In celebrating Women’s Month, the CCID spoke to female leaders in government, business and civic society in the Central City. We published some of their comments in the Winter 2016 issue of City Views. Here is a Q&A with Bonita Bennett, director of the District Six Museum. Stay tuned throughout August to meet more wonder women of the Cape Town CBD.
What brought you to the CBD in the first place?
From a professional point of view, it was the District Six Museum and the story of the district that drew me to the area. I have such fond childhood memories of the CBD as a playground spilling over from District Six and that adds to my joy at being back here. Of course, that was many years ago. Since then my relationship with the CBD has evolved, from being a gathering place for participating in protest marches, vigils and sit-ins, a place to assert one’s right to be in places where one is not expected to be, to gradually becoming a place where I am able to interact with the broad cultural life of the city in a more critical and engaging way.
From a residential point of view, my husband’s job includes accommodation in proximity to his place of work, which is also in the CBD, so this is where I live as well. From a creature comfort perspective, it is very convenient. It’s great to be able to walk to work and not have to start the day in traffic!
How long have you been doing the kind of work you do and why do you do it?
I have been involved at the District Six Museum in various capacities for about 12 years. I have been the director for eight of those. My commitment to the protection of human rights and to lifelong education finds expression in the work that we do at the museum and keeps me engaged and inspired.
What is the most challenging part of what you do?
I used to think that it was finding the money to do the work – and although that it is still a challenge and will always be for an independent, non-profit museum such as ours – I don’t believe anymore that that is the most challenging part. Hanging on to integrity in all levels of our work, remaining values based in all that we do is really hard, and the pressure to commercialise and “business-model” everything as the only way to run an organisation is very strong. We try to hold an ethical space in the way that we relate to each other as colleagues, to our visitors, to displaced people of the district and other areas, to interviewees in oral history programmes, youth, etc. It is not easy.
What do you still want to see happen in the CBD that would assist the District Six Museum and its goals?
Less pressure to present our city as a wonderful destination (only) and an acceptance by Capetonians that embracing our traumatic history is not necessarily unpleasant but can and should be enriching because it is real. A greater awareness that denying aspects of our city’s past equates to a devaluing of the people associated with that past and contributes to loss of identity and ownership.
District Six Museum
25a Buitenkant St
www.districtsix.co.za
021 466 7200