Recently launched at the Durban University
of Technology’s Art Gallery the exhibition Dirty
Linen. Durban’s inner city forced removals is part of the launch of two
books written by the University’s ROCS research project (Research Of Curries
and Surrounds) about the Warwick Junction Precinct.
The two books: The Making of Place. The Warwick Junction Precinct, 1870s-1980s and
the Curries Fountain. Sports, Politics
and Identity seek to preserve Curries Fountain and the precinct’s rich
history through the documentation of its history of people, places and events.
The expression “Dirty Linen” refers to the
secrets and silences of the old government and the Durban City Council (of the
National Government) around the question of forced removals, an ‘open secret’
that it prefers to be best forgotten. This exhibition focuses on the City
Council’s shameful policy of forced removals in the 1960s and 70s which hounded
established communities out of areas designated for ‘Whites’ and relocated them
to racially designated townships on the outskirts of the city.
The area to the west of Warwick (Julius
Nyerere) Avenue was first declared a “White” Group Area in 1963, in terms of
the Group Areas legislation and part of it was subsequently zoned for
educational purposes, thereby ceding the task of ‘forced removals’ on to an
educational institution. This was a much more subtle approach than the brute
forced employed at Cato Manor in the 1960s.
The photographs taken in the late 1970s at
what is now known as the Steve Biko Campus of DUT depict the destruction of a
once vibrant community. The images are a reminder of the urban decay that set
in after more than a decade of neglect by the Durban City Council (DCC) because
of the area’s ‘frozen’ status once it was declared a “White” Group Area in
1963.
As a result of collusion between of the
City Council, National Government, the National Education Department and the
Department of Community Development with the then Technikon Natal, the land was
finally cleared of all residents and business by 1985, 13 years after the start
of the first demolitions in 1973. The only traces of the community that once
lived here are the few remaining houses and blocks of flats that are currently
used by DUT for different purposes.
In contrast, the photographs of the Wills
Road and Warwick Avenue area was taken in a different period by different
people and does give a glimpse into what the area would have ‘felt’ like. This
Wills Road area, which is part of what is referred to as the Warwick Avenue
Triangle (WAT) and the forced removals in this area, was of a very different
nature and was still not fully cleared by the late 1980s.
It is hoped that by airing and exposing
this ‘dirty linen’, we can acknowledge what happened in this area and help
bring closure to the lives of ex-residents. We also hope that together, we can
write the stories of their rich lives in this once vibrant community so that
photographs of urban decay and squalor on display at the exhibition and
elsewhere are not the only memories and records that we have of the ‘Duchene’.
Dirty
Linen. Durban’s inner city forced removals runs
until March 12 at the DUT Art Gallery which is situated above the library on
the Steve Biko Campus in Mansfield Road. For more information contact the Curator,
Nathi Gumede, on 031 373 2207 or 082 2200 368 or email: nkosinathig@dut.ac.za
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