B io ph ile Issu e 18 - Biophile Magazine

Simon’s Town , from the very beginningof its existence, has been custodian tothe history of the many nationalities, culturesand religions who over the centurieshave walked its streets and lanes.Over the years people from Britainas well as "The Kroomen" from WestAfrican places like Sierra Leone, Liberia ,Ivory coast and Ghana have stayed on inSimonstown long after their Royal Navycontracts had expired. Many of these navymen remained and married Simonstown’swomen.If you are lucky , and know where tolook, you might find the remnants of someof their farms and homes which dottedthe mountain slopes around Simon’s Bay.If you are really lucky you might even hearthe faint whispering of their ghostly voicesand those of their children as they walk orrun to their schools, church, mosque, ordown to the beach.Simonstownunder siegeby Ingrid NewmanHow many of us have the courage and the foresight tobecome the new custodians of the environmental andhistorical heritage of places like Simonstown for ourgrandchildren?Or do we have so little faith in the vision of a future for our ownchildren, that it does not enter our wildest imaginings?The history of Simonstown is a richtapestry of stories that range from thebanishment of Napoleon to the suppressionof the Slave Trade along the Africancoast, to the fight against Naziism durngthe Second World War .In our not too recent past. Simonstownwas home to 7000 people, forcibly removedand relocated to other parts of theCape Peninsula and Cape Flats, under thegroup areas act of the apartheid governmentin the 1960’s.A few of the original buildings whichwere home to these families, now live inthe shadow of brick and mortar, posing aspop-up-toasters or mausoleums. Buildingssoon to be given top billing in our favouritedecorating magazines and televisionprogrammes.Despite the fact that Simonstownhas played such an important role onthe world stage throughout its history,it no longer has the energy to face theonslaught of a new breed of warmonger:the developer, or heaven forbid, theowner/architect/designer/ builder, whoconveniently earns his living as a travelwriter or a peddler of church icons andartifacts from far away places like Cuba.They earn their living convincing us toenjoy the romance offered by visiting thesebeautiful little towns around SouthernAfrica, or decorating our homes and pubswith sacred objects that were once used inplaces of worship.Simonstown has known its fair shareof conflict over the years but none asdamaging as the bulldozers, ten ton trucksand levelling equipment being sent in todevelop and in the process obliterate thehistory of people whose stories have notyet been told.The little lanes and roads that are aboutto be ripped up by the developers hold thesecrets of the feet that have walked alongtheir cobbles or meandered up the mountainside.Their history is disappearing stepby step.58 Biophile Issue 18