Challenges that are posed in District Six that impact issues of landscape.

Once again this week i am interested in examining Cape Town's District six, and specifically examining the challenges that are presented by this landscape (of which there are several). First off, and most notably is the fact that the area was mostly bulldozed in the 1970's, when the population of District Six was relocated to the Cape Flats (more precise details of this forced removal are provided in my previous post). The obvious result of this is that the landscape has subsequently been rendered fairly barren, which appears in stark contrast to the surrounding suburbs of Cape Town which are all heavily developed and built upon.

It is worth recognising, as a side note, that the large plains of the Cape flats, that the population was moved to, is the area that joins the peninsula to the mainland and is what is commonly referred to as a marine plain. This means that the geology is predominantly sandy, which shows that at one point Table mountain was actually an island. However, more importantly what this means is that the area that the people were forcibly moved to was not particularly well suited to the growing of crops and plants due to its sandy composition, and thus it also does not provide particularly suitable grazing lands. This is somewhat similar to the conclusion reached by Ellis & Galvin in their article Climate Patterns and Land-use Practices in the Dry Zones of Africa, where they write that: "Subtle differences or small changes in temporal climate pattern can have significant effects on land use." However, in this case it is a subtle variation in the geology of the land that has a significant effect on the land-use. This also very closely linked to Wisner's article that asserts that the system of apartheid led to a collapse of rural livelihoods, driving people to the cities, while apartheid's tight control over African residential location and employment ensued that high density settlement and unemployment would follow. This can clearly be seen in the District Six situation, where people were forced to move to the high density townships on the Cape flats.

District Six is located in the Central City Bowl of Cape Town, which makes it accessible only from the sea or from one direction by land. This is because Table Mountain and the mountain range that forms it, limits accessibility. Furthermore, what we can see from the old District Six remains is that it was something of an 'urban ghetto,' with the houses usually being tiny and overcrowded, due to the socio-economic make up of the area. This overcrowding, as is now the case in most townships, with row upon row of tiny houses served as a breeding ground for a number of gang and equally unsavoury activities.