LUCY Campbell is one of those Cape Town characters who adds grist to the mill. She makes even the dreariest day a joy because her effervescent spirit, engaging voice and animated telling of Cape Town’s layered narrative transcends a “history of shame” by celebrating the achievements of the greats who built South Africa’s first city.
She is one of those captivating human beings who can, on any given day, speak about plants, indigenous medicine, the disgrace of politicians who have betrayed their roots, gender liberation, the mystery of the ancient mountains, infuriating relations with intimates, or the histories of Cape Town that must be told.
Campbell, who describes her core interests as history, heritage and indigenous knowledge systems, has a refreshing clarity about her identity and the mission that defines her world view.
She is one of seven children born to Domingo Francisco Campbell, who has one root of the family tree reaching to Chile, South America, and Freda Augusta Caroline Cupido, descended from a Hessequa Khoi matriarch from Swellendam.
She grew up in a wood and iron house built by her father in Elsies River on the Cape Flats.
In the early years Campbell got involved in the women’s movement, later joining the ANC and then got a strong education in class consciousness from her work in the Food and Canning Workers’ Union.
Her interest and studies in heritage started after 1994 as she became more involved in a journey of discovering and experiencing identity, through Iziko museums and with UCT and the Cape Peninsula University of Technology, and also with the KhoiSan resurgence and the slave history and identity movement.
She is an active member of the Wies Djy collective, which is directly involved in community education and cultural development initiatives, and is presently also one of the featured speakers at an organic university of the streets celebrating African History Month, with lectures at the Cape Town Library and the District Six Museum Homecoming Centre. This African Arts Campus, initiated by the African Arts Institute, describes Campbell’s lecture as a “walking tour of edu-cultural first people Khoi-San and slave heritage in the Mother City”.
Campbell says that through this walking tour there is an acknowledgment of the deep scars left by colonialism, which deliberately aims to reverse the genocide of the First People and the Afro-Asian slave trade to Cape Town.
With numerous post-graduate heritage, museum and history accolades already in her portfolio of achievements, Campbell has, through laborious study, accumulated a rich trove of historical information. But it is also her own personal journey of discovery that makes listening to her so compelling. She calls this process “the restorative power of transcending history by accessing ancestral memory”.
“I am a Khoi woman, a descendant of the first indigenous people of this country, and the slaves on whose backs the phenomenal wealth of this land was built. So I make no apologies for rejecting the authorised version of this country’s history, and revealing the authentic story which has been obscured for centuries,” she says.
She finds it liberating, she reveals, to reach behind the “veil of shame” to draw out inspiring stories of people who transcended “the most incredible evil of dispossession, genocide, slavery and servitude”.
For this reason, it is not uncommon to see her speaking to schoolchildren or local and international visitors at the Slave Lodge, the Slave Church, in the Company’s Garden, at the Castle of Good Hope, Greenmarket Square, District Six and townships throughout the Cape Flats, as well as at many other heritage sites.
Campbell says there is still so much rich history that lies “buried under the carpet of misinformation, because it is uncomfortable to come to terms with, and accept the painful truths embedded into the foundation of this city”.
“People don’t believe these stories have power, but how can we really celebrate who we are, how we have evolved or what we collectively can become, unless we go to the source?”
Sitting in the courtyard of the Slave Lodge, adjacent to Parliament, Campbell reflects on the state of the country and concludes that there will always be instability and dysfunctionality unless the pain of the past is addressed.
“From the time I did my internship here at the Slave Lodge, which is one of South Africa’s oldest heritage buildings, I have come to accept that this place is very close to my heart because I discovered myself here.
“This place was a desolate fortress of human misery, because this place was built specifically for slaves and more than 60 000 people endured unspeakable misery within its confines. Our people’s history is written on every wall and floor of this building, and we cannot progress until we deal with these wounds.”
However, says Campbell, “there is still resistance to getting locals and visitors to come to terms with the disturbing history of shame that does not fit comfortably with those who only want to celebrate the spectacular scenery that is presented as Cape Town’s premier tourism attraction”.
She believes that part of this resistance is still with us because those resisting are the beneficiaries of inter-generational wealth, some of which was paid to slave owners after slavery was abolished more than 180 years ago.
Despite the resistance, Campbell soldiers on, unperturbed by those who would rather trudge over narratives of hope and get to the cable car.
“People don’t believe our stories have power, but they are everywhere, and what will happen more is that the grassroots will claim the heritage aspects of tourism, because our personal stories are written on the walls of buildings like the Slave Lodge. When that movement gains traction there may be true recognition of this site, and it will be declared a national monument on the same scale as Robben Island.”