District Six is the name of a former neighborhood of Cape Town, South Africa, best known for the forced removal of its inhabitants during the 1970s. It was named in 1867 as the Sixth Municipal District of Cape Town, but by the turn of the century it was already a lively community made up of freed slaves, artisans, merchants and other immigrants, as well as many Malay people brought to South Africa by the Dutch East India Company during its administration of the Cape Colony. It was home to almost a 10th of the city of Cape Town's population. City motto: Spes Bona (Latin: Good Hope) Province Western Cape Mayor Nomaindia Mfeketo Area  - % water 1,644 km² 0. ... The 1970s decade refers to the years from 1970 to 1979, inclusive. ... 1867 was a common year starting on Tuesday (see link for calendar). ... A freedman is a former slave who has been manumitted or emancipated. ... An artisan, also called a craftsman, is a skilled manual worker who uses tools and machinery in a particular craft. ... Merchants function as professionals who deal with trade, dealing in commodities that they do not produce themselves, in order to produce profit. ... Immigration is the act of moving to or settling in another country or region, temporarily or permanently. ... The Cape Malay community is an ethnic group or community in South Africa, taking its name from what is now known as the Western Cape of South Africa and the Malay people who started this community in South Africa. ... Dutch colonial possessions, with the Dutch East India Company possessions marked in a paler green, surrounding the Indian Ocean plus Saint Helena in the mid-Atlantic. ... Map of European presence in 1652 The Cape Colony was a part of South Africa under British occupation during the 19th century. ...

During the earlier part of the apartheid era, District Six was a remarkably multicultural district, with a heavy concentration of the people known in South Africa as coloured, including a substantial Cape Malay community, as well as other black, white and Asian people of various backgrounds. Many former District Six residents see this cosmopolitanism as one of the main reasons that it became a target for destruction. The removals were also doubtlessly motivated by the district's beautiful views of the ocean and of Cape Town, and, as the city grew larger, its proximity to the Cape Town city center; all of these factors made it attractive for real estate development aimed at white residents. In the South African and Namibian context, the term Coloured (also known as Bruinmense, Kleurlinge or Bruine Afrikaners) refers to a rather heterogenous group of people of mixed Khoisan, white European descent, Malay, Malagasy, Black (Bantu), and South Indian ancestry, especially in the Western Cape. ... The Cape Malays are an ethnic group who can claim descent from slaves brought to South Africa from Indonesia starting from 1667. ...

On 11 February 1966, the apartheid-era government declared District Six a whites-only area under the Group Areas Act, with removals starting in 1968. By 1982, more than 60 000 people had been relocated to the comparatively bleak Cape Flats some 25 kilometers away, and the old houses bulldozed. The only buildings left standing were places of worship. International and local pressure made redevelopment difficult for the government, however. The Cape Technikon (a technical college) was built on part of the former District Six and the area was renamed Zonnebloem, but apart from this the area was left as a wasteland until relatively recently. February 11 is the 42nd day of the year in the Gregorian Calendar. ... 1966 (MCMLXVI) was a common year starting on Saturday (link goes to calendar) // Events January January 1 - In a coup, Colonel Jean-Bédel Bokassa ousts president David Dacko and takes over the Central African Republic. ... A segregated beach in South Africa, 1982. ... The Group Areas Act of 1950 was an act of parliament created under the apartheid government of South Africa that assigned races to different residential and business sections in urban areas. ... 1968 (MCMLXVIII) was a leap year starting on Monday (the link is to a full 1968 calendar). ... 1982 (MCMLXXXII) is a common year starting on Friday of the Gregorian calendar. ... Cape Flats is a large, flat area of housing projects built in Cape Town, South Africa to house the Coloured community during the apartheid era. ... A kilometre (American spelling: kilometer) (symbol: km) is a unit of length equal to 1000 metres (from the Greek words khilia = thousand and metro = count/measure). ... A bulldozer is a powerful crawler (tractor) equipped with a blade. ...

Return

By 2003 work had started on the first new buildings — 24 houses that will belong to residents over 80 years old. On 11 February 2004, exactly 38 years after being rezoned by the government, former president Nelson Mandela handed the keys to the first returning residents, Ebrahim Murat (87) and Dan Ndzabela (82). About 4 000 families are scheduled to return over the next three years. 2003 (MMIII) was a common year starting on Wednesday of the Gregorian calendar. ... 2004 (MMIV) was a leap year starting on Thursday of the Gregorian calendar. ... Nelson Rolihlahla Mandela, (born July 18, 1918), was the first democratically elected President of South Africa, having previously been a prominent anti-apartheid activist there. ...

Museum

In 1989 the District Six Museum Foundation was established, and in 1994 the District Six Museum came into being. It serves as a remembrance to the events of the apartheid era as well as the culture and history of the area before the removals. The ground floor is covered by a large street map of District Six, with handwritten notes from former residents indicating where their homes had been; other features of the museum include street signs from the old district, displays of the histories and lives of District Six families, and historical explanations of the life of the District and its destruction. In addition to its function as a museum it also serves as a memorial to a decimated community, and a meeting place and community center for Cape Town residents who identify with its history.-1... 1994 (MCMXCIV) was a common year starting on Saturday of the Gregorian calendar, and was designated the International year of the Family. ...

Arts

With his short novel "A Walk in the Night" (1962) the well-known Capetonian journalist and writer Alex La Guma [1] gave District Six a place in literature. Richard Rive wrote a highly-acclaimed novel called Buckingham Palace, District Six, which chronicles the lives of a community before and during the removals. This book has also been adapted into successful theatre productions which toured South Africa.

District Six also contributed mightily to the distinguished history of South African jazz: Basil Coetzee, known for his song "District Six", was born there and lived there until its destruction; Abdullah Ibrahim lived nearby and was a frequent visitor to the area, as were many other jazz musicians. Ibrahim described it to The Guardian as a "fantastic city within a city...", explaining, "[W]here you felt the fist of apartheid it was the valve to release some of that pressure. In the late 50s and 60s, when the regime clamped down, it was still a place where people could mix freely. It attracted musicians, writers, politicians at the forefront of the struggle. We played and everybody would be there." [2] Basil Manenberg Coetzee (2 February 1944 _ 11 March 1998) was a South African musician, perhaps best known as a saxophonist. ... Abdullah Ibrahim, born Adolph Johannes Brand, formally known as Dollar Brand (from a popular brand of matches), is a South African pianist and composer who was born in Cape Town in 1934. ... The Guardian is a British newspaper owned by the Guardian Media Group. ...

External links

• The District Six museum
• The District Six Beneficiary and Redevelopment Trust
• Southern Cross (SA Catholic newsweekly) article on District Six
• International Coalition of Historic Sites of Conscience page on District Six Museum and its history
• Interview with museum director on history of District Six, purpose of museum