Jafta's flower farm is a flower farm in the valley of the expensive and beautiful Constantia valley. The Jafta family grow flowers for the public to purchase. Carnations are the flower of old and the farm continues to produce these and other flowers too.
The Meeting Room did a deep dive into the history of forced removals in the Constantia Valley. During Apartheid, nearly 4million people were forcibly removed of their land in South Africa. Part of this terrible story of our past is the forced removals that happened in Cape Town.
District 6 is the lense through which we can look at Forced removals but in honesty, people lost homes from Simonstown all the way through to Sea Point. The Jafta family were one of these families.
When the group areas act became law, People were sporadically and arbitrarily given notice of eviction. The place they were sent to , with names like 'Lavender Hill' - not a stalk of Lavender in sight or Ocean View with the same problem, were miles away from family, work and schools. Communities were dismantled and people who knew and loved one another were sent to different places, without knowing where their family members were.
History, memory, community and flourishing spaces were destroyed. Literally. The Apartheid regime bulldozed the houses of people to the ground. Raising the memory of places was their speciality. Very much like Gaza and the West Bank 2025.
This week we went on a little walk with Charles Jafta who shared something of this painful history with us. Charles's childhood memories connected him to the trees, the river , the very land itself. He shared about how the first figs are too sour for jam and make excellent konfeit. he knew who planted the banana tree outside the old cottage along the stream. He spoke of the pain of his families displacement and deep loss but always they remained connected to the land.
This was a morning shared with unlikely people as it was made up of one of my art classes who love flowers. Charles talked of the different flowers grown on the river bed, because that is precisely what it is. He shared the story of the farmer next door who has tried growing escargot and mushrooms to no avail. I had to laugh.
Land restitution remains an ongoing issue in South Africa post Apartheid. For Charles and his family, he feels that this ship has sailed right on past without any hope. Jafta Flower Farm is part of the bigger story of flower sellers in Cape Town.
Please check out the story of flower sellers in Cape Town which can be found below. .
No comments:
Post a Comment