Seventy years later: The enduring echoes of Sophiatown's forced removals in South Africa

A guest looks at the exhibition of 70th anniversary of forced removals of Sophiatown.(Photo: Felix Dlangamandla)

14 Feb 2025

As Sophiatown marks 70 years since the forced removals, this year’s commemoration includes a six-month Don Mattera exhibition, which began on 8 February 2025. At the heart of Sophiatown’s story lies a painful reality: decades later, many former residents have yet to see justice in the form of land and property redress.

“Memory is a weapon. I knew deep down inside of me, in that place where laws and guns cannot reach or any jackboots trample, that there had been no defeat. On another day, another time, we would emerge to reclaim our dignity and our land. It was only a matter of time and Sophiatown would be reborn.” — Don Mattera

It has been three decades since the end of the apartheid regime, but echoes of its impact are still felt by many South Africans. The ninth of February marked the 70th anniversary of forced removals in Sophiatown.

Dr Arianna Lissoni, a researcher in the History Workshop at the University of the Witwatersrand, told Daily Maverick: “Sophiatown is often remembered for its diverse cultural vibrancy and pride and its rich history of people living together in harmony across race groups. It remains a symbol of resistance and is where legendary artists, writers, musicians, public figures, and activists like Hugh Masekela, Miriam Makeba, Lewis Nkosi, Can Themba, Nat Nakasa and Don Mattera all thrived.

“The forced removals remain a painful chapter in the lives of those who were displaced and the generations that followed, and is a chapter in the lives of South Africans that must not be forgotten.”

Lissoni said Mattera’s work, through the concept of “memory”, became a weapon for fighting oppression and injustice.

“His poetry and writing ensure that the human cost of apartheid’s policies is neither sanitised nor lost in nostalgia.”

Sophiatown resident Michael Adam recalls the day of the forced removals like it was yesterday.

“The ninth of February 1955 was a Wednesday. Dr Verwoerd told the people that they would be moved on a Thursday, but they turned up on a Wednesday unexpectedly. It was a rainy day… but it rained very softly. I think it was tears that were falling for the people. As we got up the street, from Gibson right up to Newlands, was covered with police. I remember the federal newspaper that afternoon that showed Dr Verwoerd standing with a phone with the headline ‘Eight Talks of Firetown’.”

No compensation

Vuyiswa Ramakgopa, the Gauteng MEC of Agriculture and Rural Development and national chairperson for Rise Mzansi, shared her sentiments on X (formerly Twitter): “My family was one of these families. My mother often recounts the story of the day armed men showed up at their home in Sophiatown and forced them (she was five years old then) on to the back of a truck with all their belongings. The ironically named Meadowlands was to be their new home. There were no schools, trees, clinics, or parks. Just rows and rows of newly constructed asbestos-roof houses. And as you can imagine... no compensation,” she wrote.

This was the day Sophiatown’s destruction commenced and it moved from a vibrant multiracial suburb to a whites only suburb, which saw some families relocated to Meadowlands, Soweto. Their possessions were loaded on to the back of police trucks and dumped in Meadowlands, where they were forced to stay with their children. These families were exposed to cold and rainy weather.

However black Sophiatown residents were not the only ones forcibly removed — more than 3.5 million people in District Six, Marabastad, Cato Manor, Kroonstad, Nelspruit, and many other places across the country faced a similar fate.

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

The family of Don Mattera, a South African poet and author, was among the many relocated at the time, hence an exhibition in his honour that ties up his deep connection to Sophiatown as the place he grew up in holds profound historical and emotional significance.

“Firstly, Don was young at the time of the forced removals and therefore a witness to the experience, so viscerally accounted for in his poem The Day They Came for Our House. He describes the trauma of that experience, capturing the brutality and heartbreak of being forcibly uprooted. The imagery of bulldozers and shattered memories and displacement speaks to the collective pain of thousands who lost their homes, community, and sense of belonging as they were “erased” through the apartheid apparatus of racially segregated life in South Africa.

A visitor views a photograph of a black man standing naked among others as the apartheid police look on, a stark reminder of the humiliation and brutality of apartheid. (Photo: Felix Dlangamandla)

The Freedom Charter is shown at the exhibition. (Photo: Felix Dlangamandla)

Visitors view the various exhibits. (Photo: Felix Dlangamandla)

One of many photographs on display at the exhibition. (Photo: Felix Dlangamandla)

A photograph of people in the vibrant Sophiatown in celebratory mode before the forced removals. (Photo: Felix Dlangamandla)

A photograph of Don Mattera at the exhibition. (Photo: Felix Dlangamandla)

A display at the exhibition. (Photo: Felix Dlangamandla)

Don Mattera’s poem The Day They Came for Our House was written in the aftermath of his grandfather’s home being demolished in 1962, a continuation of the forced removals that erased Sophiatown’s multiracial community. (Photo: Felix Dlangamandla)

A visitor views a display at the exhibition of the 70th anniversary of the forced removals of Sophiatown. (Photo: Felix Dlangamandla)

“Beyond poetry, Mattera’s seminal work Memory is a Weapon, is a powerful testament to the role of memory in resistance. In this book, he reinforces the notion that remembering is not passive, it is an act of defiance against erasure. Through this launch we align ourselves as a foundation with his message that history must be remembered and actively engaged with, especially since issues of displacement, spatial injustice, and inequality persist in South Africa today and have become topical with the new administration in the United States affecting us directly in this country.”

These were the words of Jennifer Dawn Jeftha, the chairperson of the Don Mattera Legacy Foundation, speaking to Daily Maverick on the significance of launching the exhibition in the 70th commemoration of the forced removals. The exhibition is a collaborative effort of the foundation, the History Workshop, Dr AB Xuma Museum, and the Embassy of Sweden (Pretoria). Launched on 8 February it will run for the next six months. Another celebration by Soweto Tourism titled “A Tribute to Sophiatown: Back to the 60s” will take place at the iconic Soweto Theatre on 27 February 2025.

Read more: Don Mattera’s voice has been stilled, but his powerful words linger on in memory

Jeftha said the concept of the exhibition was born two years ago in what she described as an “incredibly personal and profound moment”.

“Two years ago, one of Don’s close friends handed over a scrapbook to the foundation — inside was a meticulously maintained archive of photographs, newspaper clippings, handwritten notes, and other memorabilia that captured his journey over many years. The board recognised the immense historical and educational value of this material and made a collective decision to share these and other stories with the world.

“The exhibition was conceptualised not just as a tribute to him, but as a platform for education, reflection, and action. This vision is the very reason for the existence of the Don Mattera Legacy Foundation — to keep his legacy and memory alive by using his story as a catalyst for learning, enhancing literature and the love of reading, dialogue, engagement, and positive social change.”

Contemporary issues

Lissoni added that they hoped that the exhibition resonated with the much broader audience and contemporary issues South Africa was dealing with, which include the recently passed Expropriation Bill, United States President Donald Trump’s problems with it, and how it has been a reference point in the ongoing post-Sona debate.

“It is unfortunate that we are now talking about this issue with land issues in our country because of Trump. Meanwhile the U.S. has been supporting the apartheid state of Israel in its genocide which has displaced 1.8 million Palestinians from Gaza, which has been razed to the ground. In fact, we had drawn up the exhibition and plan way before the current debates.

People forget that the majority of people in this country were expropriated of their land many decades ago and there hasn’t been any real redress. This is a foundation of many issues of identity and dignity, let alone economic issues, because the legacies of the displacement run very deep” DM

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