Khanya History Programme

About the Programme:

Khanya working Class History Programme includes three projects, the Popular History Project, the South African Intellectual Life Project and the Workers, Migrants and Compounds Project.

For many activists the history of the liberation movement and its various organisations is being lost or forgotten. A sense of history will assist activists and the mass organisations to build on past experience in movement building and to develop alternatives to the present global order.

Some of the projects of this programme are courses on the history of social movements, on the social and economic history of South Africa, and courses on the history of women in the struggle against apartheid. In keeping with all Khanya programmes, the programme seeks to raise awareness about the place of South Africa in the history of the region. Workshops, publications, research and various public events form part of the way this programme is delivered.

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Closed Constructions

Exhibition, public programme and archive on migrant labour hostels in Gauteng

Closed Constructions is a photographic exhibition and public programme on contemporary life and the heritage of government hostels and compounds in Gauteng. It is a unique body of work dealing with the architecture of apartheid as represented in the single sex housing structures that were built by Gauteng's municipalities since the turn of the 19th century to segregate male and female migrant workers from township communities and residential areas reserved for whites.

Closed Constructions Exhibition

-opening 15th October 2011-

The Closed Constructions exhibition explores the hostel system in over 350 images through the lenses of over 35 photographers. A remarkable body of oral history interviews with residents who lived in the hostels since the 1950s round up the comprehensive visual narrative. It is a story of enclosure and exclusion. It is a story of survival in inhumane housing conditions and of generations struggling with family disintegration and poverty. The exhibition documents over 70 government hostels, which are still inhabited by thousands of men, women and children. The exhibition offers three chapters, namely “Architectures of Exclusion”, “Hostels to Homes?” and “Ubambiswano Lwabashuti”, which all provide various perspectives on life in Gauteng's government hostels. It will be launched at the Workers Museum on 15h of October 2011 at 13:00 hours and will run until 15^th of January 2012.

“Architectures of Exclusion”

Under the theme “Architectures of Exclusion’’ the exhibition closely examines the physical heritage of single-sex housing. In a comprehensive photographic documentary project, a body of more than 8000 photographs is being produced to preserve a visual archive of the slowly changing and increasingly deteriorating architecture of municipal compounds and public hostels in Gauteng's townships and industrial centres.

While documenting the large hostel schemes of Soweto, the East- and West Rand, Sebokeng or Saulsville, photographers also went to smaller sites, which are mostly hidden in the urban geography still being enclosed by walls and limited in their public access. By applying a comparative approach in the photography, the project seeks to bring out the political and economic strategies that informed their establishment over a period of 100 years.

“Architectures of Exclusion” also gives evidence of residents' creative strategies of survival in these relicts of apartheid since the dawn of democracy. Municipal beer halls have been turned into informal housing, community halls now provide space for childcare facilities or serve as permanent churches, and administration blocks are no longer centres of control but are vacant or being used as sleeping quarters.

“Hostels to Homes?”

Under the subtitle “From Hostels to Homes?” the exhibition portrays the life of hostel residents around Johannesburg, Soweto and Alexandra. The photographs and life history interviews allow a very personal view on the challenges and aspirations of men, women and children who constitute the current hostel population. The oral testimonies and photographic essays were produced by students as part of a capacity building programme to show that hostel and compound life is still a reality for thousands of working class families. A unique feature of this chapter is its particular focus on hostels for women, single sex housing structures for migrants that have received little public attention before.

“Ubambiswano Lwabashuti”

Under the chapter “Ubambiswano Lwabashuti” (meaning “Photographers holding together”) 15 photographers who live and work in and around hostels in Gauteng showcase their work for the first time as a joint collective at a museum. Their works take the viewer right inside as much as outside hostel boundaries. It is evidence of the social and cultural practice of a diverse range of communities and includes studio, event as well as landscape photography. The group of photographers first met in 2009 through the Closed Constructions’ capacity building programme and are now forming a workers' cooperative.

Closed Constructions Projects &Partners

Closed Constructions was initiated by Khanya College in 2008 as a memory and heritage project with a strong focus on capacity building for young photographers, oral history researchers and hostel residents. It has been implemented in cooperation with the Market Photo Workshop and the History Department of Wits University, and has over a period of three years, produced a vast collection of photographic images and a smaller collection of oral history interviews. The outcomes of the project will be showcased in an exhibition, public educational programmes as well as an online archive on the heritage of hostel housing in Gauteng.

We would like to thank the following donors for their generous support of the Closed Constructions Exhibition and public programmes:

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Closed Constructions News & Media Info

If you are a media representative, journalist of publicist, please do not hesitate to contact us for more information on the Closed Constructions Exhibition or Public Programmes as we will compile a press kit based on your requirements.

Phone us on 011 336 9190 or email to cconstructions@khanyacollege.org.za and enjoy reading the Closed Constructions Press Release

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Closed Constructions Public Programme

During the exhibition at the Workers Museum (October 2011 to January 2012) Closed Constructions will offer an engaging educational and cultural programme of exhibition walk open days for schools and a panel discussion. Find all the details of the Closed Constructions Public Programme here.

The Closed Constructions Public Programme is aimed at the preservation and promotion of migrant workers' heritage through educational activities for a diverse range of working class communities. One of its core principles is to foster dialogue on migration issues across communities from hostels, townships, and informal housing structures as well as the general public. The programme offers a platform for debates on the economic challenges and social injustices that former and current migrants are presently facing, while educating about the historical developments from which many of these challenges

originate. Anti-xenophobia work is a particular focus with which the programme aims to contribute positively to an inclusive and diverse South African society.

Closed Constructions Online Archive

Among other publications, Khanya College will launch the Closed Constructions Online Archive with over 8000 images, research documents and oral history interviews collected and produced since 2008. This will be a unique public resource for communities, researchers, activists and cultural practitioners looking for information on labour compounds and hostels in Gauteng. It will leave a lasting platform to build a public memory of the single-sex housing schemes established to segregate, control and exploit migrant workers for more than a century. It will be an invaluable reference for the immense impact the hostel system had on South African society and on the lives of millions of migrants from the region. The archive is planned to go live in 2012, so please check this space again.

The Workers Museum

The Working Class History Programme runs regular programmes at the Workers Museum in Newtown. Please read further to learn more about this exiting museum and heritage site for migrant labour.

The Workers Museum strives to keep the heritage of migrant workers of Southern Africa alive. Located in a former compound for Johannesburg's municipal workers, it represents a site of conscience for the rigorous control and exploitation that millions of migrant workers experienced during the predominance of the migrant labour system. Migrant labour was the key economic system of the Apartheid state up to 1994 and had been established since the turn of the 18th century. It shaped the social formation of South Africa and that of neighbouring countries in Southern Africa for generations. The Workers Museum reflects the exceptional significance of the migrant experience on family and cultural life, on all public service, domestic and industrial workers of the region.

Download the Workers Museum brochure and read more about this unique heritage

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Workers' Walks

The Working Class History Programme regularly offers Workers' Walks at the Workers Museum in Newtown. At these Walks, ex-residents of the Newtown Municipal Workers' Compound, guide visitors through the heritage site and permanent exhibition of the museum. Visitors can engage with the former residents on historical and contemporary issues of compound life, migration and work. The Walks offer a very unique and first hand individual account of the history of compounds in Johannesburg and are not to be missed. For more information on the next upcoming Walk, please contact us.

Workers Museum and Newtown Tours

In addition to the Workers' Walks, the Working Class History Programme also offers tours of the Workers Museum and Newtown's cultural precinct with accredited tour guides on demand. The young heritage guides have been especially trained to give visitors an informed and entertaining experience of Newtown, its heritage buildings, arts and cultural highlights like the Workers Museum, the Market Theatre, Mary Fitzgerald Square and Museum Africa.

The following tours are on offer:

There are two options of either a 1-hour tour or a 3-hour tour.

1-Hour Tour of Newtown

The 1-hour tour of Newtown begins in the Market Theatre parking area and our site guide navigates Newtown moving from heritage marker to heritage marker, telling the story of the birth of Newtown, Kippies, Potato Sheds and Railway Sidings, Market Theatre, Museum Africa and Mary Fitzgerald Square. The next stop is the Electrical Precinct which covers the story of Johannesburg’s first power stations and includes the Electric Workshop, Turbine Hall, SAB World of Beer, and the Workers Museum. The Transport Precinct is next and covers the city’s transport history, as well as Newtown’s cultural organisations which are situated within this area of Newtown, and include Dance Factory, Moving into Dance, Bassline, Market Photo Workshop, Artist Proof Studio, and Market Lab. Due to limited time, the tour does not include exploring the inside of these buildings.

1-Hour Tour of the Workers Museum

The 1-hour tour of the Workers Museum will give you an insight to how life was like in a 1913 built migrant labour hostel and how the history of migrant labour has shaped South Africa's society and that of the neighbouring countries. You will get a comprehensive overview of the museum's highly informative permanent exhibition and heritage site. Our tour guides are always happy to accommodate your own particular interest allowing you a better understanding of the history and heritage of migrant labour. If on show, access to special exhibitions is also included in the 1-hour Workers Museum tour.

3-Hour Tour of Newtown

The 3-hour tour of the Newtown precinct covers the same buildings and venues as the 1-hour tour (see above), but visitors are given the opportunity to visit the Market Theatre, Museum Africa, the Workers Museum and Sci-Bono Discovery Centre. An optional extra on request is a look inside the majestic and exquisitely restored Turbine Hall.

Rates

Commercial rates

Short tour (approx 1 hour)
R250 for groups of 1 to 3 and R80 per additional person (up to 10)
Long tour (entering venues; approx 3 hours)
R450 for groups of 1 to 3 and R120 per additional person (up to 10)

Non-commercial rates including schools, NGOs, communities and unions

Short tour (approx 1 hour) R250 per group (up to 30 in a group)
Long tour (approx 3 hours) R450 per group (up to 30 in a group)

Bookings

For bookings of all our tours, please phone us on 011 336 9190 (Kwanele) or email daphine.mlambo@khanyacollege.org.za

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Migrant Workers Project

This project aims to contribute towards the preservation and popularisation of the heritage of migrant workers in South Africa while raising awareness of the challenges and social injustices hostel residents face today. By linking the history of the segregationist, exploitative and oppressive migrant labour and compound system of the 20th century with the reality in hostels today, the project also aims to prevent xenophobia and contribute positively to an inclusive and diverse South African society.

The objectives of the Project are to:

Raise awareness and educate about the built and living heritage of migrant workers as well as about contemporary challenges of hostel housing systems in South Africa, particularly Gauteng
Raise awareness of the importance of preserving the built and living heritage of the migrant labour system and single-sex housing system in South Africa
Raise awareness among hostel residents and their surrounding communities of the historic origins of their socio-economic living conditions
Foster a dialogue between hostel residents, the surrounding community, the wider public and youth on issues of hostel housing
Raise awareness of the potential of photography and oral history as historical sources and as audio/visual cultural expression on social and heritage issues

Activities

Host educational events at the Workers Museum on the history of migrant labour and its importance for Southern Africa today
Produce a series of educational publications including a newsletter, brochures, posters and booklets
Conduct research on the history of migrant labour and its impact on present-day Southern Africa
Create exhibitions on the history and heritage of migrant labour in Southern Africa
Build an archive on hostels and compounds in Gauteng
Host cultural events that celebrate the heritage of migrant workers

Partners of the Workers Compound Project

Workers Museum

Market Photo Workshop

Wits History Workshop

For more information contact:

Anne-Katrin Bicher
Phone: 084 2002 614
E-mail: wm.project_at_khanyacollege.org.za

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A public tour at the Workers Museum

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Popular History Project

South Africa has a rich history of social struggles and social organisations. This history has many lessons for the present attempts at building a social justice movement, and for present attempts to develop alternatives to neoliberalism. This history encompasses a rich experience of organisational building questions, campaign and strategy issues, and social and economic alternatives to present neoliberal policies.

The objectives of the Project are to:

Build the present social justice movement through popularisation of working class history
Develop resources for conducting history education and research
Open spaces to debate strategic and organisational challenges facing the working class in the present period of globalisation by providing a context in which strategic and organisational choices were made by the working class movement in the past
Promote an appreciation and understanding of the role of women in the development of the South African working class
Promote an appreciation and understanding of working class culture and its history.

Activities:

Produce a series of publications on the history of the working class movement in South Africa
Network with other institutions doing similar work internationally (e.g. building a network of community museums in Southern Africa)
Host conferences and other educational events to deepen the present social justice movement’s understanding of the history of the working class

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South African Intellectual Life Project

Against the background of apartheid authoritarianism South Africans and their organisations developed many ideas on a variety of issues concerning democratization and the building of an alternative society. This project seeks to explore these ideas and make them available to the present social justice movement as it explores alternatives to neoliberalism.

The objectives of the Project are to:

Make the ideas of various South African anti-apartheid campaigners available to the present social justice movement
Promote a culture of debate within the present social justice movement

Activities:

Produce a series of booklets of history of anti-apartheid intellectual life in South Africa
Produce intellectual biographical studies
Host seminars to discuss ideas dealing with issues facing the social justice movement.

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Khanya History Programme

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