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Conservation Reports

• Proposed Xhosa cultural park and tourist amenity Port Elizabeth
• keiskammahoek conservation impact study

PROPOSED XHOSA CULTURAL PARK AND TOURIST AMENITY PORT ELIZABETH

PRELIMINARY REPORT

Franco Frescura

 

In the preparation of this report I have taken the liberty of exceeding my brief, and of presenting the Port Elizabeth Municipality with as broad a picture of this project and its potential as has been possible. This does not mean that its intent cannot be scaled down to more modest proportions, or that it could not be built in stages. It does give the Client a range of options which will allow it to match its developmental objectives to its financial limitations.

INTRODUCTION

One of the effects that colonialism and Apartheid have had over the past two hundred years, has been the imposition of Western ideologies and value systems upon the cultural life of indigenous southern African rural societies. This has eroded their historical patterns of life without necessarily enhancing or adding substance to their daily living patterns. The way was led by missionaries who, under the guise of Christianity, sought to make people wear westernised clothes, build "neat little whitewashed cottages" and abandon such "dark heathen practices" as lobola, abakwetha and beer-drinking. They were followed by traders who sold clothes, guns and strong alcoholic beverages, and by government agents who imposed a hut-tax and thereby forced rural families to send their young men into towns as migrant labourers. Despite this, their social systems and many of their customs have managed to substantially survive the inroads made by successive phases of territorial loss and undermining legislation.

The Eastern Cape is a region which has suffered particularly in this regard. Since 1812 the region has been the stage for a succession of land wars and, as a result, its people have taken a leading role in the southern African struggle against colonialism and Apartheid. Missionaries played an unwitting role in this struggle, for it was through their efforts that the region achieved a high degree of literacy at a relatively early stage, and the first independent indigenous language newspaper in South Africa was published in King William's Town in 1884. As a result the Black Trade Union movement developed strong historical roots in Port Elizabeth, and the Eastern Cape has long been the ideological and spiritual home of Black political thought, being the birthplace of leaders such as Jabavu, Mandela, Mbeki, Mhlaba and Biko. Regrettably the Eastern Cape is also relatively poor in natural resources. With the exception of wool and feather booms during the last century, it has had to rely largely upon events in the southern African interior for its economic growth.  Because these have been sporadic, local development has taken place largely on an ad hoc basis, following a pattern of extreme upswings in affluence and downturns of unemployment. Also the region has never enjoyed any substantial measure of Nationalist government support, being viewed both as the home of English immigration and a hotbed of Black nationalism. As a result this area currently suffers from the highest rate of unemployment in the country. It is also the location for some of South Africa's poorest and most depressed residential areas, and it is estimated that nearly 50% of our population lives in shack dwellings.

Since the election of the country's first democratic government in April 1994, it is expected that the economic needs of the Eastern Cape will begin to be met to a greater degree than has hitherto been the case. As a result it seems probable that, during the next generation, many of our rural areas will undergo increasing urbanisation and development. However, the pragmatic needs of economic development and the increased availability of modern technology are likely to bring the surviving values of indigenous rural culture under increasing pressure. The benefits of economic growth and job creation are needed and even desired, but their impact on the cultural life of rural people, the breaking down of their social structures and values and the loss of identity that can result, needs to be seriously confronted.

The effects of forcing indigenous groups to assimilate Western ideologies without also incorporating their existing social orders and customs are no longer being disregarded by sociologists and anthropologists. The recent Aspen and Northern Californian Conferences on the plight of Native Americans revealed this most forcibly. There the social fabric of healthy though impoverished communities was shown to be crumbling hopelessly. As a result drug abuse and violence have become endemic, resulting in an extraordinary high incidence of suicide. The need to accomodate the growth of a people's cultural life is now considered to be equal in urgency to their economic improvement.

OBJECTIVES OF THE PROJECT

Although the primary objective of this project is the provision of a Xhosa Cultural Park and tourist facility for Port Elizabeth, this needs to be seen in a wider context of economic development, cultural conservation and social activity in the region. As such, the project will also need to take into account the following factors:

• The establishment of a Cultural Heritage conservation program that would directly serve the future social and economic needs of the Eastern Cape, and most particularly, of the people of Port Elizabeth.
• The creation of cultural amenities that would meet issues of acculturation through the promotion and exposure of historical indigenous forms of cultural and social expression to the demands of economic change and external influences.
• The development of informal educational programs through the use of local forms of expression.
• The provision of outlets for culturally derived home industry and handicraft products serving various markets including the needs of the manufacturing community itself.

In order to establish priorities relevant to the growth of the cultural life of the Eastern Cape, attention will need first to be directed towards the development of those primary art forms and social activities which are interwoven with the everyday life of its people. The areas to be considered include:

• architectural forms, textures and technologies of historical built environments
• historical art and craft forms which are capable of fulfilling present needs
• home industry products which represent a new expression of indigenous art and crafts forms
• emerging patterns of community interaction
• popular entertainment
• historical and developing performing art forms
• historical patterns of religious belief which retain relevance in current society

Based on these requirements, a brief for a cultural park facility which will accommodate development in all of these areas will need to be formulated. Additional research will also have to be conducted to establish its economic feasibility.

PRECEDENT STUDY

It must be appreciated that any facility such as this, which purports to represent the material culture and social values of a people will, inevitably, also involve itself in debates which may not immediately appear to be outwardly relevant to the project. This is particularly true in the sensitive and politically charged context of a post-apartheid South Africa.

Fortunately, the work of anthropologists and cultural historians has progressed greatly since the establishment of the first such facility in the northern Transvaal during the 1970s. Nonetheless errors of a basic nature continue to be made in the name of cultural conservation. Should this project proceed beyond this preliminary stage, it is advised that its Principals undertake an extended research trip which should cover the following establishments :

• The Tsonga Open Air Museum, at Eiland.
• The Pedi Open Air Museum, at Pietersburg.
• The Ndebele Open Air Museum, at Botshabelo.
• The Ndebele village of kwaMatabeleng, near Pretoria.
• Chakaland, near Pietermaritzburg.
• The reconstruction of Chetshwayo's Royal Village, Ondini, at Ulundi.
• The abortive Ciskeian Cultural Centre at Thaba kaNdoda.

Most of the above are romantic and preservatory in conception, and function mainly as tourist attractions. In contrast it is proposed that this project should provide for the development of a wide range of cultural components within a changing society. It is expected to function as a vital and living centre, closely akin to an open marketplace, where public self-expression and traditionally-based activities can evolve and develop.

A clear distinction should also be drawn between the kind of facility which is being proposed here and the format currently employed by established cultural institutions in southern Africa. Although it is true that outwardly, certain areas will be perceived to overlap, the two should be seen to be part of separate and mutually exclusive philosophies. The first is dynamic and sets out to create opportunities for social interaction, economic development and educational experiences. It is holistic in attitude and attempts to accommodate a people's material achievements alongside those elements of their culture which are both transient and ephemeral. By its very nature, this project will interact with the society about it and evolve and change according to its social context. As such then it clearly bears little relation to the static functions of a conventional cultural museum or any kind of institution whose purpose is to document, display and preserve selected areas of past cultural periods, in the process often also creating eurocentric and judgmental stereotypes.

FORMULATION OF THE BRIEF

The wider-based concept of a cultural park could accommodate the following individual functions:

• a workshop environment within which traditional craft manufacture may be studied and transmitted from one generation to the next.
• the display and marketing of tradition-related arts and crafts manufactured locally, both in the centre and in its immediate region.
• the display and marketing of selected home industry products.
• the display of loan exhibits of traditional arts and crafts.
• the creation of an open educational facility catering to the needs of the community as a whole.
• the accommodation of historical, community-based activities such as traditional dancing and initiation.
• the provision of facilities for the performance of locally based arts.
• the creation of a built environment based upon the region's historic architectural heritage and construction technologies.
• the creation of a facility which will meet the social and economic needs of both a local resident and transient tourist population.
• the establishment of a centralised abakwetha, or initiation, facility which will allow for the retention of current historical and cultural practices under controlled hygienic and educational conditions.

BUILT ENVIRONMENT

The major component of the culture park will be the reconstruction of a historical Xhosa village. The accounts of visitors to the region show that, at one time, it was endowed with a rich heritage of indigenous architecture, and it should not be too difficult to reconstruct some of the forms and the technologies involved.

Although in the past some of these villages could be in excess of 1000m in diameter, and include some 6000 inhabitants, this is considered to be excessive to the needs of the project. Thus the historical component of the project need not exceed 15-20 separate units grouped about a central cattle byre of some 50m in diameter. The total amount of land to be allocated to it, however, will depend upon a number of other variables, such as the nature of additional facilities to be included, or whether farm animals will also be housed on the site.

It is also suggested that in other areas of construction the cultural park make extensive use of an architecture based upon the indigenous tradition of the Eastern Cape in order to accommodate its other activities. This is in keeping with the historical record, where white settlers to the region are known to have made extensive use of indigenous structures and technologies in order to meet short-term needs for shelter. This would include the reconstruction of historical forms as well as the use of more recent and appropriate technologies. Such a multifaceted approach would permit the accommodation of a number of diverse functions :

• The creation of environments relevant to the indigenous art forms to be accommodated.
• Spaces which are appropriate and comfortable in their formal relationship to indigenous social activities, entertainments and performance arts.
• An environment which is in itself highly instructive, which conveys a social and cultural message regarding housing which is relevant to the circumstances of the greater community, and the development of their lifestyles.
• An environment which will be practical and not romantic, that will present a model for the provision of economical and functional and yet culturally rich forms of accommodation.

In line with the purpose of the project, particular emphasis is to be placed on meaningful changes which can result from the integration of Western influences with local culture, thus generating a vital dialogue between the historical past and the realities of the living present.

There is also a number of other imponderables which will affect the amount of land necessary, and which are impossible to quantify at this early stage of the project until such a time as the project brief has been developed more fully.

TECHNOLOGY AND BUILDING SKILLS

Although the Port Elizabeth area has not been the home to some indigenous building forms for at least a century, a good record of the architecture and building technologies involved does exist. However, the necessary building skills have long vanished from the area and builders with this specialized knowledge will undoubtedly have to imported from outlying rural areas. Such persons have been recorded within the last ten years in the Committees Drift area, near Grahamstown, as well as some parts of the southern Transkei. However most of these were elderly persons who were also known to be the last keepers of such wisdom in their communities.

Another problem area which, it is also predicted to arise, will be in the provision of suitable thatching grasses for the roof cover, as well as the clay soils necessary for wall and floor construction. It seems inevitable that such supplies of such materials will have to be sought from rural sources in the interior of the Eastern Cape.

INCOME PRODUCING COMPONENTS AND PATRONAGE

The success of the cultural park will depend greatly upon its income producing capacity.  This will depend on its meeting the following needs:

• a market centre providing for the everyday personal and household needs of local communities and visitors.
• a social, entertainment and performance art centre providing for the social and cultural needs of local communities and visitors. It is estimated that a visitation figure of about 80,000 persons per annum will be required in order to ensure the economic success of the market and social centres.
• a market centre providing an outlet for locally made artifacts. It is estimated that a visitation figure of about 50-80,000 persons per annum will be required in order to ensure the economic success of the tourist market.

The general income generated by the park is to be re-invested into its continued development.  Individual incomes will be gained either through informal sector earnings, including such activities as hawking, or through co-operative marketing strategies.

EMPLOYMENT

It is expected that the park itself will provide only limited formal employment opportunities, and that none of it need or ought to be housed on site. This will involve a permanent maintenance team of builders and thatchers, and a basic managerial component. In this latter respect, negotiations will need to be conducted with the Port Elizabeth Museum under whose aegis this project ought to fall.

ACADEMIC EXPERTISE

The subject of southern Africa's indigenous architecture is a fairly rarified one and currently only two experts are acknowledged to exist at both a national and international level. These are James Walton of Cape Town, and the Author of this report. Unfortunately Mr Walton is of an advanced age and, for health reasons, seldom leaves Cape Town.

A number of other subject experts are however available locally, and it is suggested that any future developments of this project involve the following as consultant body:

• Denver Webb, currently with the Ciskei National Monuments Commission, in King William's Town, and part of the ANC's Monuments and Museums policy making initiative.
• Dr Mike Raaff, Director of the Port Elizabeth Museum
• Dr Robin Palmer, Department of Anthropology, Rhodes University
• Prof Themba Sirayi, Head of Cultural Studies, University of Fort Hare
• Prof Zanoxolo Gitywa, University of Fort Hare

In addition Dr Manton Hirst, Curator of Anthropology, Kaffrarian Museum, King William's Town, is a knowledgeable person who has been involved, at various stages, in the development of the Ciskei National Cultural Museum, which failed to reach implementation stage. In addition he was also involved as a consultant in the Thaba kaNdoda project which was also aborted at an early stage.

If necessary I also strongly advise the involvement of the Rhodes Department of Anthropology in preference to their counterparts at UPE.

ADVISORY NOTE

Although this is an area of museum activity which, in other countries, has proved to be most popular with tourists, the proposers of this project are advised that it has also given rise to prolonged and often bitter debates as to the "cultural" nature of its exhibits. Existing examples in this country have not been spared, and it is advisable that such a project proceed only with the careful guidance of a cross-disciplinary consultant body.

POSTSCRIPT

This report was commissioned on 21 June 1994 by the Acting City Engineer, City of Port Elizabeth, which has since been renamed the Nelson Mandela Metropole. It was presented to the Council on 27 June 1994, but has never been made public.