Community, identity, and memory: Group Areas and the forced relocation of "Coloureds" to Woodlands, Pietermaritzburg, 1960 - 1990.
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Date
2021
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Abstract
This dissertation investigated the impact of the Group Areas Act (GAA) of 1950 on the
Coloured community in Pietermaritzburg. The implementation of Group Areas resulted in the
residents of Pietermaritzburg being rehoused in racially segregated townships and suburbs. The
township of Woodlands was established for Coloureds. This dissertation uses oral history and
a life history approach, supplemented with archival research, to examine the experience of the
Coloured residents of Pietermaritzburg before the implementation of Group Areas, the
experience of forced removals, how residents coped with the pain of being moved from their
old communities. In contrast, others were pleased with the better quality housing and amenities
they were given and how they reestablished aspects of community life in Woodlands, including
building places of worship, sport, and education.
This study, more broadly, explores the idea of community, showing how it comes into being,
race as a social construct as what is considered Coloured has always been subject to change,
and the (re)making of Coloured identities that resulted from the residents of Woodlands being
placed in a defined physical space and having to work together to build institutions and
infrastructure in their township. This study shows that while many take for granted the
apartheid-era racial categorisations such as Coloured, African, Indian, and white, identities are
multiple and fluid. Group Areas were instrumental in concretising the essence of being
Coloured, but in the post-Apartheid period, that category, too, is subject to change. Finally, this
dissertation considers the attitudes forged amongst Coloureds concerning the African and
Indian residents of Pietermaritzburg in particular, showing that ideas of a racial hierarchy were
embraced by some Coloureds and were not confined to whites.
Description
Masters Degree. University of KwaZulu-Natal, Pietermaritzburg.