Solomon family’s poignant return to ancestral land after 80 years

Sisters, left to right: Berenice Kallis, 76 and Juanita Solomon, 83, sitting on the land returned to their family in Retreat. It was a moment of thanksgiving for the Solomon family, who gatheredwithother generations on the land,returned tothemafter more than 80 years after it was taken from them during the Group Area Act. A blessing and prayer was conducted on the land along 11th avenue and Leytonstone in Retreat on Saturday.

For sisters, Juanita Solomon, 83 and Berenice Kallis, 76, and their children and grandchildren, it was an emotional moment. The families gathered in their camping chairs and gazebos, rejoicing that the land they had fought to reclaim had been brought back and delivered by God. Juanita addressed her family, sharing that she had good memories of her life on the land: “We had to milk the cattle, we all had a task..

we had a lot of work but we went through it but we were happy. “My dad and brother, this field we are standing on, they used to come and sleep here…so our lives went and then the suffering came and the land was taken.”