“Three generations of white South African men were bound together at that table. Vermuelen was the first generation. He defined Africa, made it safe for Basson to defile. I was the last generation, the last to grow up in segregated neighborhoods. Between us was the silent photograph of Wouter Basson. Like a distant father, Basson was absent at the dining table.” – Henk Rossouw (Hole in the White ‘Hood). Also Mahmood Mamdani on Bantu Education at UCT, Gael Reagon on sisterhood, Binyavanga Wainaina on dis-covering Kenya, Gaston Zossou on African intellectuals and more…
Cover:
Strange Fruit by Lewis Allen
Pumflet 'Hophuis' (Wolff Architects, 2023)
'hophuis' documents a series of journeys to and activations made at the Steinkopf Community Centre in Namaqualand in South Africa's Northern Cape. The building was at once a lively centre for communal and political gathering, (albeit controlled by the church) but stands today as an open, civic-scaled volume of broken walls, a concrete floor, and with its electrical and water services completely removed .
The town of Steinkopf itself is situated in what was declared a 'coloured reserve' by the apartheid government in 1948, and the place is significant for a number of reasons. Its original name 'Kookfontein' (which referred to an ancient water well) was lost when it was renamed by German missionaries who settled there in the 18th century.
Along with a new name, the missionaries bought with them what James Baldwin has referred to as 'theological terror': warnings of eternal damnation for all who followed the local Nama, Khoi and other indigenous spiritual practices. Dance and song, a core part of the spiritual practices of the Nama in particular, were prohibited. Thus, many of these cultural practices, along with the Nama language, remain treasured by a few cultural custodians but are otherwise mostly forgotten.