REFEREED AR T ICL E - JOURN AL OF T HE S A INS T I T U T E OF ARCHI T EC T S.
PRACTICES OF CULTURAL
REAPPROPRIATION 1
A project on KhoiSan heritage in the Eastern Cape By: Dr. Magda Minguzzi, School of Architecture, Nelson Mandela University
T
his article has been approved by the KhoiSan Chiefs and their community members who are acknowledged as co-researchers. In particular: Chief Thomas Augustus, Chief Margaret Coetzee, Chief William Human, Chief Daantjie Japhta, Chief Brato Malgas, Chief Xam ≠ Gaob Maleiba, Chief Deon Spandiel, Paramount Chief Gert Cornelius Steenkamp, Chief Michael William, Chief Wallace Williams.
ABSTRACT
It is well established that the arrival of European settler colonisers in Southern Africa initiated systematic dispossession of the Indigenous inhabitants of their territory. This process inevitably encouraged the growth of repression with respect to movements within the territories, access to resources, and modifications to both the lifestyle and the religious practices of Indigenous communities. In short, little of the Indigenous cultural identity and practices went untouched. The territory was colonised with the intention of establishing new narratives in respect to the land. At present, many of those settler colonial objectives remain, as the First Indigenous Peoples
still do not have the right to their cultural heritage and sacred sites. Using the concept of “Landscape as palimpsest” (Corboz A., 1983) I will explore ways that Indigenous peoples are re-establishing a sense of belonging and shaping the cultural re-appropriation of precolonial Indigenous sites. A research project (NRF-NMU) conducted along the seashore of the Eastern Cape, in co-authorship with the KhoiSan1 Chiefs and community of the Nelson Mandela Metropolitan area, will be used as the case study.
INTRODUCTION
André Corboz (1983)2 defined the territory as a palimpsest: the result of different processes and movements that take shape over time. If from one perspective, the territory changes due to spontaneous processes, such as the erosion of beaches, the sinking of valleys or earthquakes, via a second related set of sequences it undergoes changes caused by human beings, such as the construction of infrastructures. The inhabitants of a territory erase and change the signs 1. Cape Recife, Port Elizabeth, the international art performance “The Spirit of Water”. (Photo “Alexi” Tsiotsiopoulos).
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