Row erupts over history of Newlands monument

City taken to task in letter by Imam Omar

THE recent placement of a monument celebrating the foundation of the Newlands Brewery without mention of the cultural and historical significance of the Kildare Road spring has caused an outrage among Capetonians commemorating Heritage Month.

The City demolished the spring in Newlands back in 2018, despite lobbying by the group Friends of the Kildare/Newlands Spring about the symbolic importance of the water-collection space.

Stellenbosch University Sociology and Social Anthropology Professor Steven Robins said at the time: “What these officials and residents could not see was that this spring was more than simply a pipe filled with flowing water. It was a space saturated with history, memories and sociality.”

Ahead of Heritage Day celebrations, Claremont Main Road Mosque Imam Rashied Omar wrote to the City to protest that the plaque on the new monument had erased the history of the majority of people who lived and worked in the area.

The letter, co-signed by mosque secretary Jaamia Galant, read in part: “The bulk of the narrative on the plaque deals with the doings of the beer and water supply magnates in the area. It frames the history of Newlands exclusively in terms of the still highly profitable brewing and property industry in the Newlands/Claremont area.

“This new monument opens up painful, but timely, questions of history, heritage, restitution and environmental justice in Newlands and Claremont.”

Imam Omar said: “As one of the oldest institutions in this area – the Claremont Main Road Mosque was established in 1854 – we would like to publicly express our objection to, and rejection of, this unlawful monument and the ongoing erasure of memory that it represents.

“Furthermore, we argue that on every level this monument is in direct violation of the principles, values and procedures of our National Heritage Resources Act,” said Omar.

His letter received a speedy response from City Environment and Heritage manager Dimitri Georgeades, who said the department apologised for any offence caused by the installation of the plaque, and considered the injustices of the past a serious matter.

“Our department will ensure a process of broad participation to consider alternatives to either change the wording of the plaque or remove the memorial completely,” said Georgeades.

Western Cape First Nations Collective chairperson Zenzile Khoisan said: “The fact that the plinth has been erected and fails to mention the enslaved people on what was the VOC Nieuwlands estate, and who would have dug and built this spring structure, reveals a breathtaking condition of ignorance.”

Mayco member for spatial planning and environment Marian Nieuwoudt told the Cape Argus that the plinth was a marker in the form of an A4 ceramic plaque that gives a short explanation of the Newlands spring.

Nieuwoudt admitted, however, that there was a need to more fully commemorate the history of Newlands and to engage with communities with regard to acknowledging, in a meaningful way, the long-established communities that were impacted and forcibly removed with the implementation of apartheid legislation.

Provincial Department of Cultural Affairs and Sport spokesperson Tania Colyn said: “There is currently no process under way for declaring this as a provincial heritage site. If there are members of the public wishing to nominate the spring on heritage grounds as a provincial heritage site, an application can be submitted to Heritage Western Cape for consideration.”

ESTABLISHED as a public holiday on September 24, 1995, Heritage Day was deemed the quintessential “Rainbow Nation” holiday, declared as a day to celebrate the rich history and diverse cultures that make up the fabric of South Africa as a nation.

Ten years later, a campaign which still has some traction today was mounted to reduce the diverse and vibrant cultures into one unifying culture, calling on us to celebrate Heritage Day as “National Braai Day”.

Nowadays, on social media and on the radio, Heritage Day inevitably sparks all kinds of conversations about the other traditional and cultural foods we can celebrate on the day.

Surely our heritage is more than just our traditional foods? Our heritage is intertwined in the histories of our families, our communities, our land and our environment.

In post-apartheid South Africa, our quest to chase the elusive “Rainbow Nation” has also led to the incremental erasure of the painful histories of dispossession and displacement, dating from the 17th century and as recently as the 1960s, that is integral to the heritage of so many families and communities in this country.

In the Western Cape today, for example, we have families dispersed all over the Cape Flats, whose history and heritage is entwined in the winelands of Constantia, the docklands of Simon’s Town and Kalk Bay, the banks of the Liesbeeck River and the slopes of Table Mountain and Signal Hill – from Claremont and Newlands all the way round to District Six and Green Point.

Not only are the families on the Cape Flats disconnected from their ancestral land and environment closer to the mountain, the areas have few spaces that memorialise the history of dispossession and displacement of people and communities that once lived and thrived in the spaces.

This erasure of memory was painfully encountered recently when we were made aware of the placement of a monumental plinth, titled the “Newlands Spring”, in Springs Road, Newlands. The accompanying plaque (with the City’s “Heritage & Environment” logo) provides an account of the Newlands Springs which is almost entirely focussed on the achievements of the late 19th century Scandinavian businessman, politician and local property and water owner, Anders Ohlsson (d.1912). It frames the history of Newlands in terms of the (still) highly profitable brewing and property industry in the Newlands/ Claremont area.

While the “monument” may purport to be the marking of a natural spring, it is clear from the text and images that what is being provided is a particular version of history.

The skewed version of the history of Newlands village and the springs erases all memory of the pain and loss of communities of colour, who had been living in the area from the early 19th century and were brutally ejected from these neighbourhoods in the apartheid forced removals of the 1960s. The former residents were an integral part of the development of this green, desirable place at the foot of the mountain. Their children grew up playing in the streams of Newlands, long before many of the present residents were born.

Scattered all over the Cape Flats, they and their descendants, watched as their homes and heritage were profitably bought up and “gentrified” in this lucrative property market. The land and its spring waters were valued only as an economic resource, rather than a shared heritage and an environmental asset. The wetland, pasture and forest landscape was once valued, used and managed by our San and Khoekhoen ancestors. Their beliefs, rituals and very social fabric were entwined with the rain-fed waters. But where do we see and hear about the history and heritage? This land holds the graves, labour, memories, tears and dreams of our ancestors, systematically stripped of their humanity, political rights and dignity by successive colonial and racist regimes.

Although some displaced former residents and/or descendants today are pursuing land claims in a bid for restitution and justice, others have over time lost all connection with their family heritage and history in Newlands/Claremont.

In a bid to begin the journey of reclaiming the lost history and heritage of the area, the Claremont Main Road Mosque, in partnership with St Saviour’s Anglican Church in Claremont (both institutions established in 1854), will be leading a Walk of Remembrance through the streets of Claremont and Newlands on Heritage Day tomorrow.

We hope the Walk of Remembrance will be the catalyst for the launching of an oral history project and mobilise support to establish an inclusive Newlands/Claremont Heritage, Environmental Justice and Restitution Society.