2002

EXECUTIVE COMMENT

I have the great pleasure of presenting this interim report, the result of over two years of focused research and design, a process based on the dedicated efforts of various different parties, heated debate, and passionate resolve. This report has primarily been compiled for the office of the chairperson of the committee of arts, culture and science as a vehicle for further implementation within the broader structure of national and provincial government. It is however a proposal of popular concern and relevancy and should stimulate debate on how cities perform and are used by people.

The nature of the report is primarily based on how, in quite a condensed and concrete manner to accelerate a significant portion of the goals of government and the African Renaissance as an inclusive nation building gesture within the Western Cape. Although the report is not exhaustive it may be the solid foundation upon which more detailed analysis, design and intervention may and should take place. It is my sincere hope that the concentrated efforts of the many talented individuals, involved directly or indirectly in the manifestation of this report may be vindicated through the dissemination and implementation of its findings for the people of South Africa and Africa as a whole.

Introduction

Cities in South Africa are spaces in flux and contention, the apartheid framework having had an immeasurable impact on the form, the functioning and the cultural representation on and within urban spaces. The post apartheid city is typified by acute hybridity, powerful forces of suburban sprawl, ailing central business districts, and a growing transient population- with high degrees of movement between the rural and urban condition. The historic disenfranchisement from the opportunities of the city are a key factor in understanding how to transform the city into a vibrant source of creativity, interaction and growth, thus the city needs to be seen as a center of accessibility on as many different levels as is possible.

A city has (amongst many tangible needs), the need to begin to engage with the cultural realities of it’s time, and provide psychological satisfaction to its inhabitants, for it is through the city, the greatest testament to humanities creativity, that we as spiritual beings see ourselves represented on a daily basis. How the city represents itself therefore in built form is a critical issue and we need to ask ourselves within the cities of today, of a post apartheid, democratic and inclusive society- How do we represent this society- what are the symbols of a new South Africa, a new order?

The city needs to be transformed just as much as any other sector of society that was detrimentally impacted by Apartheid and pre-apartheid spatial thinking into a hub of activity, and spiritual satisfaction, a place where the arts can flourish, where people meet, laugh, play and engage in the glorious rhythms of life. The city should be a space of collision between many different forces, a dynamic organism that pulses and gives meaning and accommodation to many. It is at these specific symbolic points, that the city pumps energy into the whole, these cultural, economic or legislative foci that the dream of an African renaissance finds the greatest and most immediate presence to the broader public, spaces where life is manifest at its maximum.

The city can no longer afford to ignore the psychological needs of the previously disadvantaged cultural sectors of it’s society. The city needs to actively establish a cultural presence of diversity in the city in terms what the city celebrates, remembers, and memorializes in order to dignify people.

How do we as authorities in the built environment, national and regional policy respond to this need, whilst never forgetting that ultimately part of our goal is to reverse the trend of the urban-rural divide? How do we entrust the cities that currently experience so much of our capital investment to operate in such a way that this gap is bridged? It is not enough to create community centers in our rural communities- how do these new centers connect up with broader metropoles? It is also not enough to simply provide affordable housing in the city center, although this is a crucial factor, but indeed the urban world needs to respond far more effectively to the desires of the rural existence, providing not only access to economic opportunity, but also access to cultural anchors, and foci, that affirm people in terms of entrenching their rights as citizens to share in the city. A city that celebrates, or commemorates in a dignified fashion, critical calendar events to all its people is a city that begins to act as a true custodian of its users. The Africa Gateway Millenniun Precinct is a space within Cape Town that will accelerate this process of renewal and inclusivity to the benefit of the city, the Western Cape and the country as a whole. It has the potential of becoming a landmark jewel in the national crown of societal consciousness-a symbol of a young and brave democracy in the Mother City of the nation of South Africa.

"Let us dip our hands into the blood of the fallen and paint a picture of hope"

…A unique vehicle for the pursuit and expansion of the African Renaissance and NEPAD within the Cape Town metropole…

The imperatives of the African renaissance offer a unique opportunity to enhance the financial and social welfare of Africa and South Africa’s citizens. The challenge facing Cape Town in particular is to create accessible platforms where these imperatives may be pursued, and indeed create a regional flagship tasked with this quest.

The successful integration of disparate communities fractured by the agencies of colonialism and apartheid will depend upon vision, creativity, and bold, dynamic endeavors not dissimilar to the Freedom Park project. In this architecture will play a critical role, through the provision of these new platforms, or where necessary engage in the adaptive reuse and reinterpretation of existing museums, buildings and public spaces. In addition, architecture bears a singular functional capacity to embody a people’s dreams, beliefs and aspirations. This proposal is based on an exhaustive research into the capacity of architecture to catapult the aims of the African Renaissance and Nepad into the realm of physical reality.

Heerengracht Island, Adderley Street, Cape Town

• Museum of conflict and civility
• Genocide/conflict memorial
• Indigenous knowledge systems research station
• Unsung heroes square
• Communication platform
• Nepad/African renaissance public debating forum
• African arts/culture square
• Community radio station/ publishing
• Renaissance parade
• Africa Union ancillary Space

" Where are the black intellectuals?" President Thabo Mbeki has often asked. I would urge him to consider an even larger and prior question: where is the intellectual environment required for the emergence of those intellectuals?..I am struck by the absence of institutions in which people of ideas can get together to engage each other and the public on the democratic experience."

Dr Xolela Mangcu

source: guest column, Mail &Guardian,7/2-8/99

The challenge is to develop a forum where the day-to-day and high brow musings of intellectuals and laypeople can take place, to discuss, postulate and debate the implications of being south African, and African whilst generating concrete steps for the future. Its symbolism will be reflected in its functioning and architectural presence, a contemporary think-tank of regional and global import.

Fused with this facility is a museum experience that celebrates and commemorates forgotten histories, to engage in the sociological archaeology that will unveil the palimpsest of a much-distorted history. A place that speaks of catharsis, and above all hope, -and the resilience of Africa’s peoples. The museum/memorial will also serve as catalyst for the documentation and preservation of oral traditions, cultures, an African museum that lives through its use and meaning.

The following events are presently foreseen:

• Accommodate Provincial forums of the African Renaissance
• Accommodate and support initiatives of the parliamentary millennium project
• Accommodate periodic meetings of the conveners of SACAR
• Accommodate meetings of ARI-SADC regional structures
• Accommodate periodic NEPAD forums on Conflict resolution, Good governance, Economic renewal, Cultural Rebirth
• Marketing the initiatives of NEPAD to the public
• Providing a forum for public interaction with NEPAD and SACAR
• Wreath laying and dignitary visitations at memorial
• Open air interactive African theatre
• Trade fairs
• Evening functions
• Art exhibitions
• Concerts/shows press launches/fashion expo
• Official public ceremonies
• Education courses on AR, IKS, SACAR, /school tours
• Traditional healers conferences
• Urbane recreation and interaction acting as a magnet for local and national tourism.
• Youth workshops
• Renaissance broadcasting, and micro publishing

The project is a proposal that effectively threads the needs of the African renaissance into a positive living urban environment, couched in a rich historical context. It’s greater purpose is to engage the public on Nepad and the Renaissance, whilst offering a world-class educational and cultural experience.

As a highly visible architectural intervention in the heart of the Mother City, the ‘Gateway to Africa’, it’s mere presence provides a forum where the notion of being African is critically and publicly engaged. This happens through both informal and formal media, arts, research, remembrance, and debate, whilst providing a critical and highly specific new platform for cultural events like Heritage day. As a contemporary counterpart to Parliament, the Unicity, and the Cape Town International Conventional Center, the precinct would not only serve itself, but the growing needs of the city, in terms of use, culture and tourism.

The project has been developed over the past two years with a view that in order to effectively critique the past and truly engage with a new and common future, new spaces, new places need to be created in order to accelerate our quest, locations that can be tailor made to the demands of a new democratic society.

The presentation of the potential of this scheme to all interested parties is the next critical step to offering a vast scope for broadening and consolidating the noble aims of nation building.

Motho Ke motho Ka batho

Mokena Makeka, Bas, UCT, Barch (hons) dist, UCT. [email protected]/ Home 689-8661 fax 421-4469