Monday, July 20, 2009

Ocean View Comunity

I have never visited Ocean View prior to this weekend. Ocean View has a very sad history stemming from the Apartheid era. Blacks and coloureds were removed from Simonstown, Kommetjie and Noordhoek and placed in the area called Ocean View. This segregation led to a lot of anger that is still felt today from the marginalised community. The lunch in Ocean View provided an opportunity for International students to be introduced to marginalised communities in a formal setting and open their eyes to the stories behind each community. The performance by the members of the community were through their arts project that encourages dancing and singing as a means of expression and a way to channel energy positively.

1 comment:

alapan said...

Ocean View is a very interesting community. The segregation is particularly telling in how far the community is away from other communities, and the amount of time it takes for them to travel anywhere. There were a lot of community projects in Ocean View, but sadly a number of these projects have run out of funds because of various political and other influences. But despite this, a number of people from Ocean View have managed to scale heights previously unthinkable such as Olympic participants.