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David Goldblatt: A Monument to Apartheid in Fietas | Art21 "Extended Play"

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    [DAVID GOLDBLATT] We're headed west--
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    at the moment we're heading south--
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    but we're going to the west of the city
    to a suburb called Fietas.
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    [Fietas was a diverse community
    with a large Indian population.]
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    [During apartheid its residents
    were forcibly relocated.]
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    It's official name is Pageview,
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    but it came to be known
    by its residents as Fietas.
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    No one knows now for sure
    where the name came from
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    and if it has any meaning--
    what it means--
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    but that was the fond name
    for the area.
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    When I started photographing here in '76,
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    the community was still largely intact.
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    That's the Twenty-Third Street mosque.
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    The houses here consist of
    some of the original Indian houses
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    and then those that were built by the
    Department of Community Development.
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    We were wonderful in our ability
    to invent the meaning of words.
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    The Department of Community Development
    came here and destroyed their community.
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    For example, these here were built by the
    Department of Community Development.
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    And as you see, they are now little fortresses,
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    as are so many of our houses in Johannesburg.
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    A working class White community,
    next door to this,
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    agitated for their removal.
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    Whites didn't want people of color
    living next door to them.
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    It was as crude as that.
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    What happened here is typical of what
    happened in almost every town in South Africa.
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    --[SALMA PATEL] You went from behind,
    and you could buy meat.
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    [LAUGHS]
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    --I had an amazing childhood,
    you know that!
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    I remember David coming on a bicycle--
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    coming and cycling.
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    And I used to wonder,
    "Why does he do this?"
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    I was going to school then.
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    I saw this man photographing
    all these ruins.
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    In my little world in those days,
    this was home,
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    and I didn't really understand the full
    implications of forced removals.
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    Because of the apartheid regime's
    racist ideologies,
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    this area was destroyed.
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    Fietas Museum is a very good way
    to understand land dispossession,
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    destruction of family units,
    and a community.
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    These are Paul Weinberg's photographs.
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    Paul and I have a long history.
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    He's walked this whole journey with me,
    like with David.
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    I've known them for so many years.
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    These two photographers were very generous
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    in just donating the pictures
    to the Fietas Museum.
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    Had it not been for their photographs,
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    we wouldn't have a pictorial record
    of my forebearers
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    and my community.
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    This shows Fourteenth Street in its heyday.
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    As you can see, it had the elements
    that are essential for good cities.
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    And that is:
    density, diversity, and complexity.
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    It was a community of blended cultures.
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    There's an Indian concept called,
    "upar makaan neeche dukaan,"
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    meaning living quarters upstairs
    and trading premises downstairs.
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    It's a very smart way of using space.
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    The people that were
    forcibly removed from this area--
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    especially in this particular street--
    were traders.
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    [GOLDBLATT] White people, Black people--
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    all kinds of people--
    would come from all over the area
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    to shop here,
    on Fourteenth Street.
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    The streets were very narrow.
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    I found that the best way of coming here
    to photograph was to ride a bicycle.
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    I came in on a bicycle with a
    couple of panniers on it
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    so that I could carry
    a four-by-five view camera,
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    or a Hasselblad,
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    some film, and a lightweight tripod.
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    I would come in here and photograph
    people, shops--
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    whatever I wanted.
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    I got to know Ozzie Docrat,
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    one of the Indian men who had a shop here.
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    He had a shop just down the road here
    which was called the "Subway Grocers."
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    If there was a big cricket match--
    internationally--
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    he would put the score outside
    on the sidewalk,
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    so that people coming by could see
    what the score was.
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    He knew the tram drivers who came past.
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    It was not impossible for a
    tram driver to stop his tram
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    and go in there and say,
    "Ozzie, you got the score wrong, man!"
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    "So-and-so is out now."
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    It was a very popular place
    and he was a very popular man.
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    His home was here.
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    Right here.
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    This was the core of the house.
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    It was reinforced concrete, because it
    needed to support the water tank.
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    When the front-end loaders came in here
    to destroy everything in 1977,
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    they couldn't push this over.
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    It's reinforced concrete.
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    So it remains here now as a
    crazy monument to apartheid.
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    He had to move to Lenasia,
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    which is the Indian suburb
    that was set up outside the city
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    to absorb these people
    who were displaced.
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    The government built the
    so-called "Oriental Plaza"--
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    a shopping mall which
    they said would then
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    substitute for the shops that
    they were destroying here.
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    One day, it is was a Sunday Morning,
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    I came riding here on my bicycle,
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    and there was Ozzie Docrat.
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    We greeted each other,
    and I said to him,
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    "You know Mr. Docrat,"
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    "I cannot tell you how ashamed I am
    of what is being done here,"
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    "to you in my name, as a White voter."
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    Then I said to him,
    "You know, I've got a problem,"
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    "because they're knocking down the buildings
    and I can't remember what was there."
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    And he said, "Mr. Goldblatt,"
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    "I feel as though I've been to the dentist,"
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    "and I've had teeth extracted."
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    "And I run my tongue over the spaces,"
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    "and I try to remember the shape
    of what was there."
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    It was an extraordinary statement.
Title:
David Goldblatt: A Monument to Apartheid in Fietas | Art21 "Extended Play"
Description:

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Video Language:
English
Team:
Art21
Project:
"Extended Play" series
Duration:
07:49

English subtitles

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