Among accounts of coloured communities in South Africa, Cape Town’s District 6 occupies pride of place. Much has been written about forced removals and the destruction of community and cultural identity of the residents of the area. Besides social and cultural histories, literary and cultural production and a dedicated museum preserve the memories of the place and the mixed-race inhabitants for posterity. This is not the case with Wentworth, Durban, where there is a significant coloured population, with many dwellers in the area moving here after forced removals under the apartheid-era 1950 Group Areas Act. As an army base established by the British in the 1930s, the South Durban area was home to populations across the color spectrum till the 1960s when Wentworth was declared a coloured-only locale, separated from the white population by the Bluff Nature Reserve, and from the area known as Merebank where Indians were relocated.

A Social History from Below: Life Stories from Wentworth, South Africa, which charts this history, addresses the question: How do the life stories of Wentworth’s residents reveal the community’s social diversity and the impact of the political, economic, and social changes that have taken place since the late 1950s? This crossover book is at once oral history, the autobiography of community, urban ethnography, and a political critique of policies under apartheid and democratic dispensations which have marginalized and neglected mixed-race communities. The book is divided into three parts. Part One introduces the community, the area, the methodology and rationale behind the life stories collected by researchers. Part Two includes life stories and testimonies. Part Three analyzes key themes in these narratives. The volume thus crosses the divide between academic accounts of the mixed-race population in South Africa and public history meant for a readership beyond academia. Students, researchers, and teachers will find the footnotes pointing to scholarship and additional research helpful. A reader picking up the volume for a glimpse into the life of the community can ignore the extensive footnotes and immerse themselves in the vivid memories of the interviewees.

Two important themes evident from the narratives included in the volume are: women’s active role in community development activities to make a geographically, environmentally, and educationally inhospitable area more livable for everyone; and residents’ interaction with anti-apartheid student activism which often involved community institutions and development projects. Among projects that helped residents of the area were Wentworth Meals on Wheels founded by Theresa Saber Snr who was born in the area, Marie Bassier who served as the first female chairperson of the Merewent Community Policing Forum, and Elaine Clements who founded the organization Wings of Love—which provided food, help, and counselling for those in need, especially women who needed support and shelter after experiencing domestic abuse. Others such as Edna Burgess, though outside formal community institutions, devoted their life to caring for members of their extended families and extending hospitality to those in need.

Many also recall the free clinic for Wentworth residents run by students at the University of Natal. Residents such as Marie Bassier, Venetia du Plooy, and Eric Wlljee, remember very fondly the medical students who lived at Alan Taylor Hall, including Black Consciousness leader, Steve Biko. The free checkups, hospital referrals, and the political education provided by the students are lasting memories for some Wentworth residents. Social worker and political activist Bronwynne Anderson recalls how the students took the time to explain medical conditions and to place them “within the broader context of apartheid and its injustices” (156). This is just one example of politicization in a context where some in the community feel they were left out of the processes which led to the end of apartheid as well as the benefits received by black and Indian populations in the democratic era. An important corrective to such pessimism is offered by others who grew up identifying as black even before the current legislative and inclusive use of the category in South Africa.

The residents themselves are a varied group, comprising a pastor, several teachers, judges, musicians, factory workers, social workers, and businessmen, many of whom combined their professional lives with political and community activism. The different political perspectives include those who threw in their lot with the Nationalist Party, some embraced Black Consciousness, while others were ANC supporters. The book does not present a homogeneous view of the community, rather it describes political, racial, and ethnic differences through these stories of Wentworth residents. Some stories are short, others are longer. All provide a view of a community whose members, though forced to move to what was largely an inhospitable area, made the best of their circumstances through political, educational, faith-based, sporting, and entrepreneurial activities.

One critique of the volume relates to the somewhat prescriptive nature of the questions asked by the interviewers. A common set of questions is likely to yield similar themes when people recount their lives. These include an emphasis on education, sports, music, church activities, political efforts, and an awareness of gangs in the area. Regardless of this, the interviewers worked hard to include a diversity of perspectives not only in terms of gender (about half of the stories are by women) but also reflecting the occupational, educational, ethnic, and class positions of the interviewees. The work fills an important gap in studies of place and race to record the social life of a group which overcame displacement to create a home for themselves in Wentworth.