Freedom Day in Sophiatown

South Africa had it’s first non-racial and democratic elections on 27 April 1994 . Many people now refer to this day as the birthday of the Republic of South Africa.

“In as much as 27 April is today celebrated as Freedom Day and our common heritage, it was on the same date that the Group Areas Act behind the forced removal policy was pronounced in 1950 to promote the policy of racial segregation and separate development in South Africa,” said Dudu Madonsela, curator of the Sophiatown Heritage and Cultural Centre.

So why exactly is Freedom Day such an important event for Sophiatown?

Back in the 1940s and 1950s, Sophiatown was a symbol of diversity and defiance in a racially divided South Africa.

“Sophiatown was the Chicago of South Africa. It was so cool,” tour guide Mbali Zwane said with an impish smile.

“Everyone wanted to live there. Everyone wanted to dress like Sophiatown people. There were shebeen queens, gangsters, politicians and bohemians. They lived a life out of a movie.”

But the advent of apartheid in 1948 changed all that.

The nightmare began in 1955.

“It was early in the morning, before four o’clock. It was cold and it was raining. Two thousand policemen entered Sophiatown and started with forced removals,” Zwane retold.

“People lost their neighbours, their belongings and even their children. Some families today still don’t know what happened to their children. Only four buildings survived.”

The suburb Triomf was built on the rubble of Sophiatown.

In 1994 the ANC won South Africa’s first democratic election on what is now Freedom Day. And in 1996 the process of renaming Sophiatown began. In 2006 the district finally won its name back.

“Those people who fought for all of this have since passed on. But they left a legacy,” Zwane reflected.

“We are free at last. I always say you can take people out of Sophiatown, but you can’t take Sophiatown out of the people.”