“Waar Val Jy Uit?”: District Six, Sacred Space, and Identity in Cape Town
This article discusses apartheid-era urban redevelopment in Cape Town,South Africa, and the forced removal of the residents of District Six in themid to late twentieth century in particular. It looks at how the memoriesof former District Six residents have been enrolled in the shaping ofcoloured sub...
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| Format: | Electronic Article |
| Language: | English |
| Check availability: | HBZ Gateway |
| Journals Online & Print: | Drawer...
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| Fernleihe: | Fernleihe für die Fachinformationsdienste |
| Published: |
ASRSA
2009
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| In: |
Journal for the study of religion
Year: 2009, Volume: 22, Issue: 1 |
| Online Access: |
Presumably Free Access Volltext (lizenzpflichtig) Volltext (lizenzpflichtig) |
| Summary: | This article discusses apartheid-era urban redevelopment in Cape Town,South Africa, and the forced removal of the residents of District Six in themid to late twentieth century in particular. It looks at how the memoriesof former District Six residents have been enrolled in the shaping ofcoloured subjectivity in Cape Town. Moving beyond conventionalsocial scientific approaches of history and memory studies, it criticallyengages with former residents’ recollection of the suburb as a form ofmythopoeia using theory and method from religious studies. In so doing,it demonstrates that District Six evictees interpreted their experienceof forced removal and the radical transformation of the city’s urbanprofile through concepts of District Six as a utopian space of Fairyland, adegenerating space of Wasteland, and a lost space of Exile. Attending toreligious-like practises aimed at recovering human dignity in a context ofurban and social dehumanisation that resonated with a particular segmentof the coloured population, this article posits that the District Six storybecame a form of symbolic currency in post-apartheid claims of colouredcultural and subjective authenticity. Overall, it seeks to extend the work ofprevious analyses of sacred space in the city of Cape Town, and highlightthe significance of religious studies methodology for understanding thepractise of subjectivity formation in South African urban settings. |
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| ISSN: | 2413-3027 |
| Contains: | Enthalten in: Journal for the study of religion
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| Persistent identifiers: | DOI: 10.4314/jsr.v22i1.47784 |