District Six was named the Sixth Municipal District
of Cape Town in 1867. Originally established as a mixed community of
freed slaves, merchants, artisans, labourers and immigrants, District
Six was a vibrant centre with close links to the city and the port.
By the beginning of the twentieth century, however, the process of removals
and marginalisation had begun.
The first to be 'resettled' were black South Africans,
forcibly displaced from the District in 1901. As the more prosperous
moved away to the suburbs, the area became a neglected ward of Cape
Town.
In 1966 it was declared a white area under the
Group Areas Act of 1950, and by 1982, the life of the community was over.
60 000 people were forcibly removed to barren outlying areas aptly known
as the Cape Flats, and their houses in District Six were flattened by
bulldozers.
The District Six Museum, established in December
1994, works with the memories of these experiences and with the history
of forced removals more generally.
