Like the name says, one of the longest streets in Cape Town

There’s been quite a bit of discussion recently on the issue of street renaming. My colleague, Ryland Fisher, writing in the Cape Argus on 22 February, asked what has happened to the working group leading a renaming process set up by the City of Cape Town a few years ago: “This group, under the leadership of Rhoda Kadalie, produced what I thought was a fair report, given the city’s divisive history. However, nothing happened after they delivered their report.”

Ryland correctly points out that the renaming of streets in honour of people who gave their lives in the struggle against apartheid has to date been confined to former black townships: “It irritates me no end, and makes me ashamed to be a citizen of Cape Town and the Western Cape when I drive through Khayelitsha and I see that it’s only there that streets are named in honour of these leaders. I’m glad that they are honoured – but not in this ghetto fashion. It is almost as if Mandela and the others fought for the liberation of black people only, and so they must be honoured in black townships only… It galls me to drive around in the city centre where almost every street name harks back to apartheid, while township streets celebrate the leaders who fought for the liberation of all.”

I (mildly) disagree with Ryland’s view that “almost every street name (in the Cape Town city centre) harks back to apartheid” – many are good descriptive names like Long, Loop and Bree, or, for example, like Strand, Waterkant, Jetty and Sea Streets, tell a story about the historical shoreline of the city – but overall, Ryland is correct to ask the question: what has happened to the process?

Shortmarket St - telling a story of the origins of the Cape Town retail economy

Last week, the issue was raised again, this time at a public meeting in Cape Town called by the South African Geographical Names Council. The debates were reported heated, with traditional Khoi leaders in particular calling for a comprehensive name-changing process. “Many atrocities were committed during the changing of names (during the colonial period) in this country” said Frank Smith, national organiser of the SA Progressive Civic Organisation. Dan Fletcher, of the Indigenous Royal Council, pointed out that: “Not a single street in this province is named after a Khoisan”.

Perhaps in response to the criticism, Sakkie Jenner, Western Cape Provincial MEC for Cultural Affairs and Sport, announced last week that the Provincial Government would be establishing a provincial committee to deal with the process of name changing in the province.

So, where does this leave us? There is no doubt that many names of streets (and buildings and public places and amenities) in Cape Town continue to offend or hurt. I sometimes can’t believe that we still have a street (Oswald Pirow on the Foreshore) named after a prominent Nazi sympathiser. Or a major highway (Settlers Way) named in such an obviously provocative way.

On the other hand, the process of renaming, if not handled correctly, can lead to further divisions and conflict rather than nation-building. The way the street naming process was mishandled in central eThekwini/ Durban (see pictures) is a case in point. A few years ago, Mayor Pieter Marais’s attempts to try and to rig the voting process to force through the renaming of Adderley and Wales Streets (to Nelson Mandela and FW de Klerk respectively) in the city centre, was highly devisive and helped lead to his demise as Mayor.

The renaming of streets in central eThekwini/ Durban has been a messy process

Any process of renaming needs to be open, transparent and inclusive. Personally, I dislike naming (or renaming) streets after politicians, no matter how great and good. I am particularly saddened when I see names such as Beyers Naude, Oliver Tambo, Joe Slovo and Lillian Ngoye given to roads (or hospitals or schools or places) that are then allowed to decay through poor maintenance and management. What an insult to honourable leaders!

I prefer names that tell a story, that are historically interesting, or geographically descriptive, names that above all, will endure long after our current generation has come and gone.

As a student of history, I am aware that a renaming process can be superficial and shallow if it is not part of broader efforts to genuinely build social cohesion and address the physical and materials needs of citizens. Like patriotism, the practice of renaming can become a refuge of scoundrels, enabling leaders to deflect from delivering on substantive issues. However, I don’t buy the arguement that the process of renaming certain streets and places is irrelevent or that there are ‘more important issues’.

Cities and towns are about people. As human beings, we express ourselves through culture and we value our personal, neighbourhood and community identities. If our roads and buildings and parks and beaches and statues and images and advertisements and designs do not reflect people’s cultures inclusively, then we will never succeed in becoming a city truly owned and respected and cared for by all citizens. And that’s not the sort of city I want to live in.

Its time for a process of more inclusive memorialisation in Cape Town (and in our country), but done in a such way so as to educate ourselves about different cultures, languages, communities and contributions, to bring ourselves closer together.

Contradictions in central eThekwini/ Durban: the historically evocative Brickhill Road, and the benign West Street, have been renamed, but Kitchener St, named after a British colonial warlord type, remains.

Know your history: What would Anton Lembede, political activist and founding president of the ANC Youth League, have to say about being placed alongside Theophilus Shepstone, who, as secretary for native affairs in Kwa Zulul-Natal for 30 years, was arguably the architect of separate development?

The 2010 FIFA Football World Cup Fan Walk in Cape Town is taking shape. This is the route that creates a pedestrian-priority route from the CT Station in the CBD to the CT Stadium to be used by an estimated 18 000 fans on match days.

My 2010 colleague Carola Koblitz briefs CTP and CCID staff members at the start of our recent Fan Walk inspection tour (corner St George's Mall and Waterkant St)

Up the hill to Long Street. Waterkant (Waterside) Street, the main route of the Fan Walk in the CBD, marks near where the historical shoreline used to be. The whole of Waterkant street is being transformed into a pedestrian-priority route and cycle lane

Broken street furniture in Waterkant St due to be repaired in time for 2010 as part of the City of Cape Town's beautification programme

Sea Street is another reminder of where the shoreline used to be before the reclamation of the foreshore after 1939

Greening the city. In future years, the Fan Walk will be a shaded avenue

The Fan Walk goes past several traditional shops, including the well-known Lusitania Fisheries, where you can get one of the best calamari and chip rolls in town!

Improvements to public space often prompt the upgrade of adjacent buildings. Here, a new design-related development on Waterkant Street behind the historic Lutheran Church takes shape

A new pedestrian bridge under construction, corner Buitengracht and Waterkant St

One of the busiest roads in the Central City is Buitengracht Street, which forms a hostile barrier for pedestrians between the CBD and Green Point. A new pedestrian bridge will begin to soften the interface between these two areas. There will also be a new at-grade pedestrian crossing

The Fan Walk passes the Prestwich Memorial in St Andrew's Square, which pays tribute to the thousands of poor Capetonians, many of them slaves, who were buried over the years in unmarked graves outside the historical city boundary (buiten die Buitengracht - outside the Outer Canal). The new Truth coffee shop provides a welcome respite along the route

The other half of the new pedestrian bridge under construction, against a backdrop of the old Lutheran Church and Table Mountain

The old tram rails show where the trams coming from Sea Point and Green Point used to turn towards town along Waterkant Street

The Fan Walk continues past the historic St Andrew's Church into Somerset Road, Green Point

Somerset Road is at the moment a jumble and clutter of traffic, in places very pedestrian unfriendly. The Fan Walk upgrade is an attempt to allocate addition space to pedestrians and cyclists through this busy area

The Fan Walk passes by the popular Cape Quarter extension

The Gallows Hill (another reminder of our conflict-ridden past) Traffic Department parking lot being converted into a temporary access road onto the Western Boulevard as part of the 2010 transport plan

For sale. Another example of how the upgrade of public space can prompt potential private development

The pedestrian and cycle route along Green Point Main Road is now well established, although concrete benches have been placed in awkward places, causing a potential hazard to a crowd of pedestrians and to cyclists

The new Green Point Circle pedestrian underpass links the Fan Walk to the IRT station, the Waterfront, the CT Stadium and the Green Point Urban Park

Looking back. The Fan Walk provides a pleasant 2,6km (approximetely 30 minutes) walk from the CBD to the Stadium, and will become a means of accessing the stadium over and above the bus shuttle systems that will be provided on match days. It will also contibute to the 2010 legacy in the form of permanent cycling and pedestrian-priority routes through the city, which will no doubt lead to ongoing intensification of urban economic activities

The Africa Centre’s Infecting the City Public Arts Festival kicked off in public spaces in the Cape Town Central City this morning. The theme for this year’s festival is Human Rite. I saw two very powerful yet different performances – Quiet Emergency on Thibault Square and Meet Market on Church Square.

Quiet Emergency

“Cape Town: a patchwork map of dislocation, where communities are separated by history and inequality, isolated by high walls and indifference…”

Quiet Emergency is created by Anthea Moys, Gilbert Douglas and Margie Mackay

"Honouring that which unites us as human beings, that which gives us connection, hope and continuity"

"Every community has its boundaries, each interaction its limitations... we live in a state of quiet emergency"

Creating a halfway meeting space - street children, sex workers, security guards, street cleaners and professional performers

Meet Market

Meet Market tranforms Church Square into a startling new green space in the city

"The procedure is not pretty, it concerns dis-ease"

"A new rite is exercised... an infected wound is lanced, disinfected and then sealed to allow healing"

The act of passing water for a cleansing ritual from the site of the old slave tree to the Slave Memorial on Church Square brings traffic to a halt in Spin Street. The Slave Lodge is in the background.

"The putrification of centuries of denial and shame requires removal"

"Conflicting memories and fragmented histories"

Arriving on one of the new "Dutch Team" pedicabs to watch the performance

Jan Hofmeyer, founder of the Afrikaner Bond, contemplates a 'Home for All' on the side of the Provincial Government building in Wale Street

Meet Market is created by Andrew Buckland, Athina Vahla, Ibrahim Quraishi and Lerato Shadi. Infecting the City is on until 20 February.

I visited the Museum of Sydney in December 2009. It is a relatively new museum (1995) in downtown Sydney on the site of the first Government House. It is architecturally inserted into the base of a large office tower building. I was curious to see how the story of the City of Sydney is portrayed, particularly given the historical similarities between Sydney and my own city, Cape Town.

Entrance to the Museum of Sydney

Edge of the Trees installation

The first installation one is confronted with is at the entrance to the museum – the iconic Edge of the Trees, by Fiona Foley and Janet Laurence. The name of the sculpture comes from an essay by Australian archaeologist Rhys Jones: “…the ‘discoverers’ struggling through the surf were met on the beaches by other people looking at them from the edge of the trees. Thus the same landscape perceived by the newcomers as alien, hostile, or having no coherent form, was to the indigenous people their home, a familiar place, the inspiration of dreams.”

As the plaque outside says: “Edge of the Trees is about contact. It acknowledges the indigenous place and people of Sydney, home of the Eora, and the many layers of occupation since 1788… A place to enter, explore, contest anew; perhaps reconciliation?”

Throughout the museum, there are genuine attempts to come to terms with the impact of ‘first encounters’ – contacts between first Australians, with their 40 000 years of history in the Sydney region, and British colonisers, most of them convicts. For example, in Invasion 1 – an Aboriginal perspective by Gordon Syron, the perspective of Aboriginal Australians towards the newcomers is clearly portrayed.

Gordon Syron, Invasion 1 - an Aboriginal perspective, 1999

Elsewhere in the museum, there was an exhibition of the work of Sydney artist, cartoonist and song-writer Martin Sharp. Sharp, a well-known 1960s counter-culture artist who designed the cover of the Cream albums Disraeli Gears and Wheels of Fire in 1968, also shows his concerns about Aboriginal justice through his painting Australia, which is a reinterpretation of the cartoon A Curiosity in her own Country by Phil May that appeared in 1888, itself an ironic comment on the Centenary celebrations of the time.

Martin Sharp, Australia, 2003-09

Phil May, A Curiosity in her Own Country, 1888

All this brings me to the point of this particular post – where is our own Museum of Cape Town?

To find the story (or stories) of our city, you have to try and piece it together through visits to a range of different museums: Iziko Slave Lodge (slavery), Rust en Vreugd (visual images of life in early Cape Town), Koopmans de Wet (household life), Bertram House (the British period), Groot Constantia (Cape Dutch life), Bo Kaap Museum (Islamic, slave and apartheid history), Castle of Good Hope (artefacts, military history), South African Museum (archaeology, social history), District Six Museum (apartheid forced removals), SA Sendingstigting Museum (missions and slavery), Heart of the City at Groote Schuur Hospital (first heart transplant), Lwandle Museum (migrant labour), SA Maritime Museum (history of Table Bay Harbour), SA Jewish Museum (social history), Robben Island Museum (colonialism and apartheid) and so on.

I’m sure I’ve left some places out, and this is not a comment on the good work done by the museums in our city, but the point I am trying to make is this – our city story is fragmented and largely untold. There is no single place which brings together the histories and memories of our city in a coherent way. This is why for example I believe our own ‘first encounters’ continues to be uncritically and stereotypically depicted on many contemporary Cape Town websites largely through the painting of Charles Bell: Jan van Riebeeck arrives in Table Bay in April 1652.

Charles Bell, 1813-1882, Jan van Riebeeck arrives in Table Bay in April 1652. Charles Bell was the Surveyor General at the Cape. He was also an artist and a stamp designer (he designed the famous Cape of Good Hope triangular stamp). The suburb of Bellville is named after him.

In essence, the history of Cape Town, known as the ‘Mother City’ for good reason, is the history of our nation. It is the original place of our own first encounters – the first dispossessions around water and land, the first conquests and subjugations, the first struggles for freedom and justice.

So, do we need a Cape Town Museum? I believe we do, but then where should it be located? What form should it take? Who is going to get the ball rolling?

Ports d’Attache, or Home Ports, is a Canadian documentary series on 13 major port cities*, currently in the process of production. One of the cities is Cape Town, and I had the opportunity earlier this week to show reknowned Canadian photographer Heidi Hollinger, the host of the show, and her crew, around the Central City. The documentary series is looking, amongst other things, at the impact that ports have had on a city’s history, people, culture and development. 

The series is specifically not focusing on popular tourist spots but what it terms ‘the soul of the city’. Walking only a short distance, we were able to discuss the origins of Cape Town as Camissa, the ‘place of sweet waters’ where for centuries, indigenous inhabitants watered their herds until their dispossession by the Dutch East India Company; the consequences of the importantation of slaves from Africa, India and the East to build the Castle, dig the canals, plant the Company’s Garden and construct the early settlement; the origins of Greenmarket Square, Church Square and the historic role of Eerste Berg Dwars Straat (St George’s Mall); the devastating impact of forced removals of tens of thousands of families from the Central City through the Groups Areas Act; the gradual separation of the city from the sea with the construction of the modern industrial harbour and the reclamation of the Foreshore, and current efforts to reconnect the mountain to the city to the sea, and the many other issues that have shaped the history of Cape Town.

The Purple Shall Govern - telling the story of the September 1989 march in town that defied the apartheid police alongside the public sculpture by local artist Conrad Botes on the corner of Berg and Church Streets that commemorates the event

With photographer Heidi Hollinger at the Rainbow Experience in Church Street

Celebrating the release of Nelson Mandela on 11 February 1990 (almost twenty years ago!) and his first speech to the world as a free man from the Cape Town City Hall balcony

All pictures courtesy Heidi Hollinger and crew, with thanks. The Cape Town Partnership conducts regular walking tours in the Cape Town Central City – all welcome!

*Cities: San Francisco, Helsinki, Marseille, Lisbon, Havana, Cape Town, Tel Aviv, Moscow, Houston, Buenos Aires, Bangkok, Melbourne and Reykjavik 

While in Sydney, I was taken on a fantastic walking tour of some of the laneways that are part of a CBD lane revitalisation strategy. One of the ways in which this is being done is through an innovative urban art installation project called By George! Hidden Networks (George Street being the main street in the Sydney CBD). I particularly enjoyed the following projects:

The Urban Barcode

The Urban Barcode in Abercrombie Lane refers to suspended white fluorescent tubes that represent the bar code to Jan Gehl's influential book on public space 'Life Between Buildings'

Family Unit – Chill Trailer

Family Unit - Chill Trailer in Bond Street is a series of constantly changing performances in the hidden network of Sydney’s laneways. The Chill Trailer is an adaptable mobile unit that accommodates a multitude of uses.

 The Seven Metre Bar

The installation in Underwood Street is a real bar located at the 7m point of the CBD that marks the projected rise in sea-water should the effects of global warming not be mitigated timeously

A picture taken from the By George website showing the bar in action at night. Weather projections that build in ferocity in response to increasing bar patrons flicker across the installation.

Forgotten Songs

Forgotten Songs in Angel Place references the bird species that used to sing in the region before urban growth forced them away, drawing attention to the loss of habitat

See Cities Matter and Christmas Lighting in Sydney for more stories about my trip to Sydney.

Gulp! Do I have to go down there?

I’ve just got back from an amazing walk underneath the city through an old water tunnel that runs from Oranjezicht to the Castle. The walk was part of the Reclaim Camissa project, which is currently managed by Caron von Zeil at the Cape Town Partnership (021 – 419 1881 for more information). The walk was conducted by Dwain Esterhuizen and his colleagues from Figure of 8, a Cape Town event and teambuilding company.

See Ella Smook’s article in the Cape Argus

CTP staff also seem a bit apprehensive... (picture: Shaen Adey)

Do I have to do this? (Picture: Shaen Adey)

Its perfectly safe, he grinned nervously (Picture: Shaen Adey)

The first part of the tunnel is 1,5m in diameter - great for someone 1,82m tall

Millions of litres of fresh water pour off Table Mountain every day into Table Bay

Deep under Buitenkant Street!

After about 20 mins, the tunnel expands to 2m in diameter, relief for aching calves! (Picture: Shaen Adey)

Yuk! (Picture: Shaen Adey)

Amazing brickwork in the tunnel (Picture: Shaen Adey)

Light at the end of the tunnel! Rhonda makes her exit

Emerging near the Nassau Bastion of the Castle of Good Hope

Safe and sound! The Cape Town Partnership team soak up some well deserved sunshine

Urban Age conference taking place at the Deutsche Bank Building, Unter den Linden, Berlin

I was in Berlin in November 2006 to take part in an Urban Age Conference. While I was there, I visited the Memorial to the Murdered Jews of Europe, Berlin’s Holocaust Memorial. Designed by architect Peter Eisenman, it is a 19,000 square metre site covered with 2,711 concrete slabs arranged in a grid pattern. Located one block south of the historic Brandenburg Gate and near the ruins of Hitler’s Bunker, it was inaugurated on May 10, 2005, sixty years after the end of World War II. I found the experience very moving, and wished I had been able to spend more time there. The Memorial provides a powerful example of using public space to address issues of history and memory.

A powerful, moving and deliberately disturbing experience

Human figures are dwarfed by some of the stelae, which resemble the filing cabinets of a sinister and murderous bureaucracy

Lost in a maze of cold stone

The Memorial forms an integral part of the city and can be approached from any angle at any time of the day or night

No war Barcelona 2003

In March 2003, I was in Barcelona to learn more about a new global event, the World Cultural Forum, and to evaluate whether it would be something that Cape Town should consider bidding for. After attending an evening function in the Eixample, I decided to walk the 25 blocks back to my hotel. Despite the slight winter chill, it was a lovely evening, and the opportunity to walk the wide streets of Barcelona was too good to be missed.

Then, suddenly, I heard a low rumbling sound. It was like no other urban noise I had ever heard before. It wasn’t the sound of traffic, or an aircraft, or an underground train, but an ominous, slightly metallic sound, a sound of human origin, but not a choir or a parade or a march. It seemed to grow all around me. I looked up, and realised that thousands of people were hanging out of their windows of their apartments, banging pots and pans, whistling, shouting, but softly. The whole city seemed to vibrate and hum, and then about ten minutes later, it was over.

I walked the remaining blocks back to my hotel, wondering what had just happened. It was only the next day, when I asked a colleague from Barcelona about the mysterious noise, that I found out the answer – it was a nightly protest by the citizens of Barcelona about the Gulf War and the US bombing of Iraq! Seldom before had I witnessed such widespread but peaceful and sustained solidarity on a particular issue amongst citizens in any city. As I continued to walk the city over the next few days, I began to notice the anti-war slogans everywhere – graffiti, banners, human statues, shop fronts, even road signs. Since that visit to Barcelona, I have never forgotten the experience of hearing, for the first time, the sound of a whole city rumbling in angry but solemn protest – a truly magnificent sound.

No war Barcelona 2003

No war Barcelona 2003

No war Barcelona 2003

No war Barcelona 2003