In a dynamic presentation, Zahira Asmal narrated a journey through the obstacles, triumphs, and challenges of making place in a developing African city. She pulled together the threads of South Africa’s spatial history: colonialism, apartheid, forced removals, migrant labour, the new Afropolitan city. She critiqued a development ideology that celebrates modernity, rather than successfully integrating the past into the present. She imagined a pan-African vision, where government, citizens, and the diaspora all contribute equally to the making of the city.
Zahira investigated South Africa’s contested history. How has this influenced the making of memories and identities? How do culture and design professionals navigate the new democratic city? Who has agency to make place in the country’s biggest metropolis? She took the audience behind the corrugated iron and razor wire that boards up old spaces in Johannesburg. She bravely invited viewers to witness her battles with a stubborn municipal bureaucracy. She offered her dreams and hopes for analysis.
This was (and is) a unique, intimate, and unmissable snapshot of the human aspect embedded within the design process. Zahira’s journey offered international insights, personal perspectives, and a good dose of optimism.
Welcome to Johannesburg was created by Zahira Asmal and produced by The City. The performance was delivered at African Crossroads (Marrakech), Norval Foundation (Cape Town), Concrete Utopias (Paris), Het Nieuwe Instituut (Rotterdam), and the University of Oxford (United Kingdom).