We took a guided tour of the District Six Museum with a former District resident, Tahir Levy. That’s right, a Muslim-Jew. Before 1966, a multi-faith, multi-ethnic, multi-racial populace called District Six home. Despite the enforced segregation of the Apartheid government, the neighborhood managed to maintain much of its mixed identity. District Six represented all of Capetown’s inhabitants – black, white, brown, Christian, Muslim and Jew.
But the white governing Apartheid government put an end to co-existence with the citation of its Group Areas Act of 1950. Forced removal of the neighborhood’s black (native) residents actually began much earlier, but it wasn’t until 1966 that District Six was officially declared “for whites only.” Its residents were forced out of the city and their homes bulldozed.
The District Six Museum commemorates the destruction of a community as well as issues of displacement and forced removal. It pieces together memories of the neighborhood through installations of family photographs, original furniture and possessions, and the despised apartheid era signs and benches.
I love reading about historical events. This is good information that I did not know.