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Month: September 2010

Reading a Post-Apartheid Memorial

 
Photo by April Killingsworth

Duane Jethro Sunday 8 August, 2010: I am on an expedition to find an elusive Sunday Times memorial in Soweto, Johannesburg. On the way, I drive through Vilakazi Street, passing by Nelson Mandela’s former home. It has been transformed into a museum. The precinct surrounding his former domicile is teeming with tourists and a host of locals plying a range of different commercial strategies aimed at cashing in on the spoils of the heritage venture. Further along the way, I pass the monumental Hector Pieterson Memorial and Media Centre, another heritage project erected during the post-apartheid era dedicated to the memory of the first student to have died in the 1976 student uprisings. Soweto seems to be brimming with new, rich heritage ventures mapping the formerly hidden histories of its former residents. The memorial I am in search of is not very different, having been dedicated to another forgotten memorable moment in time.

I perform a radical driving manoeuvre having suddenly spotted the artwork. The wheels churn up a cloud of dust as I swerve into the open plot of ground opposite Morris Isaacson High School in Jabulani section.

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Conferentie religie en het publieke domein

Op vrijdag 24 september vindt er een interessante conferentie plaats over ‘de hernieuwde maatschappelijke betekenis van religie’ in het Universiteitstheater van de UvA. Deze conferentie wordt georganiseerd door het NWO onderzoeksprogramma ‘The Future of the Religious Past’ en staat naast onderzoekers open voor belangstellenden uit de werelden van politiek, beleid, journalistiek en media. De organisatoren schrijven:

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