Western removals, destroying Sophiatown, and unexpected unity in 1950s South Africa
The questions of race and space were the primary social issues during South Africa’s era of apartheid. How do citizens identify themselves? How can other identify color? Where can “coloreds,” Blacks, Whites, and Indians live? These were all major social inquiries being considered leading into the 1940s and 50s in South Africa, a nation segregated by race, class, and cultural identity.
There was not a citizen in South Africa unaffected by these overwhelming concepts, and the government did little to make the situation better through passing dressed up-legislations which paraded themselves as successful aids for non-white citizens, but were essentially nothing more than wolves in sheep’s clothing.
Displaced people have long been mistreated both before and after they became refugees. This treatment is immoral and was condemned by the United Nations General Assembly, yet it continued for decades. The destruction of Sophiatown and the Western Removals were major events that characterized this time period in a segregated South Africa.
A famous protest slogan written on the walls of Sophiatown before the Western Removals. Photo provided by Jurgen Schadeberg.
In the early 1900s, a prospector named Herman Tobiansky allocated a large swath of land in a northwestern suburban area of Johannesburg. Tobiansky planned to sell this land to affluent White families, but a municipal landfill was built on the outskirts of the area and his investment fell through.
Luckily for the prospector, non-White South Africans were still interested in the land and in 1904 Sophiatown was established. This was the first time Black South Africans were allowed to own land and the community boomed with its own churches, schools, jazz clubs, and cinemas.
The population of towns like Sophiatown—which grew to include Martindale and Newclare—expanded rapidly, partially due to the Group Areas Act of 1950 which forcibly separated the races within urban areas and was enforced in all municipalities. The act was the first government authorized systemic segregation and the demand for space such as Sophiatown rose as a result.
By 1955 the South African government claimed these non-White spaces were “overpopulated slums” in need of deformation. 54 thousand native Africans—and over 11 thousand peoples of other ethnicities—were moved from the “Western Areas,” and Blacks were placed into a government-created “matchbox housing” facility called Meadowlands.
The government painted this travesty as a success for Black citizens who had previously been living in shanties or huts in Sophiatown, but the loss of freedom and community disenchanted the former residents even further.
Ultimately, in 1959 Whites did move into the area Tobiansky originally created for them, renaming the now cleared, destroyed, and ethnically cleansed area Triumph.
A rare color photo taken after the destruction of Sophiatown. Photo provided by the Eliot Elisofon Photographic Archives, National Museum of African Art.
More than any other legislation, protest, or government interreference of the time, the Western Removals helped create a racial identity of pride and connectedness for those most devastatingly affected by this destruction. Through intense mourning for their lost city, natives developed a sense of unity in their shared grief.
Blok Modisane’s powerful piece about his first time visiting the rubble of Sophiatown, Blame Me on History, shares an insight to what Africans were truly feeling while being pushed to Meadowlands, reminiscing about their broken home.
“Sophiatown belonged to me. The land was bought with the sweat,
the scrounging, the doing without, and it not only was mine,
but a piece of me.”
- Blok Modisane
With the eradication of the Western Areas, the government made a loud, purposeful intention to de-unify and break up racial groups through their idea of the perfect Apartheid city. But the plans of the government failed, as the Black cultural heart was still beating to a rhythm of jazz and soul music, as musical protests began to popularize with songs such as “Meadowlands.” An upbeat temp diverges attention away from the harsh lyrics of White supremacy and native anger after displacement.
The government focused on racial segregations and land divisions, exemplified by the buffer zones between lands meant for “coloreds,” Indians, and Africans in the non-White section of town. The Apartheid government blatantly disregarded the constitution for several racially fueled legislations to be passed.
The government’s role in the Western Removals caused cross-generational emotional strife, which—unknowing to the policymakers at the time—affected the life of head African National Congress leaders. This proves that the destruction of Sophiatown made a massive chain reaction in societal relations within South Africa.
“Have you heard what the white people say?
‘Let’s all go to Meadowlands.’
Have you heard what the hoodlums say?
‘We’re not going! We’re chilling here.’”
- “Meadowlands” by Strike Vilakazi, 1956
The lasting effects of the annihilation of Sophiatown and the Western Removals program can be seen throughout the 1950s and 1960s. The Group Areas Act and Pass laws were both crucial factors which discussing the social experience for non-White South Africans in this time.
The forced removal of entire ethnic groups from urban areas focuses on the questions of race and space; who is allowed where? How can entire ethnic populations show political retaliation? The following decades were formed by the removals, unified non-Whites, and inspired 20 years of racial empowerment in the face of white supremacy.
“We won’t move” was written on the walls of Sophiatown shanties, and although the geographical location may change, the intense determination of non-Whites to fight for their country, their land, and their pride could never be shaken.
