THE NEW MAPUNGUBWE:
The Architectural Language of the New DTI Campus
Franco Frescura
INTRODUCTION
This project seeks to bring together the signs and symbols of three disparate constituencies, those of the African continent in general, those of Southern Africa, and those representative of such issues as international trade, labour. economic growth, and of development. The Agency involved is the Department of Trade and Industry, a Ministry of the South African Government, which is charged with the resolution of issues at a national level, as well as contact with sister agencies at a continental and global level. The symbology used, therefore, will have to walk a fine line between the parochial and the global, and arrive at a set of symbols which will be recognisably African and yet find application at an international level. These should include the richness and variety of local entrepreneurship; the skills provided by our labour force; the depth and variety of local research, including science, technology and the indigenous knowledge base; and the wealth of primary resources available locally.
THE NEW MAPUNGUBWE
Although the economy of South Africa’s indigenous society during the pre-colonial era was based primarily upon agrarian activities, by the tenth century the sub-continent had established an active trade with China and India, primarily through the port of Sofala, located near present-day Beira, in Mocambique. The trade routes bringing skins, hides, iron, tin and copper ingots, ivory carved objects, ceramics, karosses and other manufactured goods passed primarily through the Northern Province, an area which, at that time, was known as Mapungubwe. The Kingdom was the earliest to be established by the Zimbabwe culture, beginning with its capital at Mapungubwe in about AD 1200 to AD 1290, moving northwards to Great Zimbabwe from AD 1290 to AD 1450, and finally terminating at Khami from AD 1450 to AD 1820. In its heyday it probably controlled the major part of present-day Zimbabwe, including the region south of the Limpopo and the iron-rich deposits near Phalaborwa, in Mpumalanga, although smaller “zimbabwes” or regional capitals, have been found in a wide belt spanning from Mocambique in the east, through to northern Botswana in the west.
It seems probable that Mapungubwe, acted as a channel for trade goods between the southern African interior and the coastal trading settlement at Beira, and that much of its wealth and political influence in either direction was based upon its control of the major trade routes northwards. This was supplemented by its central location between the copper deposits of eastern Botswana and eastern Zimbabwe, the tin deposits of the north-west region of the Northern Province, and the iron mines at Phalaborwa. The mining of gold does not appear to have been a major activity, and the small amounts produced appear to have gone into the manufacture of sacred objects for internal use. As a result, the Kingdom flourished, with settlements of several thousand residents being recorded. By pre-colonial as well as European standards of that time, these were sizeable towns.
For the purposes of this project, it would be invidious to derive too exact a model from the Mapungubwe example, especially since it was primarily proto-Shona in nature, and its settlements were located on steeply-sloped hills, and featured strong stone walls and sweeping steps. Instead, it is proposed to use it as a metaphor for the nature and activities of the Department of Trade and Industry, with its architectural aesthetics and signs being incorporated into the body of a wider set of southern African symbology. Thus, in addition to the elements discussed below, this should include references to the Great Drum, Kudu horns, the Eye-of-the-Lion concentric circles, the Great elephant Ndou, the Great Crocodile, stone as a medium of construction, the domba initiation dance, the Cradle-of-Humanity, the use of the zig-zag in planning and of the zig-zag line in decoration, and reeds as a reference to the Great Nguni Father. The distinctive vegetation of the region also warrants attention, most particularly its distinctive baobabs, Acacia thorn trees, the Mopane, and the Fever trees that guard the region’s watercourses.
ARCHITECTURE AND TOWN PLANNING
Pretoria, like most other South African cities, was originally laid out according to colonial principles of town planning. This was complicated after 1948 by an overlay of Apartheid city planning, which sought to create an urban structure which entrenched social and economic differences along racial lines. Although South Africa has now been ruled by a democratically-elected government for nearly ten years, the nature of this planning lives on, and is unlikely to be eradicated for many years to come. However, one of the tasks of National Government, and its constituent Departments, must also be seen to actively undermine such planning principles, and a project of this nature is a good opportunity to set such moves in motion.
This project, then, sets about creating an urban footprint which embodies many of the principles of traditional African settlement, while evoking the urban spaces and architectural forms of modern African cities. At the same time it overlays a sizeable area of the original colonial city, and without ignoring its fundamental connections with the site, it also undermines its gridiron fabric by creating a less restrictive and more socially-responsive layout.
The first such element is that of a circular entrance court approached via a ceremonial axis, a theme common to almost all sub-Saharan traditional societies. The circle in African architecture is based upon the concepts of group inclusivity, recognition of the role played by the individual in the larger social group, and African principles of democracy. The khoro, or khotla, or isibhaya, depending upon which part of South Africa you are visiting, is a place of sacred burial, democratic meeting, food storage and wealth generation. Flags and stone markers mark its entrance, much like the entry points of Great Zimbabwe and settlements of the Lowveld, which used stone and clay sculptures of birds or clay heads to celebrate the various age group regiments which underwent initiation there into manhood. The circle, therefore, is also a sign of leadership and of youth. This is reinforced when we consider that the wealth of the group, its cattle, is looked after by the youth of the group.
The axis is symbolic of political leadership of social status, and of centralised government, the prerequisites of national leadership. It is not for nothing that the cattle byre, the political gathering and the extended social unit are all refined to by the same name, a “khoro”. Another metaphor for the central axis is given us by the amaZulu, whose royal villages were laid out about a central gathering space in excess of 1200m in width. These were used as military parade grounds, as places where foreign delegations would meet with the King, where the youth of the nation would come together to celebrate their initiation into adulthood, where farmers could celebrate their harvests, and where tribal councils could gather to deliberate the affairs of the nation. The ceremonial intent of the circle, and its concomitant axial approach are therefore unquestionable.
The system of streets which then leads off the central area is evocative, at a local level, of baPedi and tshiVenda settlement layouts, more universally, of the historically derived planning of Lagos, Tunis and Zanzibar, with each building playing the role of a family unit within a larger extended family structure. It is also, in many ways, reminiscent of the planning of West African urban homes, which use the internal courtyard as a centre of social gathering as well as a method of environmental control.
DOMESTIC FORM AND DECORATION
There is no doubt that the use of some materials in traditional African architecture is linked to social status. Stone, for example, among the Venda is the material of nobility and leadership. Its extensive use at Great Zimbabwe, as well as innumerable other zimbabwes in that region, is indicative of its symbolic role as an indicator of chieftainship and, in this particular case, group polity and transition to adulthood. More recently the use of corrugated iron in some rural areas has come to signify affluence and social status.
The use of the hemispherical dome dwelling, today popularly associated with the amaZulu, but commonly built throughout sub-Saharan Africa. is also universally connected with the concepts of women’s fertility, home, hearth, nutrition, security and marriage. In its larger form, it could accommodate over two hundred seated persons, and when used as such by the Chiefs, became symbolic of his fist wife, also known as the “Mother of the Nation”. It was therefore symbolic of national leadership, and the fertility and prosperity which each family would enjoy under the leadership of their chief. Other elements which can be briefly identified are the roof finial in Venda/Tsonga architecture, symbolic of the father, and, conversely, its absence becomes a symbol of widowhood for the mother; the doorway, a sign of transition; the use of wall sculptures among the Venda, as watchers into the night; and the use of reed screens to mark the entrance of a Nguni dwelling, a reference to the Great Father of the Nguni nation emerging from the reeds. Other references, both decorative and functional, which emulate western and European themes, are too numerous to list here.
Decorative motief also presents a rich field for the expression of symbolism. The zig-zag line, for example, is widely used to signify water, coolness, male fertility, male sperm, the mountains, the “road to the mountains”, and hence initiation and transition to adulthood. Wall decoration, almost universally the preserve of women, is used to cool down boundaries, to generate a state of calm and hence, of peace. It is also signicative of women’s fertility, political rights, and matrilineal identity in a patrifocal society. These elements are often repeated in items of personal clothing and decoration, which are usually the subject of a separate set of rules of codification. In this context, also, colours are the subject of a rich tradition of interpretation and contextual renderings.
TRANSITION TO NEW SYMBOLS
Despite this rich heritage, however, it needs to be borne in mind that tradition is normally open to change, and although the textures, colours and uses of materials come and go, what remains constant is the language of usage. Like the language of settlement, the language of technology remains a marker in a transitional society. Consequently a project such as this will seek out the materials, textures and details that evoke African tradition without necessarily using traditional and historical materials to achieve this. Although many of these textures will form an integral part of the substantive design, these applications will also have to be the result of the work of a number of artists working independently of the design team, but using its buildings as a broad canvas for their skills. In a way, therefore, the project sets up a tension between the formal built environment, and the metaphorical streets that constitute an integral part of its design.
Similarly, a case can be made for a multiplicity of building forms. Tradition may indicate that certain types have been built historically to meet certain functions, but the modern reality means that a traditional Zulu beehive built as a courting hut for the daughter of the house, can be found sitting cheek-by-jowl next to a circular drum with a comical roof, the original dwelling of the parents but now used as a kitchen, alongside a bafokona, a square plan dwelling now used as the parents’ more comfortable abode. Our dead used to be buried in the cattle byre, but their memories are now laid to rest in cemeteries, our cattle are now given over to the banks for safe keeping, our leaders are now elected, not born to their position, but the symbols of religious ritual, community wealth and political leadership remain in place in a language which is immutably African. This project recognises these symbols and uses them to create a built environment which is also recognisably African.
POSTSCRIPT
This paper forms part of a larger body of work I prepared as a consultant to the architectural consortium that designed the Department of Trade and Industry, in Pretoria in 2002-3. It has never appeared in print, but I have threatened that, one of these days, I will write a longer article entitled “Why on earth did you pay me so much money when you had no intention of ever implementing any of my suggestions?”