Abstract
This chapter entwines affect, materiality, and the diasporic imaginings of an older Portuguese immigrant community as a way to reorient our way of seeing contemporary Johannesburg. Looking at certain Portuguese colonial signifiers in the making of its post-apartheid present, the chapter experiments with an alternative format for writing (and visualizing) the city from the perspective of driving (as opposed to walking, as De Certeau would have it) and in relation to the literary, ornamental, and sensory as forms of infrastructure and affect. Johannesburg is a city comprised of many Portuguese suburbs that were developed through three waves of migration from Madeira, Portugal, and the African ex-colonies (Angola and Mozambique). I focus on three traces: Portuguese monumentalism; Portuguese-styled azulejo tile work; and finally, the colour blue that fills these spaces, and which as entangled objects act as architectures of memory for many Portuguese living in Southern Africa. These materialities allow us to view Johannesburg as very much an enduring Portuguese city, particularly for its thriving diasporic community, which is estimated to be between 350,000 and 500,000 persons.
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Notes
- 1.
- 2.
Our driving tour of all things Portuguese took place on a Saturday, June 13, 2009. I thank Victor de Andrade for opening up Johannesburg’s Portuguese neighbourhoods to me. We were accompanied by Clive Glaser, my colleague at Wits University in the Department of History whose fine scholarship on the history of the Madeiran community in South Africa features in this chapter. We started our tour in Mayfair before moving further south. Mayfair itself historically first saw a wave of Jewish immigrants, then Portuguese, and now Indian. The irony was not lost on us that our tour was composed of three immigrant academics—one Jewish, the other Portuguese, and myself, Indian.
- 3.
According to Victor de Andrade, these new neighbourhoods included Bedfordview and Primrose, located in what he calls ‘the New South—Besonia, Alberton and Glen Vista’ (June 13, 2009).
- 4.
Following Glaser (2010: 64), I do not refer to earlier Portuguese involvements with Southern Africa dating back to the late fifteenth century and the age of the discoveries and the integration of very early Portuguese travellers who integrated into Afrikaner society from the 1700s until the mid-1800s (with a few Afrikaner surviving surnames like Ferreira and de Oliveira reflecting this history). Interestingly, however, it is that era that this more recent group of Portuguese migrants have chosen to commemorate via the materialities addressed in this chapter.
- 5.
Madeira, a small Atlantic island, was once a Portuguese possession until it received autonomy in 1976, following the Carnation revolution and Portugal’s transition from dictatorship to democracy. Historically, it was economically depressed and densely populated, with limited potential for cultivation due to its volcanic terrain and being subject to high taxes from the mainland. As a result, it produced a highly impoverished yet mobile population in search of better life options, with the USA, Canada, Brazil, Venezuela, Mozambique, and South Africa as desirable destinations. Migration from the Azores islands (also once a Portuguese possession) followed a similar pattern to that of Madeira, but with fewer numbers arriving in Africa (Glaser 2010: 65–66). Since 1976, Madeira and the Azores function as autonomous regions of Portugal.
- 6.
O Século was a Portuguese-medium newspaper based in Johannesburg that was established in 1963 and that grew substantially through the 1970s and 1980s. By the mid-1990s, it claimed a circulation of 40,000 and a readership of 200,000 (Glaser 2010: 74). Copies were on sale during my driving tour at the front entrance to the Rio Douro fisheries and grocery store. A Portuguese language radio station in 1976 and a Portuguese language channel M-net Portuguesa in 1989 followed the newspaper.
- 7.
See Glaser (2010: 72). Sympathetic to whites fleeing ‘black rule’, the South African apartheid government also offered support. They established temporary camps (in Namibia for the Angolans) for them to stay in as they learned how to become white South Africans. See Gupta (2011) on three life histories of arrival into South Africa from Portuguese Angola.
- 8.
My focus here is not on white Portuguese relations with a newer black African (largely Mozambican, but also Angolan) community that arrived in Johannesburg in the wake of civil war(s), and whom many white Portuguese business owners often employ in their cafes, restaurants, and clubs as they form one linguistic group. No doubt there is a historically complex relationship between the white Portuguese community and the black Mozambican and Angolan communities that have moved into these same southern suburbs that deserves further exploration. See Moyo and Cossa (2015) for an excellent sociological overview.
- 9.
Catholic Churches historically served as sites of refuge and sponsorship for newly arrived Portuguese immigrants; they also continue to play a vital role in forging and maintaining a communal identity (Glaser 2010: 75). Meanwhile, the majority of the green grocer corner shops and restaurants in South Johannesburg are owned and operated by Madeiran immigrants. Often run by a husband-and-wife team, they offer imported Portuguese goods such as olive oil and wine as well as providing a meeting place for other Portuguese immigrants (Glaser 2012). Finally, Portuguese sports clubs were initiated in the 1960s, and often included a bar, restaurant, banquet hall, and sports arena (Glaser 2010: 75).
- 10.
The Lusito School was established in Johannesburg in the late 1970s to cater to the needs of handicapped children of Portuguese origin (Glaser 2010: 75). Initially, much of the work of the school was dedicated to assisting Mozambican and Angolan refugees, but then developed into a community institute during the 1980s and 1990s, wherein the annual Lusito festival was initiated and promotes all things “Portuguese” (food, dance, culture). It still functions as a community fundraiser for Portuguese children with disabilities and takes place on the grounds of Wemmer Pan (lake and park) in South Joburg.
- 11.
The Arcades Project, conceived in Paris and written between 1927 and 1940 as a form of musings on city life from the perspective of its materialities was also an unfinished work—it was still in progress when Benjamin fled the Occupation in 1940, and then committed suicide.
- 12.
Here, I would like to thank Elleke Boehmer and Dom Davies for inviting me to be part of these stimulating and travelling conversations. I attended the Delhi, Johannesburg, and Oxford conferences, and presented an earlier version of ‘Blue Johannesburg’ at the final Oxford workshop, ‘Planned Violence IV: Comparative Infrastructures, South and North’ on September 24–25, 2015.
- 13.
Luis Vaz de Camões (1524–1580), considered Portugal’s national poet, wrote the Lusiads (1572), an epic poem chronicling the voyage of Vasco da Gama. He and da Gama signify the Age of Discoveries, and the old glory of Portuguese travel and exploration. The Portuguese language is considered as deriving from the language of Camões. 10 June is Camões’s death day, and is also officially Portugal’s national day, which is widely celebrated by the Portuguese community in South Africa. Camões’s status in Portuguese history, language, and culture is comparable with the Shakespearean legacy for the English.
- 14.
Pessoa (1888–1935) studied at St Joseph’s Convent School and Durban High School, and attended the University of the Cape of Good Hope, a forerunner to UCT. He developed the idea of ‘heteronyms’ (producing poems under 75 other imaginary names) and wrote about his experiences of Lisbon city life as an early twentieth-century flâneur, following in the footsteps of Benjamin (see Pessoa 2002).
- 15.
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Gupta, P. (2018). Blue Johannesburg. In: Boehmer, E., Davies, D. (eds) Planned Violence. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-91388-9_12
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