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AEGIS European Conference on African Studies
11 - 14 July 2007
African Studies Centre, Leiden, The Netherlands
Negotiating the Past and the Remaking of Constitution Hill, Johannesburg, South Africa
| Panel |
13. Memory and Heritage in Post-conflict Societies
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| Paper ID | 216 |
| Author(s) |
Demissie, Fassil
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| Paper |
No paper submitted
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| Abstract | In the last decade, a new architectural intervention in the major cities of South Africa has been undertaken as part of an effort to rehabilitate the urban fabric carefully constructed under apartheid. Most of these contemporary architectural interventions focus on pubic buildings, educational centers, and business headquarters. While these architectural works are scattered around the country, they provide a good example of the emerging architectural practice in the context of the country’s transition to democracy. Many of the public buildings for example, the Constitutional Court, the Hector Pieterson Memorial Museum, the Apartheid Museum and Nelson Mandela Interpretation Center etc. in Gauteng Province draw our attention to the link between architecture, history and memory.
This paper presents a critical reading of the emerging contemporary architectural interventions within the urban fabric of Johannesburg as a specific form of cultural production in the context of South Africa’s transition to democracy. My approach to architecture and identity in the New South Africa is not so much a historical record but a critical reflection on some of the recent architectural interventions to constructs new national identity in South Africa.
The first part of the paper discusses the role of architecture in serving the structure of power under apartheid. Using this as a background, the second part discusses the emerging architectural practice in the new South Africa, particularly the use of public buildings to forge a new national identity in South Africa. The third section closely examines the remaking of the Constitutional Hill in Johannesburg which has served as a fortress and a prison since its construction in the 19th century. Mahatma Gandhi and Nelson Mandela among many other South Africa’s freedom fighters were imprisoned in this notorious prison, which has now become a site for the new South African Constitutional Court as well as area designed for major urban regeneration to promote economic development. The final section critically explores how this new space of democracy has become a site of contest between developers, local government and the residents of the surrounding communities as the areas have become a tourist destination.
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