District Six Museum Vuselela Ons Luister

Leaving Luyolo

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Leaving Luyolo tells the story of the 1965 forced removals from Luyolo, a township located on the Simon’s Town mountains overlooking Long Beach. Established in 1896, Luyolo’s first residents were labourers working on the Southern Railway line. They were young single men living in dormitory-style housing units. By the late 1950s, these young men had gotten married and had children, and their children had children. Luyolo became home to generations of families that were all forced to move to Gugulethu.

In this podcast, we listen to Geoffrey Mamputa as he remembers the life he enjoyed in Luyolo and how we witnessed the forced removal of his entire community over one weekend.

Photo credit: “Xmas in Simon’s Town at my father’s brother’s house”. On the left: Dolly Mamputa, in the middle: Boetitjie Mamputa (Geoffery Mamputa’s father), and to the right his uncle’s wife and host, Tiebie Mamputa. c1961. Image supplied by Geoffrey Mamputa.

Guest: Geoffrey Mamputa
Featuring: Ayanda Mpono
Story, narration, editing & sound design: Lisa Hendricks
All podcasts and digital stories can be found on YouTube & iono.fm.
Find the podcasts here https://www.youtube.com/@districtsixmuseum1867 and https://iono.fm/c/7917.

The oral history programme is funded by the Mellon Foundation.
19 Nov English South Africa History · Documentary

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