House 87 NPC successfully held the Quigney Cultural Festival in Quigney recently.
The festival was a first of its kind in the area and is yet another welcome effort by members of the community to revitalise the historic seaside neighbourhood.
More importantly, it was proof that KuGompo City is not merely a renamed place, but a city actively becoming something that its former name could no longer hold safely.
The festival is an extension of what has been a slowly brewing but fast-expanding cultural renaissance in KuGompo City.
Much of this momentum has been built by spaces like House 87 and cultural practitioners such as Zuko Yigi, the founder of Literature Nights.
House 87 has become the landing strip in KuGompo for national acts and legendary jazz musicians, while Yigi hosts intimate evenings scored with jazz, literature and conversation in Vincent.
These are spaces where black interiority is not an afterthought, but the point.
The festival saw this ethos spill beyond the walls of House 87 and into the street, drawing not only residents of KuGompo but visitors from across SA.
The name change has, in some spaces, been met with discontent and confusion. The festival, however, shows us exactly why the renaming was necessary
With the golden sunset washing over attendees as Internet Athi crooned, and the rain falling each time a new act took the stage, a person of a certain belief would say the skies were christening something new.
The festival comes barely a month after the announcement of the renaming of East London to KuGompo City.
The name change has, in some spaces, been met with discontent and confusion. The festival, however, shows us exactly why the renaming was necessary.
The psyche of a people is influenced by many things, and chief among these is identity.
East London as a name was a marker of colonial violence. It did not reflect the lives and culture of the black majority who inhabit the city.
KuGompo, however, exists not only as a name but also as an invitation to actively engage isiXhosa, the dominant language of the region.
This invitation is evident in how non-isiXhosa speakers often say: “We had a lovely experience at KuGompo.”
Linguistically, this is tautology. The prefix ‘ku’ in isiXhosa is equivalent to the English prepositions ‘at’ or ‘to’. Such a name, then, encourages meaningful integration into the region by non-isiXhosa speakers, while simultaneously preserving both language and memory.
This reflects a change that has already been happening in the city, where deliberate effort has been made to situate black people within the geography and reclaim identity.
Jazz and Pizza Thursdays, and Literature Nights founded by Yigi are hosted in Vincent.
At these events, renowned (South) African authors and scholars, such as Prof Pumla Dineo Gqola, whose work speaks deeply on identity and the lived experiences of women, are invited.
These spaces are for critical thought and conversations about the human condition, particularly the black human condition.
Such notable conversations include one with Linda Sikakhane, which aimed to contribute to the recognition of jazz as literature.
Jazz music is not a genre like many others. It is music that drove, scored and archived the liberation of South Africans from apartheid.
Coloniality and, most recently, apartheid resisted black critical thought.
Choosing to simply be a musician or to play jazz under apartheid was a political statement. Jazz was seen as a proudly black articulation of identity and the desire for freedom.
The mushrooming of spaces that pay homage to and create more room for black articulation through literature and jazz is a sign of the times. It is a reclamation of identity.
The Quigney Culture Festival sits at the centre of this.
There is no existing need to educate residents who do not speak isiXhosa that the city belongs to them just as it belongs to anybody else. What is missing is the visibility and reassurance that the city belongs to the black majority, even to those who are not articulate in English.
It is the subtle assurance of being able to self-identify without reciting colonial history or interrupting the rhythm of one’s isiXhosa speech. That is why the renaming is important.
East London undoubtedly sat awkwardly as a name among the residents of the city. It is not a name that could hold safely what the city is and what it is becoming.
We must differentiate between acceptance and ease brought about by acquiescence to what was regarded as a hopeless scenario.
The name East London is not missed out of love. It is remembered because that is what the city has been officially called for more than a century.
The black majority, however, have long called it iMonti — a name that sits seamlessly within the dominant language.
The use of iMonti can be seen as passive protest by isiXhosa speakers. iMonti was useful because it fitted socio-linguistically — one did not have to switch languages to belong.
Now, KuGompo officially does what iMonti did unofficially did. It legitimises the existence of the people of the city.
KuGompo carries safely the truth of what the city is and reflects who dwells within it.
The city is, of course, not a city inhabited only by people of a certain language and race, and neither is House 87 an exclusive space.
The name change and the existence of spaces like House 87 affirm memory, heritage and identity.
That is a project that people from all races and creeds ought to support.
Siphosethu Zazela is a lawyer and a writer exploring African legal imaginations and a master’s researcher in land reform law
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