Page 141 - Tributaries Catalogue
P. 141
What the water brought:
Ghost stories of a postcolonial city at the
confluence of river and sea
“What the Water Brought” is the The paper contains preliminary
title of the paper presented by reflections on socio-political
Christi van der Westhuizen at The discourses circulating in a
Tributaries Project Colloquium (Nov postcolonial coastal city haunted by
20). Christi prefaces her paper with its origin as an outpost of the British
the following quotation from an SA Empire. An academic pilgrimage to
Venues webpage. “[L]ife on the explore the causal factors of the
Swartkops River is such that the sea environmental degradation of the
needn’t feature in your holiday. The Swartkops river and estuary in
constant call of birds, river sailing Nelson Mandela Bay confirmed the
and boating, swimming, skiing and truism of the interconnectedness of
river cruises mean that days easily the social and the ecological. The
slide into a happy water-filled surrounds of the river and estuary
existence… But if living the colonial consist in large part of an industrial
lifestyle in Redhouse… becomes a wasteland marked by apartheid
little tedious, then Amsterdamhoek geographies. Even human waste
… is a wonderful place to catch a treatment is still to some extent
magnificent sunset, drink in hand.” racially segregated.
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