HERITAGE AND RESTITUTION OP-ED: We walk to remember what apartheid erased of Newlands and Claremont
This Heritage Day, NCHERS undertakes its fifth Walk of Remembrance not as an exercise in nostalgia, but as a symbolic act of resistance against the slow violence of forgetting.
As Heritage Day approaches, the Newlands/Claremont Heritage, Environmental Justice and Restitution Society (NCHERS) is once again organizing its fifth Walk of Remembrance. This annual event serves as a powerful symbol of resistance against the long-lasting consequences of apartheid's forced removals from the neighborhoods of Newlands and Claremont.
Rather than a celebration of nostalgia, the walk is a poignant reminder of the communities that were forcibly uprooted and the richness of the cultural diversity that was systematically erased.
This year, the walk will commence at the Newlands Cricket Ground and follow a carefully selected route marked by three key stops. Each stop represents a painful chapter in the history of these neighborhoods, with former residents sharing personal stories and memories that evoke a bygone era. Stops include Draper Square, where families and institutions once thrived, the Stegman Road Masjid, honoring Imam Abdullah Haron's resistance to apartheid, and the Cape Town Athenaeum, a revered intellectual hub that challenged the racial divisions imposed by the apartheid regime.
The spiritual leaders and descendants of the affected communities, including Fatima Haron-Masoet, will join the walk, making the event a poignant coming together of past and present. As the walk concludes at the Newlands Cricket Experience Museum, attendees will have the opportunity to engage in discussions with journalist and author Dougie Oakes about the history of anti-apartheid activism and the importance of keeping the memory of these struggles alive.
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