Coloured Cabinets: A Reflection on Material Culture as a Marker of Coloured Identity in Cloetesville, South Africa

• Published in: African historical review 2017-07, Vol.49 (2), p.1-21
• Main Author: Conradie, Stephané E.
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Belonging; Cabinet; Economic problems; Furniture; Households; Identity; Identity formation; Living rooms; Material culture; Neighborhoods; Nostalgia; Owners; Power; Racial identity
• ISSN: 1753-2523; 1753-2531
• DOI: 10.1080/17532523.2018.1423763

In coloured neighbourhoods of the Western Cape in South Africa, there are objects in people's homes that live in a unique historical and cultural moment. This article reports on an examination, in the neighbourhood of Cloetesville, Stellenbosch, of how these objects inside residents' homes tell a story of a creolised people and the locations in which they are situated. In the case of Cloetesville, as in many neighbourhoods that arose from a history of forced removals, many people experience various social and economic problems. Coloured people's identities are commonly thought to rest in these problems. This article, however, seeks to suggest an alternative way of exploring coloured identity through looking at objects in households and broader living environments. Thus, I hope to provide insight into different yet distinct experiences by contributing new perspectives through looking at nostalgic and ordentlike (respectable) sentiments of belonging. Specifically cabinets in living rooms are conceptualised as repositories of such sentiments in the home, and how the objects residing in the home have the power/ability to symbolically ground their owners in the neighbourhood of Cloetesville.