Experiencing Sophiatown: Conversations among residents about the past, present and future of a community - Softcover

From the introduction by David Thelen and Karie L. Morgan: The names Sophiatown and Triomf evoke images of a storied and unique place in South Africa's history. Here was the world-renowned, multi-racial birthplace of modern urban African arts like jazz and poetry. And here too the new National Party government first put residential apartheid into practice in the 1950s by forcibly removing some 65 000 Sophiatown residents, bulldozing buildings, replacing them with cheap housing for whites, especially public employees, and renaming the place Triomf to proclaim the triumph of one people over others. But the Sophiatown that has been forming since desegregation in the 1990s is less a unique place than a fairly typical place where residents are living out themes often identified with the 'new' South Africa. Today's residents are generally familiar with the special pasts of this place - and sometimes express feelings of anger, pride, and shame about these pasts - but they more often depict that history as remote from their lives. For them Sophiatown is a place where people from all over the country, indeed the world, are trying to find and make shared experiences and values in order to face the challenges of life: raising and educating children, earning a living, overcoming crime or finding ways to make a difference in shaping their community.

David Thelen is a distinguished professor emeritus at IndianaUniversity and has authored or coauthored numerous books, articles, and chapters. He was the editor of the Journal of American History from 1985 to 1999 and is currently working on the Sophiatown Project in the department of historical studies at the University of Johannesburg. He lives in Bloomington, Indiana. Karie L. Morgan is a postdoctoral fellow in the department of historical studies at the University of Johannesburg.