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9 - An Uncertain Heritage and Resistance: Transforming the Drill Hall in Johannesburg
- Edited by Hilton Judin, University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg
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- Book:
- Falling Monuments, Reluctant Ruins
- Published by:
- Wits University Press
- Published online:
- 15 June 2021
- Print publication:
- 01 June 2021, pp 173-190
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Summary
To the memory of K. C., who died for – and at – the Drill Hall
The Drill Hall is a heritage site in the middle of the city centre of Johannesburg. A former army barracks, it is best known for the preliminary hearings of the Treason Trial which were held there in 1956. Once a symbol of British colonisation, it has, over time, become known as a site of the struggle against the apartheid regime. However, the Drill Hall has not been maintained or protected by public institutions. This is in contrast to other heritage sites in the city, such as Constitution Hill, the former fort and prison that was transformed, after the end of the apartheid regime, into a museum and the new South African Constitutional Court.
This has allowed the Drill Hall to be appropriated by independent and alternative cultural and social organisations since its rehabilitation in 2004. The commitment of these stakeholders has, so far at least, contributed to keeping the place alive. Thus, in addition to becoming a place of creativity in the city centre, the Drill Hall has maintained a heritage dimension. The word ‘heritage’, used here in the sense of a complex and ‘invented’ construction, references the concept of an ‘invented tradition’; it is made up of history, memories and architectural and urban spaces, all linked with artistic, social and residential activities. Memories, in particular of the fight against the apartheid regime, are seen by public actors not only as the vector of national reconciliation but also as a marketing tool of a ‘world-class African city’. The tension between a weak institutional commitment to the site and the liveliness of the memories and practices of the people and associations engaged with the Drill Hall makes it an interstitial and fragile heritage site. In 2019, it was allocated to the Johannesburg Metropolitan Police Department (JMPD) for the establishment of a police station, a decision that will maintain this fragility.
Our fieldwork in January 2016 aimed to understand the complex relationship between different conceptions of heritage and the city of Johannesburg. This involved an analysis of the transformation of the Drill Hall as part of a future renovation plan and study of local artistic interventions. Since the renovation of the Drill Hall, public authorities seem to have adopted a laissez-faire attitude towards the artistic and social dynamics developing in the building.
6 - Africa Week Festival in Yeoville: Reclaiming a Social and Political Space Through Art
- Edited by Sarah Charlton, University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, Sophie Didier, Kirsten Dörmann, University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg
- Claire Bénit-Gbaffou, University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg
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- Book:
- Politics and Community-Based Research
- Published by:
- Wits University Press
- Published online:
- 27 March 2020
- Print publication:
- 01 October 2019, pp 57-74
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Summary
Since the early 2000s, several community-based organisations in Yeoville have been involved in an annual week of celebration, ending with a street festival, to honour the neighbourhood and the diversity of its residents. The first of these festivals took place on 29 May 2010, a symbolic date chosen to commemorate both Africa Day (established in 1963 to mark the formation of the Organisation of African Unity) and the 2008 South African xenophobic attacks. in the context of Yeoville, characterised since the mid-1990s by a cycle of decline marked by ‘white flight’, urban decay, unemployment and xenophobic tensions, the festival is also conceived as a means to promote a renewed image of the neighbourhood in order to attract people and investments into the area, and as an opportunity to bring all the people from the community together.
Yeoville earned the reputation of being cosmopolitan early in its history because of the importance of migrants from southern and eastern Europe in the area (Harrison 2002). The history of Yeoville as a place of immigration is thus not new, but this representation of the neighbourhood today is directly linked to the gradual influx of new residents (South Africans and foreigners from other African countries) and the departure of the white middle classes from the mid-1990s onward. Unlike today, immigration in the early days was not regarded as a problem, probably because the European immigrants had a similar socio-economic background to the people already living in the area (Beall et al. 2002), and this probably facilitated their integration. The current reputation of Yeoville as an immigrant entry point was historically built alongside a general pauperisation of the neighbourhood and an increase in crime rates: violent crimes doubled from 1994 to 1998 ( Jurgens et al. 2003). Once known as an attractive place, in less than two decades Yeoville became known as a decayed neighbourhood, like most of the inner city. Given this context, for some residents (South Africans and others), the easy explanation for the decline of the area lies in the arrival of foreigners. This perception creates a climate of distrust and suspicion amongst the people living in Yeoville. Therefore, while Yeoville was not directly affected by the 2008 xenophobic attacks, it is far from being a place of tolerance (Harrison 2002).