The Individual, Auto/biography and History in South Africa

of softnesses and roughnesses” of its material surfaces, which offset the photographic and
digitally created elements. Enlarged wallpapered and painted photographic images were
presented in lifelike recreations while historical panels, timelines, and a sequence of maps
presented District Six’s cultural, intellectual and political growth with attention to
complexity and nuance. Handmade appliquéd and embroidered banners reflected the
wide range of institutions in the public sphere of District Six in which identities and life
histories were constructed: the religious and the political, the educational and the cultural.
The map, cloth, street signs remained central elements of the exhibition, but with greater
attention to conservation and spatial issues. 77
Once again, life history featured as a central feature of the exhibition. Historical panels
incorporated biographical texts drawn from oral history research. ‘Nomvuyo’s Room’
presented an installation of an interior of a District Six room, much like the lived spaces of
many of the District’s poor. It drew on Nomvuyo Ngcelwane’s auto/biography as well as
on life history research to convey a sense of the lived environment of the multi‐use,
adaptable family room. Biographic representations also began to transcend the
methodological bounds of social history. Soundscapes transmitted through sound domes
in Nomvuyo’s Room and other museum spaces echoed with the voices and narrations of
life histories. Here the oral was a genre of historical narration, and not merely a source of
evidence to be appropriated into written text. 78
The enlarged portraits which hung over the upper balconies of the Museum were created
this time from prints on a delicate but durable trevira fabric, a light and transparent
material. Unlike previous enlarged portraits, these enabled a quality of airiness that did
not block the flow of light or interfere with the unity of the museum space. Enlarged
images of political leaders, Abdullah Abdurahman, Ben Kies, Cissie Gool, I.B. Tabata,
Goolam Gool, James and Alex La Guma, John Gomas and Clements Kadalie, mingled with
77 Peggy Delport, ‘Digging Deeper in District Six: Features and Interfaces in a Curatorial Landscape’, in
Ciraj Rassool and Sandra Prosalendis (eds), Recalling Community in Cape Town; ‘A Guide to the District
Six Museum and the Digging Deeper Exhibition’ (District Six Museum Brochure, 2000).
78 Valmont Layne and Ciraj Rassool, ‘Memory Rooms: Oral History in the District Six Museum’, in
Ciraj Rassool and Sandra Prosalendis (eds), Recalling Community in Cape Town.
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