LEADER 03605 am 2200613 n 450 001 9910674060603321 005 20221201 010 $a2-493207-03-3 024 7 $a10.4000/books.africae.3939 035 $a(CKB)5600000000588092 035 $a(FrMaCLE)OB-africae-3939 035 $a(NjHacI)995600000000588092 035 $a(PPN)267823843 035 $a(EXLCZ)995600000000588092 100 $a20230127j|||||||| ||| 0 101 0 $aeng 135 $auu||||||m|||| 181 $ctxt$2rdacontent 182 $cc$2rdamedia 183 $acr$2rdacarrier 200 10$aWelcome to Mitchell?s Plain $eFilming a ?Model Township? during Apartheid /$fLudmila Ommundsen Pessoa 210 $aNairobi, Johannesburg, Paris $cAfricae$d2022 210 1$aNairobi ;$aJohannesburg ;$aParis :$cAfricae,$d2023. 215 $a1 online resource (192 p.) 225 0 $aAfricae Monographs 311 $a2-493207-04-1 330 $aUnder the apartheid regime, South Africa?s Mitchell?s Plain, situated close to Cape Town, was devised as a ?model township.? A cutting-edge urban planning scheme would provide middle-class Coloured people?evacuated from their homes by racialised rehousing programmes?with exemplary living conditions. This flagship for the regime was inaugurated with fanfare in 1976, and heavily publicised not just within South Africa but also in the international press. Cohorts of political leaders and journalists were invited to admire first-hand how racial segregation could be paired with progressive social planning. A documentary film was commissioned for worldwide distribution: Mitchells Plain (1980). Like other well-laid plans, however, Mitchell?s Plain would foil the designs of its architects. The vaunted utopian township was, for its inhabitants, deeply flawed: essential facilities such as schools and transport were thoroughly inadequate to the population?s needs. These sources of frustration generated a groundswell of civic activism. While the government had banked on separating the Coloured population from the national liberation movement, in 1983, Mitchell?s plain acquired important symbolic status as the birthplace of the United Democratic Front, an umbrella organisation of anti-apartheid associations. This event marked a turning point in the history of South Africa?s struggle for freedom. This study chronicles the fortunes of Mitchell?s Plain: its conception and role as propaganda for the apartheid regime. It draws on official documentary sources, but also on interviews with the various social actors whose life-experience conveys a very different image of the process, to reconstitute from a critical and historical perspective, the ill-fated window-dressing efforts of the National Party government during its declining years. 606 $aHistory 606 $aCultural studies 606 $aFilm Radio Television 606 $afilm-making 606 $aapartheid 606 $aSouth Africa 606 $aCape Town 606 $atownship 606 $adocumentary film 606 $aColoureds 615 4$aHistory 615 4$aCultural studies 615 4$aFilm Radio Television 615 4$afilm-making 615 4$aapartheid 615 4$aSouth Africa 615 4$aCape Town 615 4$atownship 615 4$adocumentary film 615 4$aColoureds 676 $a305.800968 700 $aOmmundsen Pessoa$b Ludmila$01364264 801 0$bFR-FrMaCLE 906 $aBOOK 912 $a9910674060603321 996 $aWelcome to Mitchell?s Plain$93385505 997 $aUNINA