Cradock tour book aims to help township
Author retraces footsteps of Calata, Goniwe
AGUIDED book tour written by a Port Alfred author was developed to ensure the sustainability of Lingelihle township in Cradock. Brian Wilmot, 72, a former curator at Schreiner House in Cradock, hopes In the footsteps of James Calata and Matthew Goniwe – a guided tour of Lingelihle township, Cradock will see a site museum built in Lingelihle in the near future.
The township is famously known for being the birthplace of the Cradock Four – Sicelo Mhlauli, Matthew Goniwe, Fort Calata and Sparrow Mkhonto – who had been returning home from a United Democratic Front meeting in Port Elizabeth when they were abducted and killed by apartheid security police in 1985.
Wilmot is also a founder of the National English Literary Museum and the National Science Festival (Scifest).
Speaking at the GFI Art Gallery in Port Elizabeth yesterday, Wilmot said he wanted to ensure the tangible heritage of the area was never lost.
“You have two choices in life, you are a wall flower or you get involved in the community.
“I like people and I like being involved,” he said.
“I was nearing retirement age as head of the National Science Festival and I knew Schreiner House was looking for a curator.
“I approached them and spent nine wonderful years in Cradock.
“I then got involved in tourism there and was given an illuminated address when I left, as a Cradock hero for what I did in tourism, which was a fun thing.”
Focusing on their lives and the influence Calata and Goniwe had in the town, Wilmot said his book was a rewarding exercise in telling their tales. “It is not just about the tour but what came out of it, the social history.”
The tour starts at the Victoria Manor Hotel in Cradock and gives a detailed route to the Bantu Church of Christ, the township’s oldest surviving church.
Wilmot also details how the Group Areas Act affected the people living in the predominantly coloured and black community of Magqubeni.
“There is a wall in the town that marked the divide between white and black Cradock at a point in time. Initially it was closer to town but the non-whites were moved further away.
“But what happened in the early 1960s was seen as the first act of defiance against the then minister Hendrik Verwoerd.”
One morning the words “Verwoerd your days are numbered, get out” appeared painted on the wall, he said – the first act of revolution in the town.
“One of the terrible things that came from the Group Areas Act was that when the people were racially segregated, there had to be a 500-yard [457m] buffer zone between the suburbs, and they flattened the brick houses in Magqubeni.”
This is where Wilmot would like a site museum to be built to ensure the youth can gain insight into their heritage.
“I want to see the people of the community tell their stories and educate the generations to come.”