Buckingham Palace: District Six

‘Buckingham Palace’ is a dingy row of five houses in the heart of District Six, a vibrant community at the foot of Table Mountain overlooking Cape Town. Richard Rive’s classic novel traces this close community through its moments of triumph and despair, its loves, its hatreds – and its bizarre characters. In 1966 parts of District Six were declared for white occupation only, in terms of South Africa’s notorious Group Areas Act. The inhabitants were forced to leave for the bleak wastelands of the Cape Flats. This edition incorporates teaching notes and discussion points by Robin Malan.