Honouring Sophiatown’s history with a Don Mattera memorial march

Today, 70 years ago, the apartheid regime forcefully removed nearly 65 000 Black people from their homes in Sophiatown, Johannesburg.

A small group of people, together with the Don Mattera Legacy Foundation members, embarked on a march from Sophiatown to Meadowlands in Soweto.

This is to commemorate the 70th anniversary of the forced removals of hundreds of families from Sophiatown. On Saturday, the Don Mattera Legacy Foundation, in partnership with the Wits History Workshop, officially launched the “Don Mattera Mobile Exhibition.”

The exhibition highlights the forced removals through the lens of the late Don Mattera’s memoir “Memory is the Weapon.”.

Sophiatown in Johannesburg was once a vibrant, diverse community—made up of artists, writers, and activists.

The previously tight-knit community was also a space of resistance during the apartheid era.

Tshepo Letswala, from the Sophiatown Christian Church, says Sophiatown’s rich history prior to 1955 must forever be remembered.

“Today should be remembered as we, as a people, should never forget that even under colonialism, people had a way of mixing together. Today we are free, and we have democracy, and this issue of us coming together was very hard for us to achieve, so we need to take, for example, the communities of Sophiatown and learn how people came together to create this common community that served all.”

Exhibition | Honouring Don Mattera’s lasting legacy:

The 80-year-old Grace Materra, the sister of legendary author and poet Don Materra, says the memories of the forced removal haunted many residents, who called Sophiatown their home.

“I was 10-years-old at the time, and there was love in the community. Black, white, Indian, Chinese, and you know what happened here; we can never forget it. They destroyed a way of life for a special breed of people. People from Sophiatown, no calaba, we were just people living together enjoying life.”

Seven decades on, and the effects of the apartheid regime’s forced displacement and inequalities remain a reality.