(Right: Professor
Ashwin Desai)
The Durban Local History Museums newsletter
of March 31, 2020, offers the following information:
What better thing to do while whiling away
the hours at home, than read! And you may as well enrich your local knowledge
at the same time by starting with Professor Ashwin Desai’s latest book, Wentworth: The Beautiful Game and the Making
of Place.
Aptly described by one reviewer as a ‘group
biography’, Desai uses the recollections of those with close ties to
Wentworth’s famous soccer teams to tell the story of the area, examining how
the sport managed to unite a people in what were fairly dire circumstances.
A product of the Group Areas Act, the
community of Wentworth as we know it today was formed in the 1960s when the region
was designated a ‘coloured’ area. Previously a white military base, the red
brick buildings were quickly converted into homes for coloured people, with
wealthier families able to buy properties in Treasure Beach. Unluckier
residents of Wentworth were relegated to “long squat rows of concrete coops
with flat asbestos roofs”. People staying in this dormitory-style accommodation
had to make use of communal toilets and sculleries, and were provided with a
ration of hot water at four o’clock in the afternoon. Adding to these poor
living conditions was a high level of industry, with large petrochemical
refineries dominating the area, making Wentworth one of the most polluted areas
in South Africa.
In such circumstances it’s unsurprising
that Wentworth became an area known for poverty and violence, with gangs ruling
the streets. But what is surprising is that it also became famous for producing
some of the country’s best soccer players, with one year seeing Wentworth’s Leeds
United making a clean sweep of all eleven of the trophies they competed for!
Speaking of how important soccer was to the
community, Desai describes how soccer matches were automatic safe zones:
“…..warring Wentworth gangs, known for
their deadly attacks on each other, united in their support whenever Leeds
played. Like a church might be a sanctuary within which the Mafia would not
commit any violence, so, too, were the soccer grounds during a Leeds United
match.”
(Left: The book cover)
A prolific author, Desai’s body of work
includes titles such as Blacks in Whites:
A Century of Cricket Struggles in KwaZulu-Natal, and Reverse sweep: A Story of South African Cricket Since Apartheid.
Many
of Ashwin Desai’s books are also available in e-format so can be purchased (and
read!) from the comfort of your couch.
Images courtesy of www.dailymaverick.co.za,
www.uj.ac.za, www.pressreader.com and www.amazon.co.uk
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