Salah and Aslam are longing to return // Eitan Bronstein/Rana Bishara/Eleonore

I lived here, in District Six, until I was ten years old/My parents were born here, in Ajjur village.
 
Our house was near the northern edge of the neighborhood.  The whites lived on the other side of the street/My father explained that our house was in the southern part of the village.
 
Today, as you can see, there’s a small parking lot there, and a wall/You can see that only a heap of stones is left.
 
The area remained empty, so we can return, and we will.  My father filled out the application forms and I hope he’ll soon build us a new home in District 6/I want to return to Ajjur even though I was never there.  I’ll return with my wife and daughters.
 
My father was in jail because he was active politically against apartheid/I was jailed by Israel for activities opposing the occupation.
 
The neighborhood will develop and again be inhabited by people of different backgrounds, like it was when I was a child/I want to live here along with my neighbors from the A’ida refugee camp.  Jews will live near the village, as in the past.
 
Aslam Levy talks to us as he stands next to a map of the District Six drawn on the floor of the museum at Cape Town that preserves its history.  He cries when he remembers how his family tried to keep him from knowing his father was jailed/Salah Ajarma is filled with optimism when he sees a new neighborhood arising from the rubble of the one destroyed by the apartheid regime.

Cape Town, 6/2/2012