Land parcels Amazon HQ plans divide Indigenous groups

Smoke curls into the air, a drum beats, the dance begins, a chant is raised. Ten metres away, cars howl past on a busy road, drivers unaware of the sacred ritual taking place in the centre of a bustling South African city.

- Jason Burke

Francisco Mackenzie, a chief of the Cochoqua community of the Khoi people, talks of ancient beliefs and battles five centuries ago, against invaders from overseas. He points to the iconic skyline of Table Mountain, and then to a nearby building site.

“This is where we come to venerate our ancestors and the great spirit creator and to renew our nation’s ties. That is where the first battle of resistance took place. But money is always disrespectful of nature, traditions and culture,” he told the Guardian.

The money in question is the potential financial return from a 15-hectare site in Cape Town’s Observatory neighbourhood that is being turned into a homes, businesses, a hotel and conference centre. By far the most important tenant at the $250m project will be Amazon.

For now cranes and bulldozers are still. Earlier this month, a court upheld a judgment that stopped work until further consultations had taken place with heritage groups representing some Indigenous communities.

The story of the development is less clear than it might look, pitting different visions of South Africa’s future against one another and causing a bitter row within the communities of the Khoi and the S ān peoples.