Liberated waste

Heritage and materiality at Robben Island and Constitution Hill, South Africa

Bibliographic Data

ID5700515
AuthorsDuane Jethro (0000-0002-3258-259X, Center for Anthropological Research on Museums and Heritage, Institute for European Ethnology, Humboldt University, Berlin, corresponding author)
Year2019
Volume25
Issue3
Pages259-276
Publication date2019-03-04
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessNo
TypeARTICLE
VenueInternational Journal of Heritage Studies (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 1352-7258 • E-ISSN: 1470-3610
PublisherInforma UK Limited (PUBLISHER • GB)
DOI10.1080/13527258.2018.1482226
OpenAlexW2806651106
LanguageEN
Citations received4
References cited46

In post-apartheid South Africa the state instrumentalised the idea of heritage to advance a project of reconciliation and nation building. Heritage was framed as an inherent good, facilitating symbolic restitution through foregrounding black public histories and fostering a national culture based on the common ownership of heritage resources. This article evaluates this framing of heritage through analysis of the reworking of material remains recovered at two sites of apartheid era incarceration and their different paths to heritage ‘status’. First, it discusses the recovery and rebranding of the fence from Robben Island as an artistic and design commodity. Second, it describes the demolition and recycling of building material from the Old Fort Prison in Johannesburg to build the Constitutional Court. Using ruination as a theoretical entry point, the article shows how the heritage significance of these remains was brought out through engaged interpretation that explicitly linked the material to a dominant, reconciliatory post-apartheid heritage narrative. It was then circulated in different economies of cultural, political and economic value, and put to work to generate commercial profit or to promote constitutional justice. Showing these divergent outcomes, the article critiques the utility of a reconciliatory framing of heritage for purposes of inclusive nationalism

Aesthetics · Archaeology · Constitution · Cultural heritage · Cultural heritage management · Industrial heritage · Narrative · Nationalism · Political economy · Political science · Politics · Sociology · Archaeology and Rock Art Studies · Cultural Heritage Management and Preservation · History · Law · South African History and Culture

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