Documentary Film: Living African Urbanisms in Freedom Charter Square, Kliptown)

Abstract

Kliptown is the site where The Congress of the People gathered in 1955 to sign South Africa’s Freedom Charter. An act creating the foundation for the South African Constitution, which holds the beauty of socio-economic rights based on dignity. In the film “Living African Urbanisms in Freedom Charter Square, Kliptown”, photographer, community leader and Kliptown resident Thabang Nkwanyana captures the lived reality of the neighbourhood his family has called home for three generations. He describes Klitpown as a mixed racial community with diverse cultural spaces and neglected heritage, and growing up there as a mixed experience in a place with rich history and culture yet underprivileged and surrounded by poverty, crime, drugs and unemployment.The film seeks to hold a space in urban justice through its raw reflections - both beautiful and harsh - on a community’s own efforts to develop. The filmmakers have collaborated for over a decade and leverage that longevity to challenge the legacy and contemporary moment of such (western) normative language and practices as “informal settlement” and “basic services provision” in the face of socio-spacial injustice, climate change and dire infrastructure gaps. On 29 January 2024 Kliptown experienced a catastrophic flood event. To the time of this writing (April 19), road destruction remains at a level that the chemical toilets in much of the community cannot be emptied. Using “20 Days in Mariupol” as a precedent, it is a collection of short video clips from Thabang’s iPhone capturing resident-led development efforts since that day.