Sophiatown, also known as Sof’town or Kofifi, was a vibrant cultural and intellectual hub in Johannesburg, South Africa, before its destruction under apartheid. A unique freehold township, it was one of the few urban areas where Black South Africans could own land, making it a center for resistance, creativity, and political activism. However, the apartheid government saw it as a threat, demolishing the neighbourhood in the 1950s and rebuilding it as a whites-only suburb named Triomf.
Sophiatown was established in the early 20th century on land originally part of the Waterfall farm. In 1897, property speculator Hermann Tobiansky purchased 237 acres and named the township after his wife, Sophia. Unlike many other Black townships in South Africa, which were strictly controlled by the government, Sophiatown was a freehold area. This meant that Black, Coloured, Indian, and Chinese residents could own property, creating one of Johannesburg’s most diverse communities.
This fact really hindered the government’s aim to segregate the population with people of the different races not being grouped together.
By the 1940s, Sophiatown had grown into a bustling neighbourhood of nearly 54,000 Black residents, along with smaller numbers of Coloured, Indian, and Chinese families. Despite poverty and overcrowding, the community developed a rich cultural and intellectual life. Writers like Can Themba, Bloke Modisane, Es’kia Mphahlele, Don Mattera, and Lewis Nkosi chronicled life in Sophiatown, often highlighting both its struggles and its vibrancy. Musicians like Todd Matshikiza and Nat Nakasa helped shape South Africa’s jazz scene, while political activists like Nelson Mandela and Ruth First made it a center for anti-apartheid resistance.
This period is often referred to as the Sophiatown Renaissance, drawing comparisons to Harlem in 1920s New York. Like Harlem, Sophiatown was a creative and intellectual hub that shaped the identity of a marginalized community.
Sophiatown’s location—close to white working-class neighborhoods like Westdene and Newlands—made it a target for the apartheid government, which saw it as a “slum” that needed to be cleared. Even before apartheid’s official establishment in 1948, the Johannesburg City Council had plans to relocate non-white residents from the city’s western areas. The rise of the National Party in 1948 accelerated these efforts, and the Group Areas Act (1950) and Natives Resettlement Act (1954) gave the government legal authority to forcibly remove Black South Africans from Sophiatown
Residents fiercely resisted, coining the slogan “Ons dak nie, ons phola hier” (meaning “We won’t move”). Leaders like Nelson Mandela, Helen Joseph, and Father Trevor Huddleston played key roles in the resistance, but the government was determined to push ahead.
On 9 February 1955, apartheid forces made their move. 2,000 heavily armed police officers, carrying rifles and knobkierries (traditional clubs), arrived to forcibly remove Black families. Over the next eight years, the government systematically displaced thousands of residents: over 54,000 Black families were sent to Meadowlands in Soweto, Coloured residents were moved to Eldorado Park, Westbury, and Noordgesig, Indians were relocated to Lenasia, and Chinese residents were moved to central Johannesburg.
After the forced removals and demolition, the area was rebuilt by the government and renamed “Triomf” —Afrikaans for Triumph—to serve as a suburb for poor white Afrikaners.
The destruction of Sophiatown was not just physical it was deeply personal. In his haunting poem, “The Day They Came for Our House,” Don Mattera, a former resident, captured the pain of watching his home be torn apart:
The Day They Came for Our House
Sophiatown, 1962
By Don Mattera
The sun stood still
in the sullen wintry sky
a witness
to the impending destruction
Armed with bulldozers
they came
to do a job
nothing more
just hired killers
We gave way
there was nothing we could do
although the bitterness stung in us,
in the place we knew to be part of us
and in the earth around,
We stood.
Slow painfully slow
clumsy crushes crawled over
the firm pillars
into the rooms that held us
and the roof that covered
our heads
We stood.
Dust clouded our vision
We held back tears
It was over in minutes,
Done.
Bulldozers have power.
They can take apart in a few minutes
all that had been built up over the years
and raised over generations
and generations of children
The power of destroying
the pain of being destroyed,
Dust
…
Triomf remained a white working-class area throughout apartheid, but the memory of Sophiatown never faded. After the fall of apartheid, discussions about restoring the township’s original name gained momentum. In 1997, the Johannesburg City Council approved the renaming, and on 11 February 2006, Mayor Amos Masondo officially reinstated the name Sophiatown.
Today, Sophiatown is once again a racially mixed community, but the scars of its past remain. Many of the old homes and landmarks were destroyed during apartheid, but institutions like the Sophiatown Heritage Centre work to preserve its history.
Sources:
https://www.sahistory.org.za/node/124804
https://web.archive.org/web/20120406182125/http://ndr.org.za/indigenous-knowledge/stories/225
https://web.archive.org/web/20090528100444/http://www.southafrica.info/about/history/sophiatown50.htm
