Proceedings of the 42nd International Academic Conference, Rome

THE CUB SPEAKS: NARRATIVES OF CITIES IN AFRICA FROM YOUNG GRADUATES IN JOHANNESBURG

ABSALOM JABU MAKHUBU

Abstract:

There is a certain ‘othering’ when cities in the African continent are presented. Literature on cities in Africa is saturated by narratives by ‘explorers and scholars’ from the north, often decades past their youth. Very few, if any, narratives in academia are from young voices who have lived and experienced urban spaces in various parts of the continent. The question is, how does one change that in a pedagogical landscape built entirely on narratives or texts that are ‘other’ to these youthful African voices? How does one shift pedagogy in an inherently colonial and industrial curriculum? This study applies postmodern theories in narrating and studying both historic and contemporary realities of urbanization of cities in Africa through the lens of the self and storytelling as valid research method. It shifts focus from set literature and prioritizes lived experiences from young voices, moreover, it presents these as authentic pedagogical approaches. The study is interested in how young people narrate, represent and present their immediate contexts. Since 2016, propelled by the 2014/15 ‘fees must fall’ student movement in South Africa which, amongst other things, advocated for the decolonization of education, the Department of Architecture at the University of Johannesburg introduced a lecture series focusing on cities in Africa within an existing module offering, but shifted the focus by inviting young and diverse voices as presenters. In 2017, the series was taken out of the classroom into communal student spaces within the department to make it accessible to a larger interactive audience and to loosen the series from prescriptive curriculum structures. It is a work in progress, however what has come out from this two-year experiment, for the students presenting and participating in the series, is a yearning to hear more voices, the appreciation of various narratives and perspectives presented, and the need to expand such an experiment beyond the boundaries of the university campus.

Keywords: Africa, Cities, Pedagogy, Postmodern, Urbanism

DOI: 10.20472/IAC.2018.042.032

PDF: Download