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The Waterfront in Cape Town and South African History

  • Vivian Bickford-Smith
Published/Copyright: February 28, 2019
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International Journal of Legal Information
From the journal International Journal of Legal Information Volume 32 Issue 2

Abstract

I spent some time contemplating what you might find particularly interesting about the history of the Waterfront, until I learnt that many of you are staying at hotels on Portswood Road, and that the conference itself is at the Breakwater campus of the University of Cape Town (UCT.) This persuaded me to use the history of the crenellated building that dominates Portswood Ridge, and forms the heart of the UCT Business School campus, to talk about a number of important themes in the history of the country you have chosen for your latest conference. Just over one hundred years ago, that building came into existence as The Industrial Breakwater Prison. It was an addition to the original convict station that lay further down Portswood Road towards the sea. There are perhaps four particularly important ways in which this building, and its surrounding area, were connected to significant moments or processes in South Africa's past: the development of Cape Town's harbor, colonial conquest and resistance, the development of a diamond industry and, yes, the origins of apartheid. How so?

*

MA, PhD, Cambridge University, England. Professor, Historical Studies Department, University of Cape Town. © Vivian Bickford-Smith 2004.

Published Online: 2019-02-28
Published in Print: 2004-06-01

Copyright © 2004 by the International Association of Law Libraries. 

Articles in the same Issue

  1. Miscellaneous
  2. Editorial Comment
  3. President's Report
  4. IALL Professional Development Scholarships Reports by the 2003 Recipients
  5. Received and Noted
  6. The International Calendar
  7. New Rights — New Laws: Legal Information in a Changing World IALL 22nd Course on International Law Librarianship
  8. Introduction
  9. Faculty — Speaker Biographies
  10. Proceedings
  11. Opening Remarks
  12. The Waterfront in Cape Town and South African History
  13. Human Rights and Democracy – A New Global Debate: Reflections on the First Ten Years of South Africa's Constitutional Court
  14. The Past and Present of South African Law
  15. Law, Politics, and Social Transformation
  16. Socio-Economic Rights and Their Implementation: The Impact of Domestic and International Instruments
  17. Transforming Customary Law of Marriage in South Africa and the Challenges of Its Implementation with Specific Reference to Matrimonial Property
  18. Legislative Recognition of Muslim Marriages in South Africa
  19. Land Reform in South Africa: An Overview
  20. South Africa's First Bill of Rights: Random Recollections of One of it's Drafters
  21. Negotiating Beyond Deadlock: From the Constitutional Assembly to the Court
  22. The South African Constitutional Court Library: A Research Resource for the Nation and the Region
  23. Organization and Administration of Law Libraries in Nigerian Universities
  24. Chancellor College Law Library in Malawi
  25. Searcwl and the Women's Law Collection, Zimbabwe
  26. Challenges for Legal Information Provision in Undergraduate Education: The University of Zimbabwe Law Library
  27. New Rights – New Laws: South African Legal Literature in a Time of Transition
  28. Custodians of Memory: South Africa's Truth and Reconciliation Commission
  29. Reparation for Past Wrongs: Using Domestic Courts Around the World, Especially the United States, to Pursue African Human Rights Claims
  30. Policing and Preventing Human Right Abuses in Africa: The OAU, the AU & the NEPAD Peer Review
  31. New Rights - New Laws: Legal Information in a Changing World Wide Web
  32. Digital Divide or Unequal Exchange? How the Northern Intellectual Property Rights Regime Threatens the South
  33. Book Reviews
  34. Federal Constitutions and International Relations.
  35. The International Criminal Court: Recommendations on Policy and Practice: Financing, Victims, Judges and Immunities.
  36. International Trade and Economic Law and the European Union.
  37. Legal Culture in the Age of Globalization.
  38. Recht und Um-Welt: Essays in Honour of Prof. Dr. Gerd Winter.
  39. The World Court in Action: Judging Among the Nations.
  40. Front matter
  41. JLI volume 32 issue 2 Cover and Front matter
  42. Back matter
  43. JLI volume 32 issue 2 Cover and Back matter
https://doi.org/10.1017/S0731126500004078

Articles in the same Issue

  1. Miscellaneous
  2. Editorial Comment
  3. President's Report
  4. IALL Professional Development Scholarships Reports by the 2003 Recipients
  5. Received and Noted
  6. The International Calendar
  7. New Rights — New Laws: Legal Information in a Changing World IALL 22nd Course on International Law Librarianship
  8. Introduction
  9. Faculty — Speaker Biographies
  10. Proceedings
  11. Opening Remarks
  12. The Waterfront in Cape Town and South African History
  13. Human Rights and Democracy – A New Global Debate: Reflections on the First Ten Years of South Africa's Constitutional Court
  14. The Past and Present of South African Law
  15. Law, Politics, and Social Transformation
  16. Socio-Economic Rights and Their Implementation: The Impact of Domestic and International Instruments
  17. Transforming Customary Law of Marriage in South Africa and the Challenges of Its Implementation with Specific Reference to Matrimonial Property
  18. Legislative Recognition of Muslim Marriages in South Africa
  19. Land Reform in South Africa: An Overview
  20. South Africa's First Bill of Rights: Random Recollections of One of it's Drafters
  21. Negotiating Beyond Deadlock: From the Constitutional Assembly to the Court
  22. The South African Constitutional Court Library: A Research Resource for the Nation and the Region
  23. Organization and Administration of Law Libraries in Nigerian Universities
  24. Chancellor College Law Library in Malawi
  25. Searcwl and the Women's Law Collection, Zimbabwe
  26. Challenges for Legal Information Provision in Undergraduate Education: The University of Zimbabwe Law Library
  27. New Rights – New Laws: South African Legal Literature in a Time of Transition
  28. Custodians of Memory: South Africa's Truth and Reconciliation Commission
  29. Reparation for Past Wrongs: Using Domestic Courts Around the World, Especially the United States, to Pursue African Human Rights Claims
  30. Policing and Preventing Human Right Abuses in Africa: The OAU, the AU & the NEPAD Peer Review
  31. New Rights - New Laws: Legal Information in a Changing World Wide Web
  32. Digital Divide or Unequal Exchange? How the Northern Intellectual Property Rights Regime Threatens the South
  33. Book Reviews
  34. Federal Constitutions and International Relations.
  35. The International Criminal Court: Recommendations on Policy and Practice: Financing, Victims, Judges and Immunities.
  36. International Trade and Economic Law and the European Union.
  37. Legal Culture in the Age of Globalization.
  38. Recht und Um-Welt: Essays in Honour of Prof. Dr. Gerd Winter.
  39. The World Court in Action: Judging Among the Nations.
  40. Front matter
  41. JLI volume 32 issue 2 Cover and Front matter
  42. Back matter
  43. JLI volume 32 issue 2 Cover and Back matter
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