The dilemma of bricks and mortar Illa Thompson Mercury Art Matters Column 73 August 2014 The city is spending R280m on Umkhumbane Freedom Park, a cultural centre in Cato Manor, the centre-point of which is a tomb for the exhumed remains of Queen Thomozile Jezangani KaNdwandwe Zulu – the mother of King Goodwill Zwelithini. This development has been on the cards for some years. In 2003 there was a national architectural competition calling for designs of a heritage museum for Cato Manor, focusing on the history of forced-removals in the area. The municipalitys website describes the precinct, designed by Choromanski Architects, as being 35m high and “expressive of the spirit of Umkhumbane”. The distinctive building is intended to highlight “the rise and fall and rise again of the Zulu Kingdom”. The building looks like an enormous concrete steamship-funnel behind a filigree waterfall; like the Titanic arising from deep beneath the parched earth.... shrouded in a lace tablecloth. The head of the municipalitys parks, recreation and culture unit, Thembinkosi Ngcobo, said R80m had been provided for the first phase, which was expected to be completed by December 2015. This included the burial site of the late queen, the parking lot and the fencing of the precinct. Ngcobo said the project would cost R280m and would be completed in 2018. The grim, complex and turbulent story of Cato Manor and tumultuous events which took place in this little corner of Durban – the race riots, beer-hall uprising; the emergency camp station and subsequent socially-devastating forced evictions - should of course be appropriately remembered and commemorated. Writers such as Ronnie Govender, Rajesh Gopie, Lewis Nkosi, Kessie Govender, Gladman Ngcobo, Mi Hlatwayo and others articulately remind us of the emotionally-intricate, racially-volatile and politically-complex stories of Cato Manor. Of course in principle I support investment in culture and heritage, but where I stumble is the decision to spend three hundred million rand on a freedom park NOW. Right now Durban doesn’t need new heritage buildings or parks. Instead we need to ensure that the existing spaces are resourced, staffed and active. We have museums, theatres, galleries, community halls and heritage sites which in many cases are neglected and barely functioning. We need to sustain them, invest in them, market them and breathe energy and life into them. There could be amazing projects happening in our existing spaces – instead many of them lie dusty, stale and dormant. We need creative administrators, efficient caretakers and proactive curators with project funding, marketing budgets ... and great ideas. There should be a regular programme of launches; festivals; workshops; theatre; themed-evenings; loyalty clubs; “friends” events; tours and projects at venues throughout our city on an ongoing basis. Creative events should lure me to the Anglo Boer War Concentration Camp memorial site by the old airport so I could learn about the atrocities of the Anglo Boer War; to Groutville so I could learn more about the life and legacy of Chief Albert Luthuli; to Mahatma’s Printing Press and Ghandi Settlement in Phoenix to learn about nonviolent civil disobedience; to Mariannhill Monastery to discover one of the biggest Trappist monasteries in the world; to KwaMuhle Museum to better understand Durban’s harsh system of labour control and the dreaded pass laws; to the Port Natal Maritime Museum to explore our city’s relationship with the sea and to the Old Court House Museum to visit Henry Francis Fynn’s’ Cottage and the old pharmacy. ....but they don’t. We as proactive, interested and curious Durbanites seldom get lured to these heritage sites because typically little of real interest happens there. The Stable Theatre in the heart of Warwick Junction and the well-appointed harbour-side BAT Centre should both be vibrant creative hubs and active tourism destinations, but neither operates to full capacity. Creating new buildings is easy – but sustaining interest in them once they are operational, is always the challenge. The concept of the Umkhumbane Freedom Park is potentially valuable, but right now I fear that it will be another white elephant to greedily gobble up our valuable civic resources. We already have the Moses Mabhida Stadium which is expensive and underutilised. Do we need another expensive bricks-and-mortar reminder of our historically complicated past – or is the whole point of this exercise another vehicle to enrich pet service providers? As I read about the vast amount of money being spent on the Umkhumbane Freedom Park, my heart weeps as I compare it to the remarkable Denis Hurley Centre (DHC) currently being built in the heart of the city. It is a legacy project honouring the late Archbishop Denis Hurley. The new building will provide an enabling environment for care, education and community for the poorest of the poor in one of the most diverse and challenging neighbourhoods of down-town inner-city Durban. It will also contain a museum honouring Hurley and contextualising the culturally rich neighbourhood – the DHC sits snugly between the Emmanuel Cathedral, the Juma Musjid mosque, the Warwick market and the busy transport hub. A team of enthusiastic volunteers, led by the remarkable Paddy Kearney, has tirelessly campaigned for years to get sufficient funds to build such an ambitious building as the DHC – a huge ask in the current financial climate. The building is costing R31 million to build and 97% of necessary funds have been secured. Once suffice funds have been sourced to complete the building, fund-raising continues in earnest to equip, furnish and staff the centre. Fund raising is laborious, slow and extremely hard work. It is a labour of love, vision, compassion and faith. It is astonishing to think that ten Denis Hurley Centres could be built for the cost of the new Freedom Park. That doesn’t make sense. While contemplating the extravagant use of city funding, the words from an iconic old End Conscription Campaign poster comes to mind, which references the then government’s exorbitant spending in the light of the NGO’s modest fund-raising endeavours: “It will be a great day when the army has to hold a cake-sale to buy a new casspir” (armoured vehicle). A great day indeed.
Posted on: Mon, 08 Sep 2014 08:22:16 +0000
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