Joe Slovo, Langa
Apartheid may have ended over 20 years ago, but here in Cape Town the sense of apartness remains as strong as ever. After decades of enforced segregation, the feeling of division is permanently carved into the city's urban form, the physical legacy of a plan that was calculatedly designed to separate poor blacks from rich whites.
“Cape Town was conceived with a white-only centre, surrounded by contained settlements for the black and coloured labour forces to the east, each hemmed in by highways and rail lines, rivers and valleys, and separated from the affluent white suburbs by protective buffer zones of scrubland,”- Edgar Pieterse, director of the African Centre for Cities at the University of Cape Town
Long before apartheid, in 1927 actually, Langa was established in the suburbs of Cape Town, one of the many areas in South Africa that were designated for Black Africans, designed in a way to allow the authorities maximum visibility and control of residents. It is the oldest of such suburbs in Cape Town and was the location of much resistance to apartheid. Langa is also where several people were killed on 21 March 1960 same day as the Sharpeville massacre
Within Langa, there is the Joe Slovo ‘informal settlement’, a shanty town or squatter area of improvised housing ; shacks, made of plywood, corrugated metal, sheets of plastic, and cardboard boxes. [ It is named after former housing minister and Anti-Apartheid activist, Joe Slovo.] With over 20,000 residents, Joe Slovo is one of the largest informal settlements in South Africa.
Joe Slovo, Langa
Apartheid may have ended over 20 years ago, but here in Cape Town the sense of apartness remains as strong as ever. After decades of enforced segregation, the feeling of division is permanently carved into the city's urban form, the physical legacy of a plan that was calculatedly designed to separate poor blacks from rich whites.
“Cape Town was conceived with a white-only centre, surrounded by contained settlements for the black and coloured labour forces to the east, each hemmed in by highways and rail lines, rivers and valleys, and separated from the affluent white suburbs by protective buffer zones of scrubland,”- Edgar Pieterse, director of the African Centre for Cities at the University of Cape Town
Long before apartheid, in 1927 actually, Langa was established in the suburbs of Cape Town, one of the many areas in South Africa that were designated for Black Africans, designed in a way to allow the authorities maximum visibility and control of residents. It is the oldest of such suburbs in Cape Town and was the location of much resistance to apartheid. Langa is also where several people were killed on 21 March 1960 same day as the Sharpeville massacre
Within Langa, there is the Joe Slovo ‘informal settlement’, a shanty town or squatter area of improvised housing ; shacks, made of plywood, corrugated metal, sheets of plastic, and cardboard boxes. [ It is named after former housing minister and Anti-Apartheid activist, Joe Slovo.] With over 20,000 residents, Joe Slovo is one of the largest informal settlements in South Africa.