Posted on July 26, 2011
In the past two decades, the idea of 'tracing one's roots' has become more of a reality for South Africans previously kept in the dark about their ancestral pasts. Histories previously glossed over or unspoken, and records formerly inaccessible are being (re)visited by South Africans of all walks of life. One way in which this renewed interest in the past - particularly the personal past - is manifested is through genealogical projects. In particular, tracing family trees has offered a concrete way for everyday people to engage with their pasts and to discover their ancestral stories.
While genealogical research is often undertaken by individuals or specific families, there are also community groups fostering this kind of research. One such group in the Western Cape is the Cape Family Research Forum (CFRF), a unique network of family and community historical researchers based on the Cape Flats that is primarily concerned with tracing 'creole' genealogies, particularly Cape slave ancestries.
I recently interviewed CFRF secretary, Mogamat 'Kammie' Kamedien about the Forum and their work facilitating family history research on the Cape Flats. What follows is some insight into the Forum and their work, based on this exchange.
The CFRF was established in 2002 by a group of individuals passionate about archival research, and eager to discuss their work with people facing similar challenges in the field. As Kammie explains, the catalyst for the establishment was an Open Day organised by Zainab 'Aunty Patty' Amlay-Davidson at the Simons' Town Heritage Museum, to celebrate Heritage Day. During the Open Day, Aunty Patty organised for individuals, including current CFRF chairperson Shamil Gamildien, to display their personal genealogical research into several Cape Muslim families at the museum. These displays attracted the attention of other budding Cape Flats researchers, bringing them together in discussion of their respective research. Not long after the event, meetings were held and the decision was made to establish a networking platform for amateur historians and researchers working on Cape slave and creole family origins. The Cape Family Research Forum was thus born.
Almost ten years later, the CFRF is still in operation, meeting regularly and holding a place of prominence in Cape Flats heritage circles and beyond. The group consists of between ten and fifteen core members, who meet on a monthly basis to discuss the progress of the various members' research. During these meetings they also address requests for assistance put forward to the CFRF by members of the public embarking on family research projects. Over the years, the group has become renowned for its work of tracing the ancestral origins of Cape 'creole' families and they regularly receive requests for assistance from outsiders. While these are mostly from individuals and families in the Western Cape, the CFRF has also assisted people in other parts of South Africa and the world, with calls for assistance coming from as far as the Netherlands and Australia. Although the group is more than happy to guide people to the relevant archival resources, it stresses that it cannot be commissioned do the actual research for individuals and families. Its aim is to facilitate the research of others working on slave and creole genealogies at the Cape, and to build archival research skills and familiarity in Cape Flats communities.
Speaking on the challenges faced by the CFRF and others working on the genealogies of slave-descendent families, Kammie firstly notes a dearth of information in the official archives. As he explains, the early colonial archives, such as births and deaths registers, rarely contain information on the underclasses at the Cape. Consequently, researchers need to be creative and access alternative archival sources, including criminal records, hospital records and school records. They also need to think of other alternatives, including private family records, such as personal notebooks kept in families to record births, deaths and marriages. However, these kinds of documents are now extremely rare and difficult to come by. Aside from written sources, oral histories are also important sources of information. These stories contain crucial details of a family's origin. Obtaining and recording these stories first can often direct family historians to relevant written archival sources.
Because of the abovementioned gaps in the archive, researchers need to stay motivated, and to persevere until they locate the information they are looking for. Trying to maintain this motivation, and also inspiring families and individuals to embark upon research despite these obstacles is another challenge that the CFRF faces. The group has spent a great deal of time and effort encouraging individuals and families to 'take the first step', by writing down their family oral histories and acquainting them with the basics of archival research methodologies.
One way the CFRF has attempted to motivate people and to spark heritage interest is through community outreach. Members often run family history stalls at community fairs in Cape Town and the greater Western Cape region at the request of fair organisers, where they exhibit the results of their research, as well as general displays on Cape slave and 'creole' history. These stalls often attract a great deal of attention, with individuals eager to browse and find out information the CFRF has uncovered on their specific families, and to look at images of yesteryear. Following such events, the CFRF is often flooded with requests for assistance from people keen to start researching their own family histories.
Although the CFRF's main focus is genealogical research, over the years its scope has broadened. Due to both members' individual interests and a growing need for community representation on official bodies, the group has taken on roles in broader heritage and archival projects. This includes lobbying for greater access to non-catalogued archival collections in the state repositories and un-indexed community archives, being members on local heritage community structures and supporting emerging heritage groups focused on intangible Cape slave legacies and 'creole' identity issues. Despite the diversification of the group's role, it maintains that the core of its work and its main passion is archival research.
The CFRF aims to continue its work as a support platform for researchers working on Cape slave and 'creole' ancestral origins. The group sees continued growth in interest in family histories and hopes to tackle some of the challenges facing researchers in the field. As a part of this, it hopes to embark upon the digitization of community records, such as those of the Muslim cemetery and burial society and non-government schools. It also hopes to train young people to become the next generation of community researchers, to work on recording local oral histories and to continue the task of collecting data in the archives and beyond. The CFRF hopes that such work will continue to open up the ancestral past for many more families on the Cape Flats and beyond
Saarah Jappie is an occasional correspondent for the Archival Platform