Johannesburg

This book uses archival and interpretive methods to interrogate the degree to which selected South African public and commercial buildings between 1910 and 1948 (the Segregationist Era) may be regarded as indicators of various ideological, cultural and historical notions concerned with the construction of national identity. The issues of nationalism in South Africa during the Segregationist Era were greatly contested as rapid urbanization and industrialization shaped the Union of South Africa. British imperialism and Afrikaner nationalism were the two dominant and competing agendas in this period, with BaNtu (Natives or Indigenes) being kept outside the shifting developmental paradigm discourse. Using Johannesburg as a contested landscape of Western modernity, this book investigates the extent to which historical notions of national belonging defined by the British and Afrikaner government challenged or altered BaNtu's notion of national identity. This book argues that the rhetoric of unity in diversity through the use of architecture in public or private buildings excluded BaNtu in the discourse of forging a national identity. This inquiry is conducted through an investigation of literary and documentary texts dealing with life and living conditions of BaNtu in Johannesburg during the Segregationist Era. Interpretive analysis of archival materials focuses on reconstructing the historical, social and cultural contexts that BaNtu faced within Johannesburg during the Segregationist Era. Moreover, this book works as a compelling point of reference in assessing the narration of nationhood in a plural society, South Africa. Although theoretical focus is primarily on nationalism and its use of architecture (built-up space) in the forming and shaping national identity, analysis is not only guided by the hypothesis stated above, but also uses cultural explanations for the nature and meaning of what appear today to be rather curious and distinctive geographies of the Johannesburg landscape.-R.R.R. Dhlomo: Indlela Yababi-Peter Abrahams: Mine Boy-Modikwe Dikobe: Marabi Dance
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