LEGACY
Cape teacher, musician and visionary Vincent Kolbe was no ordinary man
Cape son Kolbe used his library post to create a public space for building unity as race laws divided his family, writes Struan Douglas
The late Vincent Kolbe’s love of books and music has been recognised by the University of Cape Town (UCT), which has renamed the UCT Knowledge Commons the Vince Kolbe Knowledge Commons. Kolbe was born in District Six, raised a Catholic and befriended other youngsters at the Holy Cross Church where he learnt to play piano and drums. He had a great passion for the multiculturalism of the District Six and Bo-Kaap communities, where people lived in harmony. After finishing high school, he worked as a stack attendant at the Lieberman Library in District Six. He then studied at UCT, qualified as a librarian and began working for Cape Town City Libraries. His first wife was of Polish origins and they had four children. When race classification was introduced, some of his children went to white schools and some to coloured schools, a very painful division for the family. Kolbe used his position at the library to create a public space for socialising and building unity. His librarianship was...
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