Thoughts on the People and Places of South Africa Eunji Kang
Contents Prologue // 4 People // 6
Cape Town, Stellenbosch, On N2, Western Cape, Diepwalle State Forest, Middelburg, Smithfield, Reddersburg, Westonaria, Soweto, Mpumalanga, Swellendam, Oudtshoorn, Calitzdorp, Knysna, Free State, Randfontein, Vredefort Dome, Bloemfontein, Johannesburg, Diepkloof, Sabie, On R37
Places // 80
Cape Town, Barrydale, Uniondale, Knysna, Randfontein
Objects // 91
Cape Town, Smithfield, Reddersburg, Westonaria, Soweto, Suurbraak, Randfontein, Carletonville, Randburg, Johannesburg
Epilogue // 120
Western Cape
Wellington Cape Town Cape Peninsula
Stellenbosch Swellendam
Calitzdorp Oudtshoorn Barrydale Suurbraak
#1 Specters #2 Poverty #3 Commons #4 Hope #5 Contradictions #6 Invisible People On R37
Sabie
// 13
Mpumalanga
Middelburg
Randfontein
// Johannesburg 34
Westonaria
Carletonville
Vredefort Dome
// 38
// 53
Free State
Bloemfontein Reddersburg
Smithfield
Graaff-Reinet
Uniondale Diepwalle State Forest Knysna
On N2
// 66
// 71
Prologue Where it started and what I was looking for In 2015, I was involved in a design research project around smart city development. One of the research strands looked at invisible digital assets in the city, and how to make these resources more visible. The project involved reflecting on what the ‘visible Internet of Things’ might look like and how ‘visible IoT signs’ could intervene in designing smart cities. While doing this, I was struck by the idea of ‘invisible things’ shaping our environments. I decided to reflect more consciously on the way in which my surroundings were complexly comprised of intangible layers of memories, stories and emotions. This sparked my desire to capture the memories, stories and emotions that I gathered on my journey across South Africa. I had the vague idea that I would interview people in order to capture their stories. I also bought a new camera and prepared interview questions. Nevertheless, on my second day, I realised that the plan would not work because I did not want to stray too far from my role as a tourist and voyager; instead, I wanted to maintain a safe distance between the familiar and the foreign. Methods I decided to draw things. Whenever I had some spare time, I summoned up feelings that I associated with the people, spaces and objects that I came across. I then documented them through sketches. I continued this work over a period of three weeks. The sketches either represented what I was
seeing, or explored questions that arose for me. The resulting collection of drawings was not intended to represent people, places and objects with accuracy; instead, they were expressions and representations of my own subjective impressions of South Africa. Findings Since my return home, the refugee and migrant crisis in Europe has dominated the headlines. Just as people were once segregated by ethnicity in South Africa, people are now divided along political lines, and states are consistently coming under fire for human rights abuses. I started thinking that the associations I had with people, spaces and objects in South Africa were not completely dissimilar from the issues and events that I was reading about in Europe. So I decided to look through the sketches from South Africa and organise my findings into six themes. The six themes are: Spectres; Poverty; Commons; Hope; Contradictions, and Invisible People. Although they are based on my experiences in South Africa, they can be seen as having relevance for the wider reality of our lives, regardless of nation and location.
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People
6
7 • V & A Waterfront, Cape Town
8 • Green Point, Cape Town
9 • V & A Waterfront, Cape Town
10 • V & A Waterfront, Cape Town
11 • Cape Town
12 • Cape Town
#1 Specters Some people can feel and see the spirits of dead people. In films and novels, ghosts are described as fearsome creatures, haunting human lives. Most people, however, do not recognise their existence. In the 18th century, ghosts were seen as a symbol of irrationality and a threat to science. Their liminal existence – half-way between the living and the dead – posed a challenge to the social order. Their existence threatened rational ways of thinking and working. We do not have to look far in order to find groups of people who struggle to conform to social norms and rules, be it finishing school, getting a job, earning money, having a home, becoming a parent or becoming part of a community. These people are often rejected by society and marginalised. I think their experiences of marginalisation raise important questions about why these basic milestones are not always achievable for everyone. I pass homeless people in the streets and I barely acknowledge their existence. I read about them in the newspaper and people make budget decisions about them as if they were just numbers on a spreadsheet. I often react to those who suffer misfortune as if they were not real or not directly related to my life. The disempowered people that I encountered in South Africa left me with a feeling of discomfort because their lives were very real and their stories were right in front of me. The close distance pushed me think that my rationale of our lives is based on very flimsy grounds. I could not find the right answers to the questions about our lives. I acted like I was seeing real ghosts. Who are the spectres? Me or them?
13 • #1 Specters
14 • Cape Town
15 • Cape Town
16 • Cape Town
17 • Cape Town
18 • Cape Town
19 • V & A Waterfront, Cape Town
20 • Robben Island, Cape Town
21 • Robben Island, Cape Town
22 • Green Point, Cape Town
23 • Langa, Cape Town
24 • Langa, Cape Town
25 • Langa, Cape Town
26 • Langa, Cape Town
27 • Cape Point, Cape Town
28 • Woodstock, Cape Town
29 • Woodstock, Cape Town
30 • Woodstock, Cape Town
31 • Camps Bay, Cape Town
32 • Cape Town
33 • Camps Bay, Cape Town
#2 Poverty Poverty has many faces, changing from one place to another. At one point I saw people walking along the highway, seemingly headed towards the next village, which was about 20 kilometres away. I saw children asking for money for food on the streets: some people bought them food and gave it to them for free. I saw people living in temporary shelters and sharing small spaces with other families. People had put washed clothes up to dry in their tiny interiors, and every space was full of things, including the cooking stove. I saw people rummaging through the bins. I could see that people did not have enough of the basic necessities required in order to live good and healthy lives. Systems had failed to reach these people and provide the support they needed. I could see how little they had and how poverty had limited their freedom and power. In the back of my mind, I was imagining possible solutions: what could they do better and differently in order to thrive? What should my role be in supporting them? A complex social challenge like poverty needs collaborative action in order to achieve meaningful change. It needs strong vision, leadership, systems, knowledge, resources and awareness in order to make a positive difference. This means that everyone needs to work together to promote better living standards for all. I would really like to hear more about ideas and solutions that make a big impact in deprived areas.
34 • #2 Poverty
35 • Cape Town
36 • Cape Town
37 • Cape Town
#3 Commons I was out on the terrace admiring the sunset at Camps Bay. The showers at the beach were swarming with people. Among the crowds, three black kids caught my attention. They were swimming without costumes, so that their wet clothes weighed them down. Once they had finished swimming, I watched as they began to strike their pants and t-shirts on the cement floor to drain the seawater out of the clothes. One of the kids suddenly ran towards the sun and held her clothes in the glare of its rays. The others followed suit. I suppose they thought that the sun would help to dry their more clothes quickly, so that they could go home without trouble. At that moment, I realised that nature is open and available to everyone, regardless of age, gender, ethnicity and religion. Camps Bay has in the past been labelled as a place ‘for white South Africans’, since it is an affluent area – an exclusive playground for the rich. Yet the sun was shining for everyone, regardless of whether they were rich or poor. By extension, I think protecting • the Commons and developing shared social resources is really important. Physical land is constantly being carved up by new laws, boundaries and regulations – both visible and invisible. Meanwhile, privatisation is reducing the availability of public spaces. How can we protect our Commons from the profit motive? People need spaces where they can feel free and secure, and which they feel belong to them. •T raditionally, the term ‘Commons’ refers to the cultural and natural resources accessible to all members of
society, such as air, water, language, and memories. In the modern context, ‘Commons’ also describes resources like knowledge, information, and social relationships shared by everyone who has an equal interest in those resources.
38 • #3 Commons
39 • Camps Bay, Cape Town
40 • Cape Town
41 • Stellenbosch
42 • Stellenbosch
43 • On the N2 Highway
44 • Western Cape
45 • Swellendam, Western Cape
46 • Western Cape
47 • Calitzdorp, Western Cape
48 • Oudtshoorn, Western Cape
49 • Oudtshoorn, Western Cape
50 • Oudtshoorn, Western Cape
51 • Western Cape
52 • Knysna, Western Cape
#4 Hope There are two contrasting ways in which people often confront an uncertain future: either with ‘Despair’ or ‘Optimism’. • Rebecca Solnit said that ‘Despair’ and ‘Optimism’ work on the basis of not acting forward, because these attitudes are grounded in wishful thinking – we tend to think ‘everything will be for worse or better’, whereas ‘Hope’ involves acting on reality. The locals in South Africa talk about ‘hopeless conditions’. They talk about leaving their own country for a better life. They make comments about incompetent government leaders. They talk about lack of job opportunities. The scale of challenges is different, but the issues are not worlds apart from the ones we consistently face in the UK. As a result of hearing about high unemployment rates, failed policies, broken social security, high living costs, high crime rates and unequal opportunities in the media, I realised that I sometimes talk about the future in despair as well – as if everything is wrong and nothing will improve. So I began wondering when I became so sure that the future would be negative. I started to question why we can’t accept the uncertainty of the future while at the same time remaining proactive about building a better, more hopeful society – rather than becoming disconsolate, apathetic and wishful. • Woolf’s darkness: embracing the inexplicable, Men Explain Things to Me by Rebecca Solnit
53 • #4 Hope
54 • Diepwalle State Forest, Garden Route
55 • Middelburg, Eastern Cape
56 • Smithfield, Free State
57 • Smithfield, Free State
58 • Smithfield, Free State
59 • Free State
60 • Reddersburg, Free State
61 • Bloemfontein, Free State
62 • Vredefort Dome, Vredefort, Free State
63 • Randfontein, Gauteng
64 • Randfontein, Gauteng
65 • Westonaria, Gauteng
#5 Contradictions There are always contradictions among people. At the supermarket till in Johannesburg, the cashier said to me that the current president must fall. It was the day after the president of South Africa had given his State of the Nation Address, and the nation seemed divided into two groups. Although she did not like the current dominant party, she was not sure about supporting other parties. The wealthy were talking about their relationship with black maids and labourers; I saw how cheap labour fills in lowskilled jobs like cleaning, catering and washing in domestic environments, but these are not likely to provide opportunities to develop skills and to fulfil aspirations. It seemed to create uncomfortable tensions between two groups: the wealthy and the poor. The youth were rallying the government to provide free education. People had different memories of the Apartheid based on their social backgrounds. Museums revealed the prices of the discovery of gold and diamonds. The contradictions evident in the stories and spaces around me prompted me to reflect that we live in places that have to accommodate complexities and differences. At the same time, I saw individuals seeking their own way to minimise disparities between people, places and things in order to navigate their own reality. Some people pay a reasonable living wage to labourers despite the national minimum wage. Yet others build trust in a relationship to understand two different lives and create a space to share resources with others. Their expressed contradictions are routes to understanding this reality.
66 • #5 Contradictions
67 • Diepkloof, Gauteng
68 • Soweto, Gauteng
69 • Johannesburg, Gauteng
70 • Soweto, Gauteng
#6 Invisible People Many of the world’s voiceless groups end up ‘homeless’ or ‘stateless’, so I want to be able to tell the story of ‘invisible people’. We will then realise how many people are living in silence, and how their stories are suppressed across the world. For instance, in South Africa, white people oppressed black people during the Apartheid. Meanwhile, women have fewer opportunities to make themselves heard when compared with their male counterparts: this endemic sexism is still rife globally. Moreover, in every country, there are individuals who are often ignored and even persecuted by the state. As time goes on, the neglect and oppression of these groups alters their own behaviours and self-perception and the general public internalises prejudiced attitudes towards these groups. We begin to believe that they should not or cannot have a voice. In order to give invisible people a voice, I think we need to create more legitimate channels for ordinary people to contribute their opinions to the process of democratic decision-making. At the same time, we also need to create the space and time to build their confidence and equip them with the skills and self-belief to speak for themselves, in effective ways. I believe that a strong voice can only be generated through a collective effort: multiple voices speaking together.
71 • #6 Invisible People
72 • Johannesburg, Gauteng
73 • Johannesburg, Gauteng
74 • Johannesburg, Gauteng
75 • Johannesburg, Gauteng
76 • On the R37 Highway
77 • Sabie, Mpumalanga
78 • Mpumalanga
79 • Mpumalanga
Places
80
81 • Cape Town
82 • Robben Island, Cape Town
83 • Langa, Cape Town
84 • Langa, Cape Town
85 • Cape Town
86 • Langa, Cape Town
87 • Barrydale, Western Cape
88 • Knysna, Western Cape
89 • Uniondale, Western Cape
90 • Randfontein, Gauteng
Objects
91
92 • Cape Peninsula National Park, Cape Town
93 • Cape Town
94 • Cape Town
95 • Cape Town
96 • Langa, Cape Town
97 • Langa, Cape Town
98 • Langa, Cape Town
99 • Woodstock, Cape Town
100 • Woodstock, Cape Town
101 • Langa, Cape Town
102 • Sea Point, Cape Town
103 • Camps Bay, Cape Town
104 • Cape Town
105 • Cape Town
106 • Cape Town
107 • Cape Town
108 • Cape Town
109 • Suurbraak, Western Cape
110 • Smithfield, Free State
111 • Reddersburg, Free State
112 • Reddersburg, Free State
113 • Carletonville, Gauteng
114 • Westonaria, Gauteng
115 • Westonaria, Gauteng
116 • Randfontein, Gauteng
117 • Soweto, Gauteng
118 • Johannesburg, Gauteng
119 • Randburg, Gauteng
Epilogue Making connections between the people and the system I sometimes think that • ‘User Research’ in social innovation tends to focus on making connections between service providers and service users, rather than between people and the system. So change tends to happen around individuals who are already using services, whereas I believe that meaningful change is likely to happen only when more ordinary citizens see and understand their relationship with the system, and start mobilising themselves in order to bring about radical improvements. In order to make ordinary citizens part of big change, I think we need more imaginative languages and approaches that highlight ways in which people and the system are intimately imbricated. • User Research focuses on understanding user behaviours, needs, and motivations through observation techniques, task analysis, and other feedback methodologies, Wikipedia
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What next I hope this way of capturing stories from people, places and objects helps us to identify the connections between the personal and the political, the local and the global – highlighting ways in which broad, complex social issues are intertwined with the personal challenges that we encounter in everyday life. My aim has also been to use imagination and the visual medium in order to bring ‘user research’ to life for a wider audience. I would really like to know what you thought of ‘Thoughts on the People and Places of South Africa.’ I would also like to hear other ideas or solutions about ‘Spectres, Poverty, Commons, Hope, Contradictions, and Invisible People’ from you.
About Hello! I am a design researcher and information designer. I am interested in using the power of visual communication to understand the complex social landscape and to enrich social design processes in a more creative and meaningful way. My work focuses on creating design space with new values and possibilities that matter to people, communities and societies. www.eunjikang.com eunjikangsin@gmail.com @eunjikangsin
Design specification
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Acknowledgement With thanks to all the people who shared stories with me in South Africa. Thanks to Elna Pelser and Leonie Shanks who helped and advised me in this publication.
Thoughts on the People and Places of South Africa