‘This Land 02: Manenberg’

Artwork © Val Smit

A Place Called Manenberg

Exodus – We used to live as one in our mother city Cape Town underneath the shadow
of majestic Table Mountain. Every shade and religion existed in a peaceful jubilant
utopia baptized District Six – A vibrant eclectic cultural mix where the beat of our feet
signalled a nightly retreat to the famous seven steps – There to show off our dance
moves hoping to impress the ladies and the gents witnessing our happy dance as
onlookers cheered and jeered our artistic efforts but in the distance dark apartheid
clouds were swirling of permanent consequence without fair warning, the life we knew
was bulldozed over, every trace of our race erased evaporated to make space for their
‘pure’ race so we were scattered across the Cape Flats and squashed into strange
areas out of District Six in…