Reclaiming histories: The resounding call issued through the Simonites culturally-marginalised memory of the apartheid forced removals

Produced with the intent to link the consciousness of the classified coloured Simonites to the needs presented by their physical surroundings, this study presents a poststructuralist critique of the post-apartheid culture of race. It invokes the Simonites' production of a living, inclusive and diversified archive as a disruptor to the existing colonial and apartheid power relations that structure social interactions. The study deploys oral history as a methodology due to its fluid administering of historical production. This study is a testament to the Simonites' agency pertaining their reclaimed histories and personhoods. These phenomena are intentionally pluralised to oppose a singularised, state-imposed culture of race that culturally-marginalises memories, histories and identities. An analysis of the Simonites' memory of the apartheid forced removals reveals that their memory is framed to meet a present cultural demand. Namely, the need to transform their culturally-marginalised social position as administered by the rainbow identity and subsequent citizenship status. Reclaimed histories are transformative to the extent that it produces a re-envisioned humanity that subverts existing power relations and appeals to greater society. A subversion of power relations reinvigorates a sense of belonging, broadens the recipients of state obligations and epistemologically undermines the dominance of racial discourse in a post-apartheid context. Therefore, this study supports an emerging discourse that posits Simon's Town as an ancestrally-diverse heritage landscape to which belonging and a unique history is claimed.

Grantor

Department of Political Studies

Year dc:date.issued

2024

Author dc:creator

• Solomons, Anastasia Joan

Advisor dc:contributor.advisor

• Scanlon, Helen

• Political Studies

Handle dc:identifier.uri

http://hdl.handle.net/11427/40651

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:open.uct.ac.za:11427/40651