Sophiatown

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Sophiatown
Sophiatown (South Africa)
Sophiatown
Sophiatown
Coordinates 26 ° 10 ′  S , 27 ° 59 ′  E Coordinates: 26 ° 10 ′  S , 27 ° 59 ′  E
Basic data
Country South Africa

province

Gauteng
District Johannesburg
ISO 3166-2 ZA-GP
Residents 5371 (2011)
founding 1899
View over Sophiatown, a police building on the left
View over Sophiatown, a police building on the left

Sophiatown (pronunciation: with a long i ) is a district of Johannesburg in the South African province of Gauteng . It became well known for its cultural importance and its forced demolition during the apartheid period .

geography

Sophiatown is about eight kilometers northwest of central Johannesburg. In 2011 there were 5,371 inhabitants.

history

Street plan before renaming

Sophiatown was founded in 1899 and named after the first name of the wife of the then investor. After a sewage collection facility was built nearby, many white residents moved away and non-whites settled in Sophiatown. They were able to acquire land until 1913.

After the First World War, the population began to grow rapidly. After the Second World War, around 50,000 people lived in Sophiatown. In the apartheid system, Sophiatown served as a downtown district with cheap labor. Structurally, Sophiatown was part of the Western Area Township .

In the 1950s, Sophiatown became the symbol of a new urban culture for the black majority, comparable to the situation in Harlem , New York . So Sophiatown was called the "Paris of Johannesburg". Sophiatown became a center for South African jazz music in particular. The band Jazz Epistles was founded here. Members were Dollar Brand , Kippie Moeketsi and Hugh Masekela , who are still considered the most famous jazz musicians in South Africa. The famous jazz singer Dolly Rathebe grew up in Sophiatown. The painter Gerard Sekoto and writers such as Can Themba , Don Mattera and Bloke Modisane lived here. The South African magazine Drum reflected this era in its articles and photos, many of which were taken in Sophiatown. One of the photographers was the German Jürgen Schadeberg .

The British Father Trevor Huddleston led the Anglican Church in Sophiatown. Until his return to the United Kingdom in 1956, he fought vehemently for the interests of the residents of the district. Hugh Masekela began his career in the Huddleston founded Father Huddleston Band or Huddleston Jazz Band .

But Sophiatown was also fraught with problems. The neighborhood was dirty and overpopulated. There were numerous criminals, called tsotsis , who acted through mafia- like structures. Before he started his writing career, Don Mattera was the leader of a violent street gang.

In 1950 the Group Areas Act was passed, according to which all residential areas were divided according to "races"; In 1954, the Natives Resettlement Act followed specifically for Johannesburg . As a result, it was decided to demolish the multiracial Sophiatown. On February 10, 1955, the first residents were forcibly relocated. By 1959, the relocation, including to the newly built township Meadowlands in what is now Soweto , was completed. In 1963 the district was demolished. Only the Anglican Church of Christ the King and a few other houses were left standing. The Triomf district ( Afrikaans , German: "Triumph"), which was intended exclusively for whites, was built in place of Sophiatown .

Only in 2006 the district was officially renamed back to Sophiatown.

Attractions

The former home of the politician Alfred Bitini Xuma is now the Sophiatown Museum . The museum was founded on the initiative of the City of Johannesburg and the Trevor Huddleston CR Memorial Center (THMC). Xuma was President of the African National Congress from 1940 to 1949 and lived in Sophiatown from 1927 to 1959, from 1940 with his second wife Madie Beatrice Hall Xuma . In the course of the evacuation of the district, they had to move to Dube . The house was spared demolition and was declared a national monument in 1998.

Sons and daughters of the district

Sophiatown as a theme in musicals, films and novels

Musicals

Movies

Novels

literature

Web links

Commons : Sophiatown  - collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ 2011 census , accessed May 29, 2014
  2. ↑ a b c d Jürgen Schadeberg , Klaus Humann (ed.): DRUM - The fifties - Pictures from South Africa : Rogner & Bernhard bei Zweiausendeins, Hamburg 1991, ISBN 3-8077-0248-2 .
  3. ↑ Booklet for CD Drum , Monsun, 1991
  4. ↑ Anthony Sampson , Source: Booklet for CD Drum , Monsun, 1991
  5. ^ The Nordic Africa Institute (ed.): Don Mattera. Author, Poet, Journalist and Activist in 143 organizations . from www.liberationafrica.se (English, partly Swedish), accessed on January 17, 2011
  6. ↑ Wording from disa.uknz.ac.za (English), accessed on July 26, 2018
  7. ↑ Lucille Davie: Dr Xuma's house to become a museum (English)
  8. ↑ Makoena Pabale: Sophiatown Museum to open soon . www.joburg.org.za, 2008 ( Memento from April 4, 2015 in the Internet Archive ) (English)
  9. ↑ Short biography of Xuma (English)