history lost & found

On Day Two we went to the Cavendish Mall, the District 6 Museum & had an exclusive tour of a beach with caves that were once lived in.

Cavendish Mall-> apparently it's "award-winning," I had no idea malls could receive such titles. However, it was full of stores some that were recognizable to the American eye and of course was not complete without a McDonalds!

Easy to see the priorities of the country :)

District 6 Museum-> this place brought history to life as it is a living and breathing documentation of the forced removal of over 60,000 people out of their hopes during the late 1960's apartheid era in Cape Town. ARE YOU GETTING THIS? Over 60,000 non-white residents were told by there government to evacuate their HOMES, after a brief warning- if one at all. Then the area was destroyed in homes of clearing the land for white residents and their newer homes. The fall of the apartheid regime in the mid 1990's (not too long ago) prevented this from happening however for those families that lost everything there is nothing to look at where District 6 once stood. Today the museum preserves the memories of the devastated neighborhoods with displays and stories of the people that once lived there and a map on the floor for former residents to write where they lived on the streets that no longer exist. They also hope to build a memorial park where the vacant lots currently sit.

"It struck me that our history is contained in the homes we live in, that we are shaped by the ability of these simple structures to resist being defiled."

-Achmat Dangor

Kafka's Curse

displayed in the District 6 Museum

The people that lived in caves-> Author of "House on Tyne Street," Linda Fortune, experienced the apartheid including the forced removal of district 6 first hand. Luckily, she was our tour guide of the museum, the present day area of District 6 as well as the secluded beach where people lived in caves to avoid living on the streets. Imagine your government evicting you from your home where you lived for decades and having to move into a cave by the sea as your last resort. How would you sleep, eat, flourish? Non-white South Africans were faced with the same dilemmas not too long ago, until it was a White-Only beach that is.

The silver lining-> Linda is not bitter towards her government, instead it is in the wake of this hardship that she has found peace with all that has happened. It was amazing to hear her recall events throughout her life with a sense of nostalgia as most people would contribute them to scars and wounds that haunted their future.