Fietas Museum
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 Fietas Museum | |
 | |
| Established | 24 September 2013 (2013-09-24) |
|---|---|
| Location | 25 14th street, Pageview, Johannesburg |
| Coordinates | 26°11′48″S 28°01′08″E / 26.196552°S 28.018842°E / -26.196552; 28.018842 |
| Type | Apartheid |
| Curator | Salma Patel |
| Website | http://www.gauteng.net/attractions/attraction-fietas-museu-mmemory-in-action-mia |
Fietas Museum was opened on 24 September 2013, the museum is located in Pageview, Gauteng, South Africa.[1] [2] The building that the museum is housed in is one of the few to survive the forced removals under the Group Areas Act and was declared a Heritage resource in 2007.[1]
Fietas was the unofficial name given to the suburb of Pageview in its heyday between 1940 and 1965. During apartheid, the government attempted to exert control over the growing 'non-White' population of Johannesburg, by setting up 'locations' along racial lines.[1]
Pageview was initially earmarked for 'Malay', 'Cape Coloured' and 'Coloured' people. By the 1940s, the population had become predominantly 'Indian' and 14th Street into a popular shopping destination but this came to the attention of the government and the area was re-zoned as a whites only area under the Group Areas Act.[1] 14th street in particular was a subject of interest in one of Nat Nakasa's writings. The following quote appears on the windows of the museum entrance doors:
Well-known Nationalists come all the way from the platteland to buy in Fourteenth Street. It is possible to find members of the Johannesburg Stock Exchange or a City Councillor’s wife waiting to be served after an African labourer in Fourteenth Street.
— QUITE A PLACE, FOURTEENTH STREET[3]
References
- 1 2 3 4 "Blue Plaque Celebrates Fietas". Archived from the original on 11 November 2014. Retrieved 9 September 2014.
- ↑ "Fietas Museum - Memory in Action". Sophiatown Life. Retrieved 30 August 2014.
- ↑ Nakasa, Nathaniel (2005). "Quite a place, Fourteenth street". In Patel, Essop (ed.). The World of Nat Nakasa. Picador Africa. p. 17. ISBN 9781770100190.
