On November 30, 2006, the first Emancipation Day commemorative walk through the city was organised by the District Six Museum, the Prestwich Place Project Committee and other partners.
Much preparation and research had gone into the preliminary work of identifying sites associated with slavery and mapping out a route which had many pause moments.
As we turned into Wale Street having just stopped at the Slave Tree, a fellow walker said she could not believe that she was walking the streets at night without having to constantly look over her shoulder to check if there was any threat of being attacked.
She was from Manenberg, and she said the last time she walked with such ease through the city streets - or any street for that matter - was when she was a child, more than 40 years ago.
I was struck by her sense of wonder that there was a different way of experiencing the city than had been hers in recent years.
In my brief conversation with her, I learnt that her family had been forcibly removed from Kirstenbosch under the Group Areas Act during the dark days of apartheid.
Before that, the visits to extended family living in District Six involved city strolls to buy ice creams or milkshakes on the Parade, or to window-shop. This formed part of her weekend and holiday routine.
The latent memory of the safety of these childhood walks was brought to the fore as her body recognised the familiarity of the space in which it moved, and the associated feelings.
I noted that in that moment, her experience of walking the city in this way overtook her initial interest in understanding why the history of slavery was important and why it had to be remembered.
In reflecting on the annual walk, we as the organisers pay careful attention to the meanings it has held for people.
These walks have raised
awareness about the significance of commemorating the 1834 emancipation of the enslaved people at the Cape.
But the many stories that have been shared by participants, have reminded us to turn our gaze to other issues relating to enslavement and freedom, especially those that form part of our current reality.
Outrage over the recent exposure of underground slave markets in Libya is a stark reminder that slavery is not only a past reality.
Many people across the world, in many instances probably not known to us, are still experiencing the bondage inflicted on human beings by other human beings, exploiting their vulnerability.
It is shocking to read the statistics of countries which are known to still practise some form of modern-day slavery.
The UN definition of slavery extends to a variety of human rights violations that include child trafficking, child labour and debt bondage which is the daily reality of many people across the world including, sadly, our own country.
So while the walk is intended to mark the legal emancipation of the people at the Cape who, during the colonial period when they were enslaved, could be bought or sold, bequeathed or used as collateral for loans, it also acknowledges other forms of enslavement which are context-specific.
This commemoration falls within the period of 16 Days of Activism for No Violence against Women and Children.
The experience of my fellow walker referred to earlier (whose name I never got to know) is an example of how the act of walking in a street with confidence and a sense of security, is a rare experience for many women living in Cape Town today.
In embarking on these pedestrian acts of occupying space, we wish to make a statement about the way in which we would like all people to experience our city: for the older generation, it is a wonderful reminder of what had been part of their pasts; for the younger walkers it is an example of what belonging could look like.
The freed slave Lydia Williams is the person who we called to mind on this year’s walk.
She lived and worked in District Six and was one of the founding members of St Philips Anglican Church in Chapel Street. She has been immortalised by the parish community who have renamed the former church school building in her honour.
We walked her imagined route as we re-enacted, in a small way, what freedom celebrations on the eve of December 1, 1834 and subsequent years might have been like.
Bonfires were lit around Table Mountain; there was singing and dancing in the streets which, during the time of the Slave Code of 1754, would have been forbidden.
The close link between the freedom of physical movement and legal freedom is called to our attention once again.
There was feasting in the streets and a general celebratory mood would have dominated the areas where slaves lived and were employed.
Records indicate that Williams was known for her faithful commemoration of the day of emancipation and was committed to ensuring that the tradition of doing so, was honoured in her lifetime.
She was also committed to supporting the education of the next generation so that they could experience freedom in a much more empowered way than those from whom education had been withheld.
The Lydia School in the Dry Dock area of District Six was named in her honour.
Williams typifies the concerns of many of the women in our communities, especially on the Cape Flats.
Women are generally those who are more attentive to the creation and transmission of traditions and rituals such as Williams did with her annual commemoration.
The women are also more attentive to the educational needs of children - whether formal or informal education - and many can relate to the concerns of Williams, and the unassuming and under-celebrated ways in which she carried out her community building work.
Singular events can seldom reflect the entirety of complex realities.
While the annual walk is an important marker and expression of freedoms experienced and desired, the preparatory activities are as crucial, even though it involved a smaller group of participants.
Hours in visual arts workshops involving youth and the elderly, have been spent poring over archival material and exploring artistic inspirations.
The work of Lionel Davis has been such an inspiration. His work has been very prominent in the focus of the District Six Museum’s work during this year as an exhibition had been co-curated with the Iziko National Gallery in partnership with Asai (Africa South Arts Initiative).
One of his artistic themes links to masks and masquerades, depicting the interplay between playful and celebratory carnival and more solemn aspects of commemoration.
The lanterns, life-sized puppets and flags have emerged from these workshops.
There are many other links that can be made to the December 1, 1834, experience of emancipation of a very particular kind. For example, the enslavement resulting from living with disease such as HIV without adequate health care, is but one which we remember on December 1.
We need to continually bear in mind and build on the interconnectedness of so many experiences in different places and at different times so that our theories of change can be informed by such growing understandings.
Yesterday’s mass call for the arrest of Zuma as one of the actions needed to bring to an end the enslavement to corruption is also to be added to the list of important occasions in our history at this time.
Working with historical imagination, and carrying these art pieces on our bodies through streets and fields have been such powerful experiences of how we can learn from and about history in different ways.
Immersion in stories through engaging with the history of a landscape also makes a statement about how, in a more visible way, we are all participants in the making of history, whether conscious or not.
Bennett is director: District Six Museum