The white-washing of the Bo-Kaap's history and culture
Ismail Lagardien argues that gentrification in areas like the Bo-Kaap echoes apartheid-era removals, benefiting white people at the expense of others.
Bo-Kaap / Pixabay: jeanvdmeulen 3324534 1280
CapeTalk's Clarence Ford is joine by columnist Ismail Lagardien.
Listen below:
The Democratic Alliance (DA) wants to 'remake' Cape Town a space for white people.
So asserts columnist Ismail Lagardien in his latest Daily Maverick article.
Lagardien suggests that what is happening in places like historic Bo-Kaap, is exactly what happened during apartheid - the removal of certain groups of people for the benefit of white people.
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"What the Democratic Alliance are doing, they have the same objectives of making the city white and taking the coloured people, the Malay people, out of the City Bowl and taking them to places out of the way."
- Ismail Lagardien, Columnist
Lagardien suggests the party is achieving this through 'liberal capital inducements':
"They wave wads of money in front of people."
- Ismail Lagardien, Columnist
According to Largardien, the the provincial government is uninterested in preserving heritage that is not Eurocentric or Western.
"They're trying to remake Cape Town into a white space for white people... with Black people with money joining them."
- Ismail Lagardien, Columnist
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In the article, Lagardien highlights how Bo-Kaap residents are being convinced to sell not only their homes, but their culture too:
"They're selling the landscape of their heritage."
- Ismail Lagardien, Columnist
Click this link to read Lagardien's Daily Maverick article 'Waving wads of cash as inducement to sell homes and heritage in the Bo-Kaap'