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From forced removals to cultural revival: the enduring legacy of District Six Museum

From forced removals to cultural revival: the enduring legacy of District Six Museum
Ismail ‘Bolla’ Buffkins, a former resident of District Six, whose family was forcibly removed and landed in Mitchells Plain. He was at the celebration of the District Six Museum’s 30th birthday which took place in Cape Town on 14 December. (Photo: Suné Payne)
Suné Payne
By Suné Payne
18 Dec 2024
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How do you keep an independent museum going for 30 years? The District Six Museum in Cape Town might have an answer: through an understanding of the community they know and love. And donations of course.

‘The community museum.” That’s how the District Six Museum is described by its director Chrischene Julius. The museum, located in the Cape Town CBD, is a living monument to the people of District Six, who were forcibly removed during apartheid. 

It first opened its doors on 10 December 1994 at the old Central Methodist Church in Buitenkant Street in Cape Town. The museum has since become a space where memory lives: it holds various remembrances such as suitcases and books about the once multicultural and multiracial community that thrived in the inner city.

It also hosts several programmes with residents who were forcibly removed under the apartheid regime’s brutal forced removals. On 11 February 1966, the apartheid regime declared District Six a “Whites Only” area under the Group Areas Act. This meant “non” whites were forcibly removed to the Cape Flats – the city’s “coloured” areas in Mitchells Plain and Hanover Park. Some “African” residents were moved to Langa.

There has since been an effort to remember the vibrant community through art or recording District Six residents’ lived experiences. 

memory cloth The ‘memory cloth’ – a length of fabric inscribed with the names and addresses of people who lived in District Six. The cloth was on display at the Homecoming Centre on Saturday, 14 December during a celebration of the District Six Museum’s 30th birthday. (Photo: Suné Payne)



“The one thing that for me is truly the spirit and intention of the museum and the achievement of the museum is that we can still call community members, we can still say that they are part of our daily life,” said Julius, who spoke to Daily Maverick this week.

“They contribute to our exhibitions, our programming work, our education work, our archival work. They are very much part of the museum’s life.”

“So in terms of what they mean to us, they keep the museum’s work going.

“So without them, the museum wouldn't be able to do its work, essentially.”

Funding challenges


Thirty years is a long time for a museum, and the District Six Museum is independent, so sometimes funding is limited. In 2020, the museum had to close due to Covid-19 pandemic-related lockdowns.

The museum came up with a “love letter” campaign – a play on the “love letters” residents received informing them of their impending removal from their homes. This campaign, as Daily Maverick reported at the time, managed to raise R1.1-million. 

Read more: District Six Museum raises more than R1m in donations in its Love Letters campaign

But the funding challenges aren’t over.

“The museum is still not fully funded in terms of its operational costs,” said Julius.

She said the revenue made came from feet through the door, events, ticket sales and venue hire, which has helped sustain the museum since 2020. This now includes revenue from sales of new products in the museum’s bookshop. The museum has also relied on internal income generation streams, including online donation links, in a bid to keep it afloat.

district six suitcases Artefacts such as suitcases are common in the District Six Museum in Cape Town, which most residents could take with them when they were forcibly removed from District Six during the 1960s and 1970s under the Group Areas Act. (Photo: Suné Payne)



“For the next few years, we are still focused on just sort of doing grant applications, but we are also looking at appointing a fundraiser to just help us raise funds for the museum as well,” Julius said.

While they don’t have funding from the provincial or national government, they will apply for various grants when application dates open – but such funding is not guaranteed. During their 2020 financial difficulties, the museum received funding from the Western Cape Department of Cultural Affairs and a wage subsidy from the National Arts Council. 

Next 30 years


What’s the plan for the museum’s year-long celebration and the next 30 years? 

“I think for the next 30 years, if we continue to call ourselves a community museum, we take very seriously the idea of how we plan for that, how we include a younger generation of the District Sixers into museums work as well.” 

Julius said a key plan was to revise the public programming that the museum “always had on its calendar”, but which had to take a back seat during the Covid-19 pandemic. 

“For us, we will be reintroducing our supper clubs,” she said.

These were an opportunity for guests to hear stories about District Six from former residents, around a supper table. There will also be a new series of podcasts on the museum’s 30 years of existence. 

Also planned is the launch of a children’s book about one of District Six’s most famous sons: South Africa’s first Royal Ballet principal dancer Johaar Mosaval. 

artefacts The District Six Museum in Cape Town holds artefacts from former residents of the once multicultural community that was bulldozed by the apartheid regime. (Photo: Suné Payne)



Mosaval was not the only famous talent out of District Six. There were lawyers, politicians and performing artists such as playwright Taliep Petersen, politician Dullah Omar and anti-apartheid political icon Zainunnisa Abdurahman “Cissie” Gool. Another son of District Six was the poet, activist and journalist James Matthews, who died in September 2024. 

Read more: ‘Uncompromising’ poet and activist James Matthews lived life on his own terms

While the museum plays no part in the protracted restitution process, some former residents are claimants and hope to one day return to the place they once called home. While some have returned to government-built units, other residents and land claimants died before they could move back to their beloved District Six, such as Shariefa Khan, who died in January 2022.

Read more: Oldest District Six land claimant Aunty Shariefa Khan dies before finally getting chance to move back home 

Laughter and music


On Saturday, 14 December, former residents and board members gathered at Cape Town’s Homecoming Centre in celebration of the museum’s 30 years. Laughter and music merged as people shared hugs and comments such as “haven’t seen you in a long time”. 

Friends and loved ones danced and joked with one another as photos were taken and numbers were exchanged over the sounds of famous artists of the time – including the legendary Taliep Petersen. 

One of these residents is Ismail Buffkins (76) affectionately known as “Bolla”. Several times, residents came up to him for hugs, some even taking his cellphone number.

district six buffkins Ismail ‘Bolla’ Buffkins, a former resident of District Six, whose family was forcibly removed and landed in Mitchells Plain. He was at the celebration of the District Six Museum’s 30th birthday which took place in Cape Town on 14 December. (Photo: Suné Payne)



“I stayed in the heart of District Six,” he said, with the movements of a performer.

Buffkins told Daily Maverick that he was “white-passing” – he could pass for white under the Group Areas Act so he could perform as a dancer and model in theatres alongside his white counterparts. This included the Nico Malan Theatre, now The Artscape Theatre. 

He was also a hairdresser, a job he said those labelled “coloured” could occupy under apartheid.

“If you are from District Six and you don’t have any skill – you cannot sing, dance, act, bake or sew – then I don’t know where you are from because I believe each and every person born in District Six had a gift,” he said.

During the forced removals, his grandmother was worried about where her daughter and grandchildren would end up. “Where are they going to take us? Are they going to chuck us out with nowhere to go?” Buffkins related. 

“And my grandmother died from the news,” he said about when his family heard they were to be moved to Mitchells Plain. 

Because he was “white-passing”, Buffkins ended up living in Muizenberg, along the False Bay coastline.

When asked about what celebrating the museum and its 30 years of existence meant, Buffkins said he had to take a moment to reflect outside.

“I didn’t want everybody to know that I was crying because I saw lots of people that I didn’t see for 50 years, for 60 years… I couldn’t help but break down.” 

But that’s the thing: several residents are now elderly and these events are not just about celebrating the museum, they are about remembering the community left behind and scattered across the Cape Flats. 

“It is so beautiful that the Almighty has spared us all these years to see the people of District Six congregate for this special day,” he said. 

Read more: Pillowcases and stones – heartache of brutal District Six forced removals still lingers

We must keep memories alive – Siraj Desai 


The board chairperson of the museum, Judge Siraj Desai, spoke about how the museum can “keep the notion alive that there was a community here that was demolished”. He spoke of his own experience, especially as the forced removals came into effect.

“I remember that occasion very rudely because I went to school at Trafalgar in 1966 with the demolition order when the announcement came,” he said about the pending forced removals.

The judge said his classes became smaller as more and more people were moved out of the multiracial zone. 

“You could see the sadness of the [people who] left the town centre to live on Cape Flats… And it is that sadness and the memory of them having lived here that we must continue to keep alive.” DM

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