January 31, 2005
By Lucille Davie
THE 50th anniversary of the Sophiatown removals will kick off this year with a church service at Christ the King Anglican Church on Sunday, 6 February, in a marquee in the church grounds.
Reverend Mongezi Guma, resident minister at the church, has invited ministers from churches in the area - including the Dutch Reformed Church, the Roman Catholic Church, the Greek Orthodox and Pentecostal churches - to attend. In addition, City officials have been invited, as well as former and current residents of Sophiatown.
The service, which begins at 3pm, will be unusual in that it will be interactive, says Guma, with speeches and poems marking "a journey of lament to exile and return, with thanksgiving and the reclaiming of Triomf". This approach would embrace the community of Afrikaners who replaced the displaced people of Sophiatown, in the renamed suburb of Triomf.
The church was made famous in the 1940s and '50s by Archbishop Trevor Huddleston, a vocal, dynamic opponent of apartheid who spent 10 years living in Sophiatown. He stood up for the rights of his constituents, often at risk to his own life.
Demolitions in progress in Sophiatown
On 9 February 1955 the forced removal of some 65 000 people to places like faraway Meadowlands in Soweto, began. It was to continue for over eight years. Blue collar Afrikaners were moved in, and still largely occupy the small houses that replaced the lively but desperately poor three-bedroomed homes and backyard shacks of Sophiatown.
Other planned events include screenings of the film Sophiatown, with private showings from 30 January and public screenings from 4 February at Nu Metro cinemas.
On 9 February a memorial procession will take place from Sophiatown to Meadowlands, with a short tour of both areas, enhanced by anecdotes related by former residents. Seats for the bus ride must be booked (see left for programme details).
A commemoration dinner is to be held on 18 February at the Johannesburg Country Club. From 21 to 25 February an art exhibition entitled "Made in Sophiatown" will be held at the Christ the King Church hall. Commemorations culminate in September - heritage month - with community activities and precinct developments.
Other church developments have been ongoing in the run-up to this commemoration. A Gerard Sekoto mural - the artist lived in the suburb for a short time - on the northern exterior wall of the church, has been completed, depicting Huddleston walking the dusty streets of Sophiatown, with Sekoto's famous "Yellow Houses" painting reflected in the background.
Other plans include a memorial wall and a huge floor map of old Sophiatown, to be painted in the church's car park.
Between 1939 and 1941 (the church was built in 1935) Sister Margaret painted a beautiful mural in an arch around the nave of the church. The church changed hands several times after it was sold in 1967, and sometime in the 1970s the mural was whitewashed.
Though Guma would prefer to restore the mural, restorers are not readily available and he is now looking at the possibility of having two tapestries made for either side of the altar, covering the whitewashed mural and capturing the spirituality of St Margaret's original work. The difficult task now is to find a suitable craft expert to make the tapestry. Guma is hoping to have the tapestries up by Heritage Day on 24 September, when the Sophiatown commemorations finally wind down.
Guma is also excited about another development: he has managed to assemble dozens of photographs of old Sophiatown and these will be displayed in the foyer of the church on 6 February.
"The pictures will form the core of the celebrations," says Guma. They come from the archives of the church and from sisters who worked in the original children's home, now demolished, opposite the church in Ray Street.
Meanwhile, Guma has initiated a Naught for your Comfort award - a reference to the title of Huddleston's 1956 autobiography. Last year a double award was given to Archbishop Desmond Tutu and Oliver and Adelaide Tambo. The award recognises individuals' contribution to social justice and improvement in the lives of people, as a legacy to the memory of Sophiatown.
Guma is also planning to take some of the dumped rubble from behind the church (leftovers from the demolition of old Sophiatown) and construct an altar in the church as a monument to the removals and demolitions.
Huddleston's ashes are buried in the grounds of the church, under monolith-shaped stones.
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