Claudine Shiels, Constantia
I am a local author working on a sequel to my recently published memoir, Walking Through Front Doors: Seeking Justice for a Stolen Childhood.
In researching family history in the Diep River/Steurhof suburbs, I discovered that my great-grandparents were a mixed-race couple, and this, I believe, was common to the area. It also fits with the descriptions of the community in Steurhof as told to me by my late father, who grew up in Waterford Road before the Group Areas Act.
I would love to hear from anybody who knows about the history of this area. Obviously my particular interest is in my family from Waterford Road, the Browns, or Bates, from Craigie Lea, Birkenhead/Massinger roads, Diep River, but, also in accounts of life there before the shameful displacements of the apartheid years.
Please contact me at claudineshiels@gmail.com.
