"It struck me that our history is contained in the home we live
in, that we are shaped by the ability of these simple structures
to resist being defiled." --Achmat Dangor from Kafka’s Curse1
The story of District Six in Cape Town, South Africa, is one of
people’s homes being taken away from them; about human beings
torn from the places that had shaped their identities and
community. In the aftermath of such actions, can justice be
achieved? Can a human being “go back home” when her home no
longer exists? Can restitution “right” such a “wrong?” These are
some of the questions—and legacies—of District Six. On February
11, 1966, District Six, a geographically desirable area near
Cape Town's city center, below beautiful Table Mountain, was
declared a "white group area" and the process began of forcibly
removing the non-white residents. Over the next several years,
eventually 60,000 people were moved to the Cape Flats, a much
more difficult area to live in, far from services and in a
relatively desolate and remote