Langa

During my last week in Cape Town, I've been trying to pack in all of those things that were left on my to-do list, which included taking the short train ride out to Langa township. This space was created in the early 1920s at what was then the outer edge of Cape Town; it was a place to which city officials could ship Blacks (especially migrant workers). 

The first thing I noticed about Langa is that it's quite different from the other townships I had visited. At Khayelitsha, for instance, there streets immediately around the train tracks are in-filled with what scholars might term "informal" businesses (those that aren't necessarily illegal but perhaps unregulated by formal government institutions): barber/hair shops, fruit/vegetable stands, second-hand electronics, tea stands, braais selling walkie talkies (BBQs that sell chicken wings), and even those who arrange funerals. However, around the Langa train station, sellers are sparse. This may change, given the season or day, but I was surprised at how quiet the area was during our visit.

Walking around the area, there are reminders of the liberation struggle that took place over forty years. Students protested against new language policies enacted in the 1970s, requiring them to be taught solely in Afrikaans. Police were dispatched to the area to break up the protests and a young man was shot and killed; he was dragged from the street by his friends. Today, a beautiful mosaic stands as a memorial to the role and sacrifices children made in the fight to end Apartheid. 

                                     

 

The killing of this young man took place in front of what is now the Langa Heritage Museum (virtualsouthafrica.com/capetown/tours/langamuseum). During the Apartheid era, it was referred to as the Dompass or Administrative Office, where government officials issued and checked the work passes (or, "dumb passes") of Blacks. Every morning, before traveling to the urban areas, Blacks were required to check in with this office in order to gain entry to the city. They had to show proof of employment, denoted by a signature or stamp with the name and location of the employer, to the officers at the office. If an officer stopped someone and asked for their pass but they were unable to produce it, they were immediately arrested and taken to a holding cell at the Administrative Office. They were then brought into the court (shown below), where the judge would ask if they had indeed been caught without their pass. Once a plea was entered, they were either fined, jailed, or taken directly out to a waiting van and deported back to their "homeland".

But there were those who fought back against the pass system. Some refused to carry their passes and intentionally caught the attention of the police in order to be arrested. Others vowed that if someone nearby was arrested for not carrying their dompass, they too would "lose" their pass, creating havoc for police as they attempted to arrest such a large group of people. 

In one corner of what used to be the courtroom, luggage is stacked and shown to visitors. The top piece had a false bottom; in the top, pencils, paper, and other office utensils were kept, while in the bottom, rested a gun for protection. The other pieces are stamped with the official South African emblem, a reminder of when the denotation between legal and illegal African residents was an integral part of one's entire identity. As I understand it, only legal residents were allowed to carry bags with the stamp. 

Tommy, the curator of the museum, reminded us that the struggle for liberation wasn't only the fight of Africans. Rather, protests against the government occurred all throughout the world, including Chicago, and was joined by people of all races, ethnicities, nationalities, and ages. It was led by dissidents, political refugees, and people who were simply concerned about the proliferation of human rights, with protests in the US fueled in part by the wave of anti-war protests. Clergy, heads of NGOs and corporations, and government officials invested their time in an attempt to change the policies of an entire country- and in the end, the international pressure on the Boer government prevailed. 

Found at: chicagotribune.com/sns-apartheid-protests-at-u-of-i-20131206-photo.html

But the struggle continues, as migrant workers fight for a home in the urban arena and fair wages for the work they perform. Many come to the city with the vibrant hope of finding work to help support or supplement incomes of families they left in the rural areas but struggle to find acceptance in the urban space and decent wages that will allow them to continue to live in the city and send remittances to their loved ones. As many have pointed out to me, the divisions between color lines still remain today, albeit a bit faded over the years; but the real perforations are now along economic lines. Unfortunately, the fight to rectify this particular grievance has not taken hold or caught the attention of the multitudes worldwide. 

Found at: stanfordgraffclass.wordpress.com/