The Prestwich Memorial Project; Green Point Historical Burial Ground

The Prestwich Place human remains relates to an accidental discovery of an informal burial ground during 2003. It forms part of a large area in Green Point, Cape Town of formal and informal burial grounds on the edge of colonial Cape Town, originating in VOC settlement days. The location between Somerset Road, the Traffic Department and Buitengracht Street where this discovery was made is known to be the site of historical human burials, including those of slaves. This discovery revealed more than 2500 human remains of multi-cultural multi-racial and multi-religious origin as it unfolded the remains of first generation slaves, Christians, Muslims, Black Africans and others. This was a grave of mass proportion for countless undocumented men, women and children; Cape Town’s ancestors, deemed not worthy of receiving a proper burial under colonial rule. This burial ground is thus a document to a slave-owning society, of coerced labour practices, representative of African, Asian and European ancestry, united in death. It is undeniably an unprecedented discovery in the South African urban context in contemporary times, which poses huge challenges to heritage management.

By way of a directive given by the Honourable Dr Pallo Jordan, former Minister of Arts and Culture a cooperative approach between state and private entities including SAHRA, the City of Cape Town, District Six Museum and Prestwich Place Project (a community based organization formed in 2003 in protest of the state exhumation) and civil society were forged resulting in the successful completion of the first phase of the project, an Ossuary, funded by the City of Cape Town. The Ossuary forms the key part of the Prestwich Memorial as the final resting place of the City’s forgotten people discovered at, Prestwich and in the Green Point area over time. Most significantly it is a palimpsest that encapsulates and represents the history of the mass graves of the ancestor’s of Cape Town; which now presents a respectable home for those that helped built the City of Cape Town.

Further funding to embark on the Phase 2 of the project, an urban cemetery, is currently being sourced from the National Lottery Fund and other potential funding entities. The purpose of the urban cemetery is to remember the people buried in Green Point during the colonial period and even before and superimpose this information onto the urban landscape by way of interpretation methods.

OBJECTIVES
An ossuary for all those found at the Green Point historical burial ground

An urban cemetery to remember the people buried in Green Point during the colonial period and even before and superimpose this information onto the urban landscape by way of interpretation methods.

RESULTS
A respectable home for the ancestors in an ossuary