James Mpanza (1889–1970) was an eccentric teacher and preacher who was once convicted of both murder and fraud, but who later became a squatter leader in Johannesburg, South Africa from the mid-1940s until the late 1960s. In 1944, he led the land invasion that resulted in the founding of modern Soweto. Mpanza was at one time known as 'the father of Soweto'.
In April 1944, despite being seen as controversial, Mpanza persuaded 8,000 people to follow him from Orlando to create a new township called Sofasonke Township with himself as unofficial mayor. By 1946, there were 20,000 people squatting there and Mpanza charged a fee to join the camp and to claim a site.
Afterwards, the squatters paid a fee of two shillings and sixpence every week. In return, the squatters had their own police force.
Mpanza operated informal courts at his Orlando home where family disputes could be settled. Conditions, however, were poor and there was no health service. The death of Mpanza's son, Dumisani, was put down to poor medical care. The squatters had left the slums of Orlando but their plight was still uncertain and Mpanza got the nickname of "Sofasonke" ("we shall all die"). It was this rhetoric that got Mpanza's movement the nickname but it also encouraged the funding necessary to convert this shantytown into the town of SOuth WEstern TOwnships" or
No comments:
Post a Comment