Photographer captures spirit of ‘good old days’

The project started out as a tale Kenny Rangasamy would regale his children with, a tale about the beauty, vibrancy and strong sense of community which existed in the suburb of North End some 60 years ago.

As the years ticked by, the stories were told to Rangasamy's grandchildren, with parents worried that the rich history would be lost forever if it was not written down.

While he immediately liked the idea of compiling a book, the retired photographer said it was only after posting some of his old pictures of the area on Facebook group “Memoirs of North End – A Rainbow of Love” that the concept really took root.

He said there was a massive response to the idea – mostly from former North End residents – which inspired him to put pen and pictures to paper to publish his photographs and stories, in book form.

Titled North End Days the coffee table book is a compilation of old photographs and stories. The photographs depict all aspects of North End life – from the different types of houses people lived in, various religions and colourful weddings to the different sports played by residents.

There is a sprinkling of apartheid history that is covered in the book too.

According to Rangasamy, 90% of the photographs were taken by him during his days as a photographer, with the rest donated by various East London residents.

He said the self-published book had taken six months to complete.

“You have heard about District Six in Cape Town and both North and South End in Port Elizabeth, because those places have got museums which document the history of their areas,” Rangasamy said. “ Here in East London we had a place called North End, which is very different from what it is now, but we have very little written about it,” he said.

“That was a mixed area with all different races living there. Under the apartheid government we were all forcibly removed.

“This is a good bit of history of the people who once lived there. Unfortunately in East London, we have nothing historic which is written down about the area and about the people who lived there. It’s Heritage Month now, so I thought it’s the perfect time to remember our lives there and how we were forcibly removed from our area.”

The first chapter of the book walks readers through Rangasamy's life. Growing up in Hope Street in Clarke's Hollow, the former St John's Road Primary School pupil recalls his memories as a child, some of which continued during his years of secondary education at John Bisseker High School.

After he matriculated, Rangasamy's parents tried to enrol him in a college for teacher training, one of the few careers he could enter because of the apartheid job reservation regulations in force at the time.

He remained at college for only a year and, then armed with his matric certificate, found himself a job as a deliveryman, with a three-wheeled bicycle as his mode of transport.

It was his employer who later found him work as an assistant at the East London Camera Shop. It was here where his love for photography was born.

Some of his first pictures were of the forced removals from the area which began in 1966 and continued through to 1974.

Indian families were moved to Braelyn Heights, coloured families to Pefferville and Buffalo Flats and black families to Mdantsane.

“In the pictures you see a lot of houses either being demolished or demolished already. During the forced removals I went around and I took photographs of the streets where we lived. You can see the expressions on the faces of many of the people in the pictures. Some are angry while others have tears in their eyes,” he said.

Featured in the book are never before seen pictures of the box-like houses which were once called “cardboard mansions”.

These houses had no plumbing, no electricity, no running water with communal facilities in the yard.

“The cardboard mansions were the worst of the houses in North End. Nobody has ever seen these pictures. They are exclusive,” he said.

Rangasamy, who began working on the book in March, said he had conducted many interviews with former residents of these areas.

His interviews cover a wide array of people from different racial groups, all representative of the kind of community North End was.

“Each group has got its own chapter but I think the most exciting chapter for me in the book is the sports history,” he said.

East London’s rich sporting history covers all the different sporting codes played in the area, from 1902 right through to the 1970's.

The chairman of the East London Football Association covered the more modern era of football in the region.

“I was a very keen sportsman and that's why I covered the sports scene. I covered all the different sporting codes in the book but football is the biggest one and that's why it has its own chapter.

”I covered all aspects of football, including the modern changes to the sport.”

The changes he writes about includes a move from racially defined sport groupings to the period of full integration.

“We talk about how we integrated and how it became a success story and what was achieved. We were the first team in the country to allow black people to play in our team. In a lot of cases we went against the law because we were just sick of it.

“North End has a very famous stadium which is still in use even today.

“It was and still is the premier soccer ground of East London.

The stadium became iconic – especially in the 1980s – as it was also used as a gathering place for protest marches and political gatherings or meetings,” Rangasamy said.

Chapter six covers the streets which were once well-known in North End, but have since changed.

All the street names are listed and the names of every family who lived there are included in the book. “I got some of the names from the interviews which I conducted. The streets listed in the book no longer exist. They were all demolished and their names changed. There are factories there now so the area has changed completely.”

The book also contains a picture gallery of random memories. While some were provided, most are of people who found themselves behind Rangasamy's lens.

The pictures range from group shots of his friends from Clarke's Hollow, and attendees at the popular dances which were held at the City Hall to important historic moments such as Mother Teresa's visit to East London in 1988. There are pictures of the nuns from the Beaconsfield Road convent and weddings that Rangasamy was tasked to shoot.

There are also some before and after shots which depicts what the area looked like back in the day compared to the present

“In this book I have poems, I've got pictures and I've got a lot of history too.

“People who buy this book will be getting the life and times of North Enders.

“They will be getting the history behind the forced removals, how we shared our lives together and how all religions worked happily together and how under the most atrocious conditions we lived happily together as a community,” Rangasamy added.

The first book launch is on Saturday, September 29, at St John's Road Primary School. A second will be held at the EL Museum on October 20. Copies will be for sale on the day: soft-cover cover R350, hard-cover R450.