Trip to District Six

     One of the most poignant and moving experiences of our visit was the visit to District Six Museum. As soon as we reached the museum, I realized that I was suffering from a severe and acute need for coffee instantly, and set off to find the coffee shop. Incidentally, as Dr. Fosl told me that the shop was serving free coffee, I was all the more eager to grab this free for all. However, I ran into this charming person who ran the coffee shop, over there. He instantly sensed I was a tourist but was not quite sure and when I hesitantly told him I was from India, he replied that he had half Indian blood in him. We stated talking and he was extremely happy to recount his tale. He was incidentally from District Six and had lived there a long time ago. He was a resident and therefore a legitimate “recounter” of the history of the place. He then launched into a detailed discussion of the purpose of the District Six Museum. Now the Museum itself may not satisfy the modern Western concept of a Museum where the facts of the case are presented clearly and lucidly and the history is easily comprehensible. However, the underlying story represented by the museum is a lesson from history. Basically the apartheid government in South Africa had forcibly removed a peaceful community that had formerly lived in peace with each other. There was a painful, forcible dislocation and the thorns of separation created by this inhumane state intervention extended far and deep. Formerly the people who lived in District Six had enjoyed a dignified albeit Spartan human existence, essentially maintaining as normal a life as was possible under the apartheid government. Undoubtedly, the District lacked portable water and toilets, but there was a semblance of a particular way of life that was held on to dearly by the community. All religions and people of various creeds and color coexisted peacefully. Incidentally, this co-existence and tolerance was something that struck me as an inherent part of South African society. People everywhere were very welcoming and appreciative of diversity. Especially the former rebels held a special charm, which was eluded both by our guide who took us around District Six and our intensely charming guide on Robben Island. Basically, the people who were dislocated and removed to the horrid townships (I term them “horrid” because the creation of the townships seemed to rebel against all notions of humanity), lost their livelihoods as they were forced to commute insane distance everyday just to eke out their living. I would go as far as to argue that the government had intentionally deprived an entire people of its right to livelihood amongst other basic human rights. Also this story had that familiar ring to it. Coming from a country which has retold its history of colonization and its non-violence freedom struggle repeatedly to succeeding generations, this tale had that all too familiar “horridness” ring to it. The colonial government would have usually committed despicable acts against innocent, unarmed civilians. This story of forced dislocation however, strongly reminded me of what Imperial Israel was doing to the Palestinians today. Undoubtedly the Western media tries to obfuscate this struggle by portraying Palestinian people fighting for their self-determination as “terrorists.” However, the real story seems extremely similar to what went on in South Africa prior to 1990. Israel is repeatedly trying to extinguish the Palestinians and District Six clearly shows that heroic resistance is going to win and possibly secure total liberation. In fact, to my great surprise and delight, and after some insistent questioning of our walking-tour guide(who was a different person than the charming person at the coffee shop), I realized that heroic resistance had indeed ensured that the plot where the District Six was formerly located could not be developed. The apartheid government basically intended to take over the land and forcibly resettled all the people living there. As a tragic consequence, an entire system of life and all the values that it had supported and nurtured had been ruthlessly destroyed. However, heroic resistance, which had highlighted the movement to the international community was able to quell the onslaught of the apartheid government and nullified any plans of reconstituting the place. Present-day South Africa maintains this undeveloped spot as a reminder of its colonial apartheid and the power of resistance. The fact that organized resistance could disrupt a powerful and unjust government seems a wonderful lesson from history. This trip indeed brought out that the right constituents in a social movement could coalesce to mount a formidable challenge to unjust systems of power. I also had an interesting conversation on the sexual morality in South African schools. Coming from a tradition where any talk of sexuality was termed “blasphemy,” I found it extremely intriguing that South Africa, which had a major component of Indians within its population, could discuss sexuality in such a liberal light. This showed that certain puritanical notions(nonsense?) are possibly culturally constituted and not inherent to any particular historical tradition (in the specific context of India). All in all, the visit to District Six highlighted the existent apartheid present in the system of international relations and that effective resistance would definitively quell such atrocities or at least diminish their impact.