Sophiatown Resurrected After Apartheid

As apartheid bulldozers razed their homes on 9th of February 1955, residents of Sophiatown were 'dumped' into the Meadowlands, approximate 10 km's to the South in Soweto. The minority government renamed their seizure 'Triomf' (meaning truimph).

"Despite the poverty, Sophiatown had a special character; for Africans it was the Left Bank in Paris, Greenwich Village in New York, the home of writers, artists, doctors and lawyers. It was both bohemian and conventional, lively and sedate," former president Nelson Mandela recalled in his autobiography Long Walk to Freedom.

Tin shacks and red-roofed brick homes, Sophiatown was the vibrant birthplace of South African jazz. Internationally-acclaimed jazz greats, like trumpet maestro Hugh Masekela, Miriam Makeba and Abdullah Ibrahim made their name here. Archbishop Trevor Huddleston (and anti-apartheid veteran) gave Masekela his first trumpet here.

South Africans of all cultures celebrated this Saturday, "We are here today to rename Triomf to Sophiatown," said city mayor Amos Masondo as he unveiled a signboard bearing the original name in bold black letters."There is no need to say how deeply devisive the name Triomf has been to our nation," Masondo told a crowd of about 500 people including many who had lived in the suburb before 1955.

"I'm feeling ecstatic about it. When we were thrown out we lost hope that we would ever be able to come back," said jazz diva Abigail Kubeka, who started her singing career in Sophiatown's beerhalls.