrates its 20th anniversary, Ebrahim says it actually started two years earlier, as an exhibition, but was shut down by the apartheid police after only two weeks. It reopened in a democratic South Africa.

Over the years he has met and told his stories to presidents and other powerful people from around the world.

The highlight of his career was meeting Nelson Mandela and his wife Graça Machel. He and Mandela bonded over shared memories of their favourite restaurant in District Six, the Crescent Café.

“He (Mandela) used to visit the restaurant for the curry – they had the best in town.”

Ebrahim has since published a book about his life in District Six, My life in District Six, and about 200 of his family photographs hang in the museum.

Recalling that day in 1975 when he and his family had to pack their belongings, including his pigeons, into one truck and his Volkswagen Beetle and head for Athlone, Ebrahim describes it as the saddest day of his life. “I drove away, slowly. I cried, we all cried… I didn’t want to leave.

“Families were split and people were allocated to areas according to their race” – in Lavender Hill, Belhar, Langa and Hanover Park.

Ebrahim recalls the day he drove back to his demolished home in Caledon Street and found his 50 pigeons congregated at the empty site. “I walked toward them from behind, they turned around and looked straight at me, not one of them flew away. They looked straight to my eyes as if asking ‘where is our home?’. I sank to my knees and cried.”

He and his family still live in Athlone and are on the District Six land claimants waiting list.

And despite the hardships of the country’s apartheid past, the constant police raids day and night, Ebrahim says: “Whatever they did to us, we forgive them. Life is too precious to carry anger in your heart.”

 

District Six’s top 20

In honour of the anniversary, the District Six Museum has listed 20 objects, places and people that epitomised life in the former suburb.

1. Van Kalker Studio in Victoria Street was a routine stop for special events like birthdays and weddings.

2. Waentjies, for fresh fruit and vegetables in Hanover Street.

3. Fish horns, signalling the day’s catch at the Fish Market (vis markie).

4. Hanover Street, where you could buy anything and everything.

5. Peninsula Maternity Hospital, between Constitution, Primrose, Caledon and Mount streets, is where thousands of residents were born.

6. Seven Steps – to work, to home, to school, to play, to church, to mosque, to shop, to celebrate and to mourn, they carried thousands on their way.

7. The Avalon, Star, National and the British bioscopes had a special place in recreational life and doubled as venues for beauty pageants, talent shows and musicals.

8. Crescent Café – People journeyed from far for the curry at Mr Kathrada’s Hanover Street establishment.

9. Beinkinstadt Judaica bookstore, where local Jews gathered on Fridays for the heimishe “open house” hospitality of Moshe and Olga Beinkinstadt.

10. Kewpie, the local drag queen, a figurehead for District Six’s vibrant characters.

11. Koe’sisters, a Sunday treat.

12. Fafi or fa-fi – poor man’s Roulette.

13. Richard Rive – author of the acclaimed Buckingham Palace.

14. Lydia Williams (Ou Tamelytjie), a former slave, established a school and was a founding member of St Philip’s Anglican Church.

15. May Abrahamse, who started singing at 14 and with support from the Eoan theatre and dance group sang leading soprano roles in La Traviata, La Bohème and Madama Butterfly.

16. The Globes, one of the area’s most notorious gangs, began as a vigilante group, taking its name from the Globe Furnishing Company.

17. Dollar Brand (Abdullah Ibrahim) and his Jazz Epistles made the first jazz LP by black South African musicians.

18. The Rose and Crown pub.

19. Horse-drawn carriages – seen at weekend parades, including the beautiful wedding parades most Sundays.

20. Malay and Christmas choirs, the Klopse – On Christmas and New Year’s Eve residents stayed up all night to watch the choir processions, ending at the Parade where the Klopse celebrated well into New Year’s evening.

 

Essential stop

The District Six Museum is an award-winning community museum that is considered an essential stop on Cape Town’s cultural route. Visitors are encouraged to book a personalised tour through the museum with a former resident of District Six, for a truly authentic experience, or enjoy a self-guided tour during normal opening hours, from 9am - 4pm, Monday – Saturday. For more information, call 021 466 7200 or see www.districtsix.co.za.

Nontando Mposo, Cape Argus

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