For many black[1] people who have lived through apartheid (1948โ1994), the hated passbooks they had to carry every day is emblematic of their traumatic experiences of that time. Although the passbook is synonymous with apartheid, the ideology behind it is much older.
In his novel, The Go-Between (1953), Leslie P. Hartley wrote โthe past is a foreign country; they do things differently thereโ. Although Hartley referred to British society at the end of the Victorian era, his famous quote is also relevant to South Africa and other countries that have experienced drastic socio-political changes. The fact that the past is described as โa foreign countryโ means it can never be fully understood by us who live in the present age because we do not belong there. Post-1994 democratic South Africa and pre-1994 apartheid South Africa are indeed two very different countries. For those who grew up in the former, the latter is โa foreign countryโ.
Abstract
In 1918, Batho was founded as one of South Africaโs first so-called โmodel locationsโ. In addition to sound town planning and layout, brick houses, and public amenities, Batho also became known for its โgenerousโ plots or โgarden areas of 50 ft. by 75 ft.โ and the ornamental front gardens that were laid out on them. The Bloemfontein municipalityโs decision to provide residents with โgarden areasโ was motivated by a number of reasons, most of which were of a political nature and embedded in the segregationist ideology of the time.
Abstract
When Mangaungโs old Waaihoek location was gradually demolished between 1918 and 1941 and its residents were relocated to the new Batho location, an embryonic gardening culture was also transferred there. The Municipality of Bloemfonteinโs mostly English-speaking officials envisaged Batho as a โmodel locationโ with an โexemplaryโ layout which provided for individual stands big enough to lay out gardens. Batho became known as a โgarden locationโ because of the English-style gardens that were subsequently laid out and the gardening culture that emerged among mostly middle-class residents. During the period 1918 to 1939, Bathoโs gardening culture developed, became established, and then flourished due to the residentsโ own efforts, as well as initiatives taken by key municipal officials and councillors.
During its relatively short history Bloemfontein hosted a surprising number of royal visitors. In August 1860 the 16-year-old Prince Alfred, second son of Queen Victoria, visited Bloemfontein with the Governor of the Cape Colony, Sir George Grey. In May 1925 the British Crown Prince, also known as the Prince of Wales and later Edward VIII, visited Bloemfontein for two days as part of his South African tour, and in February 1934 his brother Prince George (later the Duke of Kent), fourth eldest son of King George V, also paid a two-day-visit to the capital.