Exploring the often silent trauma that endures after apartheid evictions
Academic Siona O’Connell’s Uitgesmyt: Elandskloof and the Quest for Freedom is highly topical amid the expropriation debate
Siona O’Connell’s documentary Uitgesmyt: Elandskloof and the Quest for Freedom focuses on rural evictions and the yawning gaps in the land restitution process — a highly topical subject as SA debates whether section 25 of the constitution should be amended to allow for land expropriation without compensation. Uitgesmyt roughly translates into “cast out”. But the English translation does not have the phonetic crack of a sharp slap as in the Old Testament word “smite” or the reference to being dirty, which are implied in the Afrikaans word. The title was taken from a powerfully descriptive utterance from one of the primary interviewees for the film while describing the forced removal of her community from Elandskloof by the apartheid government in the early 1960s. Elandskloof is a beautiful settlement 180km north of Cape Town, between the Koue Bokkeveld and the Cederberg mountains. Originally a mission station established by the Dutch Reformed Church, it has roots in colonialism and s...
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