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    Orlando West, Soweto: An illustrated history
    Unavailable
    Orlando West, Soweto: An illustrated history
    Unavailable
    Orlando West, Soweto: An illustrated history
    Ebook203 pages2 hours

    Orlando West, Soweto: An illustrated history

    By Noor Nieftagodien and Sally Gaule

    3/5

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    Currently unavailable

    Currently unavailable

    About this ebook

    Until the end of the First World War, urban growth in Johannesburg proceeded unevenly and haphazardly, but under the impact of a wave of militant struggles by black workers and in the context of the devastating impact of the 1918 influenza epidemic, the state became determined to better manage the movement of Africans into the urban areas and to place them in properly controlled locations. The promulgation of the Native (Urban) Areas Act of 1923 was intended to meet these objectives. The Act was a hybrid piece of legislation. On the one hand, it espoused the principles enunciated by the Stallard Commission of 1922, which had infamously declared that an African ‘should only be allowed into the urban areas, which are essentially the white man’s creation, when he is willing to enter and minister to the needs of the white man, and should depart therefrom when he ceases so to minister’. On the other hand, when it empowered local authorities to set aside land for black residential purposes, it recognised the need to create conditions for the settlement of an urban African population in order to provide a reliable supply of labour to secondary industry. The growing demand for housing led the government to establish Orlando (named after the chairman of the Native Affairs Committee, Edwin Orlando Leake) in 1931, when thousands of African families were evicted from urban slums in and around the city centre and moved there. The authorities described this as a ‘model native township’ that was supposedly planned along the lines of a garden city. The new location, it promised, would be characterised by tree-lined streets, business opportunities and recreation facilities. Reflecting the views of a somewhat conservative section of the African urban elite, the popular African newspaper Bantu World predicted on 14 May 1932 that the new township ‘will undoubtedly be somewhat of a paradise [that] will enhance the status of the Bantu within the ambit of progress and civilisation.’ Orlando West, Soweto illuminates the genesis of Orlando township and its well-known subsequent history, which is inextricably linked with the lives of prominent South Africans such as Nelson Mandela and Desmond Tutu, amongst many others. A beautiful photographic essay complements the testimony from residents, who describe the way things were, and the way they are now, in the heart of Soweto, South Africa’s most iconic African township.
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherWits University Press
    Release dateAug 1, 2012
    ISBN9781776141142
    Unavailable
    Orlando West, Soweto: An illustrated history
    Author

    Noor Nieftagodien

    Noor Nieftagodien is the Deputy Chair of the History Workshop and is Senior Lecturer in the History Department at the University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg.

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    • 3/5
      Orlando West Soweto An Illustrated History by Noor Nieftagodien and Sally Gaule. ( Wits University Press, 2012).Orlando West has a significant urban history. For many it is synonymous with the struggle history of Soweto and most specifically the role of its people and its high school children in the 1976 student uprising. Vilakazi St was the home of two Nobel Prize laureates, Nelson Mandela and Desmond Tutu. This work is the product of a local history project but in the quality of the writing, the synthesis of the work of a research team into a professional history of Orlando and the combination of many contemporary black and white historical photographs together with current colour photographs in a photo essay, the work rises above the amateur quality of so many community histories and makes a significant contribution to the history of Soweto and Johannesburg. The work falls into two parts. The author of the ten chapters on the history of Orland, Noor Nieftagodien of the Wits History Department and the History Workshop has pulled together the interviews of over 40 long term residents of Orlando to tell the story of the origins of Orlando, its evolution through the urbanizing decades, the start of the uprising and the follow through to real change and revolution. Sport, schooling, religious , work family and social life are all dimensions discussed with the interviewees. The work captures memories in the strong individual voices of citizens and speaks to the pride of the citizens of Soweto. There is a helpful map of Soweto and a basic bibliography for further reading. The second part of the book is the photo essay of the photographer, Sally Gaule of the Wits School of Architecture and Planning. Sally is known for intimacy and insight in her photographs of both people and landscape. She walked the streets of Orlando and was often spontaneously invited into the homes of people she met. The warmth and the hospitality of the encounter is captured and you are invited to share a transitory moment of life. The project also gave rise to a documentary on the history of Orlando. The book lacks an index and there is no explicit link between the first written section of the book and the latter photographic essay. A short biography of the interviewees would have enriched the text and while the well chosen black and white photographs capture time and period, photographs of the interviewees would have enhanced the documentary evidence. In Ms Gaule’s photo essay, each photograph should be labeled and dated, again to stress the documentary value. This work will appeal to visitors as it is a superior souvenir and Africana collectors or Johannesburg people will welcome the addition to their libraries. It is a book that has an instant message for anyone browsing and that is, visit Soweto and come spend a few hours in Orlando West. K A Munro.