A Cape Flats township planned from November 1964 and built from 1966 under the Group Areas Act for families classified coloured. People were sent there from Constantia, District Six, the Bo-Kaap, Wynberg, Crawford, Sea Point and Lansdowne. Between 1966 and 1970 the state built 5,621 dwellings for 33,922 people. The song spells it with three n's.
Did you know?
Abdullah Ibrahim's 1974 tune is spelt with three n's. The Cape Flats township it is named for has two. The published accounts explain the song, but not the extra letter.
Music Manenberg 1974 Cape Town
Source: SAHA Sunday Times Heritage Project: Mannenberg · Africa Is a Country: How Rashid Vally showed us the way
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Abdullah Ibrahim recorded "Mannenberg" in Cape Town in June 1974 with Basil Coetzee, Robbie Jansen, Morris Goldberg and Monty Weber, produced by Rashid Vally for the As-Shams label.
Music Manenberg 1974 Cape Town
Source: SAHA Sunday Times Heritage Project: Mannenberg · Africa Is a Country: How Rashid Vally showed us the way
Did you know?
The saxophonist on "Mannenberg" was born in District Six in 1944. His family was moved to Manenberg in 1969 under the Group Areas Act, and the township name became his own.
Music District Six 1944–1998 Cape Town
Source: South African History Online: Basil Coetzee · Wikipedia: Basil Coetzee
Did you know?
Cape jazz emerged in Cape Town from the late 1950s. Valmont Layne of the University of the Western Cape, who wrote his doctorate on goema, describes it as the rhythmic essence of collective life among the poor and traces its links to Cape jazz.
Music District Six 1959 Cape Town
Source: Denis-Constant Martin: Sounding the Cape (African Minds, 2013), p. 353 · University of the Western Cape: Art activist Layne probes goema music for his doctorate
Did you know?
John Edwin Mason reports that the title came from Morris Goldberg mentioning a visit to Gladys Williams, his family's former housekeeper in Manenberg. Rashid Vally chose a more marketable album title, but Williams's photograph went on the cover.
Music Manenberg 1974 Cape Town
Source: John Edwin Mason, "Mannenberg": Notes on the Making of an Icon and Anthem, African Studies Quarterly 9(4), 2007 · As-Shams / The Sun Records: About
Did you know?
South African History Online dates the planning of Manenberg to November 1964 and its establishment to 1966. Between 1966 and 1970, 5,621 dwellings were built there for a population of 33,922.
Places Manenberg 1966–1970 Cape Town
Source: South African History Online: Manenberg, Cape Flats · John Edwin Mason, "Mannenberg": Notes on the Making of an Icon and Anthem, African Studies Quarterly 9(4), 2007
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