Sof’town forced removals: Over 60 years later
SOPHIATOWN – Current and former Sophiatown residents tell their forced removal stories and what life is like now.
Rich with anti-apartheid activism and jazz history, Sophiatown was and always will be remembered when one thinks about apartheid South African and forced removals.
In remembrance of those who were ripped from their Sophiatown homes in the 50s, the Trevor Huddleston Memorial Centre is exhibiting Uprooted, a series of photographer Cornell Tukiri’s images around the removals.
He aimed at re-living Sophiatown’s history through the images. Tukiri, who is a Melville resident, spoke to former and current Sophiatown residents who were forced from their homes under the Group Areas Act. He photographed them and made a short documentary of what they had to say beyond their photographs. Both were exhibited at the same time.
He explained in a statement that he is aware that many of the people who survived the forced removals are dying out.
“[To] me it is vital that their stories and memories are preserved,” he said.
Through preserving their stories, Tukiri hoped to inform those currently living in Sophiatown who were not forcibly removed, about Sophiatown’s story. The exhibition highlights place, land, memory and identity.
Although small, the exhibition is centred around those who survived and what their current lives are like.
Some said they came to find the areas they were moved to, home; while others moved back the first chance they got. They recall their removal stories, who they lost and what their new homes were like once they moved.
Many recall living in army barracks before they were housed. One of the participants explained they had to leave markers outside their new homes as children to remember their location as they did not always remember what their new homes looked like on the walk back from school.
Tukiri said he intended to give the viewer a sense of the life the subjects in the photos made after the removals and the kind of clues they have in their current homes that allude to the life they previously lived.
The exhibition will run until 16 December at the Trevor Huddleston Centre from 9.30am to 4pm.
For more information about the exhibition, contact Sophiatown the Mix on rinkie@sophiatownthemix.com.
ALSO READ: Father of black consciousness honoured
