Abstract
Between Borders
Memorialising the cross-border safe passage route in Lobatse, Botswana
during the quest for South African liberation.
Research topic
The Design Proposal (DP) focuses on
memorialising and reflecting on the liberation
struggle of South Africa during apartheid and
the role that Botswana played as a safe passage
route to exile. The project is grounded on the
landscape of the Peleng township in Lobatse,
Botswana and aims to focus on the significant
site of the Fish Keitseng monument precinct
within the township. This monument houses
rich history that operated as an underground
passage system for African National Congress
(ANC) cadres that were headed to Tanzania,
Zambia, Ethiopia, and many other African
countries during Apartheid. It hosted many
South African freedom fighters and was declared
a National Monument in 2012 [Botswana
National Museum: Sa].
The project will investigate and unearth
the connections between the surrounding
landscape and the context of the Peleng
township in Block C42. The project will focus
on three main connection points which include
the Fish Keitseng monument, the stream and
the culvert which served as an underground
pipeline and hiding point as well as the route
to the Peleng mountains whereby important
liberation meetings took place during apartheid.
How can landscapes of memory offer more
to the community beyond their historic
significance? What are the possible ways of
preserving history and landscapes of memory
that will still be relevant in the future? Whose
memory and narratives are being preserved
and who do these landscapes of memory serve?
Related literature and theoretical framework
Ntwaesele “Fish” Keitseng is a Motswana
activist who was born in Kanye, Botswana in
1919 and worked as a mineworker in South
Africa.
In 1949 he relocated to Newclare in
Johannesburg and worked in a factory while
being an active member of the ANC and a
leader of the Newclare Congress branch. In
1956 Keitseng took the forefront of a crowd
and ordered the police to release victims of
pass offenders. Subsequently, he was arrested
in the infamous Treason Trial alongside Chief
Albert Luthuli, Nelson Mandela, Walter Sisulu
and many other activists during the same year,
1959. He was later sentenced to 12 months
in prison and subsequently lost his appeal
to the Supreme Court during the mid-1957.
He was continuously transported from his
cell to attend the Treason Trial and was later
released in 1958. Keitseng was dismissed
to Botswana in 1959 while the Treason Trial
proceeded till 1961. He was highly active in
organising underground passage systems for
many South African activists that went into
exile, especially those that were part of the
ANC military wing Umkhonto we Sizwe (MK)
which began on the 16th December 1961. Many
activists were hosted by Keitseng in his home
in Lobatse on their journey to military training
[South African History Online: 2019]. Many
raids and attacks were instigated by the police
and the South African Defence Force (SADF)
under the apartheid regime “to destabilise
the underground activities of the liberation
movements” [Prof Chitja Twala: 2021].
Methodology
The ethnographic approach will be used to
contextualise and capture the use of the
landscape and the behaviours of the space.
The authors of the Toolkit for the Ethnographic
study of space (TESS) explain that ethnography
is a cultural depiction that is used to reveal the
“cultural rules, beliefs, feelings and practices
that form part of public life” [Low, Simpson &
Scheld 2019:3]. This approach will be initiated
by the act of walking to investigate the literal,
figurative and spiritual use of the landscape.
Walking is a powerful tool that is used to
“gather known past histories, practices and
traditions…” as described by Christopher Tilley
[2012: 18]. Furthermore, drawings will be used
as a tool of research by means of “mapping
the unmappable” to reveal deeper significant
histories. Mapping explores new worlds within
past and present ones, and they begin to
introduce new grounds upon the hidden traces
of a living context [James Corner 1999: 214].
In addition, “Dialogic drawings” and “Visual
narratives” will be used as methods of
investigation as outlined by Cathrine Dee
[2004:14]. These methods will coincide with
each other and possibly be combined or
overlapped to reveal myriad historical layers.
Visual studies are used to link the practicetheory
divide and facilitate investigations
that are limited in text [Cathrine Dee 2004:
13]. Subsequently, the project will undertake a
multi-layered exhibition approach which aims
to contextualise and offer diverse strategies
of remembering by considering the historical
context and how the future memorial begins
to potentially develop and display multiple
layers of histories as suggested by Dr Katlego
Mwale, Susan Keitumetse and Laurence Mwale
[2022: 90]. This approach will run parallel to
Catherine Dee’s hypothetical design method
which will be used to speculate and propose
a landscape memorial that connects the three
significant sites within the precinct.
The project will acknowledge and memorialise
Botswana’s role during the struggle for liberation
in South Africa in a way that is indigenous to
the southern African context. It will preserve
the memories of the landscape and introduce
activities that will empower the community,
younger and future generations. It will create
a landscape dialogue and connection to the
three significant sites of the precinct through
climatology and ecological considerations as
methods of making and sustainability response.