RDP Houses In Elim Editorial Photo

Difficult for me to understand how denying individual ownership to town residents promotes independence, but Emile is adament that it has cemented the community. ‘No-one can make foolish mistakes, like selling their homes for a pittance’, he describes to me, as has been the case in other mission villages, where most of the original families have moved on and the heart of the village is lost. Many of Elim’s residents descend from slaves, who found their way to the town of Elim after slavery was abolished, says Emile, as he indicates the country’s only slave freedom memorial that stands just across the road from the Moravian church infront of the original school building, which now contains the municipal library. Slaves in those days took on the name of the day on which they were freed, hence the propensity of surnames like ‘Tuesday’ in Elim.