There’s a certain cruelty in relegating a community already displaced by dint of admixture and racism’s penchant for deselecting the impure, and forcefully relocating them to a place called Eldorado Park, writes ISMAIL LAGARDIEN.
THE videos were startling. A row of white crosses marked with blots of red paint planted in a row, accompanied by mournful moaning. Each cross is for someone killed in the violence caused by gangs and drug peddling.
These were the scenes that flashed by on my social feed in November 2022; these have been the scenes from the Eldorado Park I have known since the late 1960s, and they have become more common over the past two to three decades. They are scenes from the wreckage of a community described sometimes as bastards, other times as mixed, as leftovers, the children born after settler colonialists raped indigenous women, coloureds, others, creoles, hybrids.
Others have always named us, given us a history. Across the country and in my home, Eldorado Park, we are the legatees to be added to those who died in pursuit of the treasures of the mythical paradise of El Dorado...
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A MYTHICAL PARADISE
Eldorado Park and the false promise of El Dorado
There’s a certain cruelty in relegating a community already displaced by dint of admixture and racism’s penchant for deselecting the impure, and forcefully relocating them to a place called Eldorado Park, writes ISMAIL LAGARDIEN.
Deel
THE videos were startling. A row of white crosses marked with blots of red paint planted in a row, accompanied by mournful moaning. Each cross is for someone killed in the violence caused by gangs and drug peddling.
These were the scenes that flashed by on my social feed in November 2022; these have been the scenes from the Eldorado Park I have known since the late 1960s, and they have become more common over the past two to three decades. They are scenes from the wreckage of a community described sometimes as bastards, other times as mixed, as leftovers, the children born after settler colonialists raped indigenous women, coloureds, others, creoles, hybrids.
Others have always named us, given us a history. Across the country and in my home, Eldorado Park, we are the legatees to be added to those who died in pursuit of the treasures of the mythical paradise of El Dorado...
Registreer gratis om hierdie artikel te lees.
Hallo! Welkom by Vrye Weekblad. Ons inhoud is nou in Afrikaans én Engels beskikbaar.
Al wat jy hoef te doen om gratis te begin lees, is om met jou e-pos te registreer en ’n wagwoord te skep.
Om dit te doen, kliek eenvoudig op “REGISTREER”.
Reeds geregistreer? Kliek op “MELD AAN” om voort te gaan.
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Volgende artikelIsmail Lagardien
WriterLagardien, a visiting professor at the Wits University School of Governance, has worked in the office of the chief economist of the World Bank, as well as the secretariat of the National Planning Commission.