There is a tenth birthday celebration going to take place in Grahamstown next year and it should not be kept a secret.
In fact, everyone in Grahamstown ought to be thinking about how they can take ownership of this birthday party and turn it into a significant cultural event. Visitors to Grahamstown should also be thinking of how they can get a slice of the cake.
There is a tenth birthday celebration going to take place in Grahamstown next year and it should not be kept a secret.
In fact, everyone in Grahamstown ought to be thinking about how they can take ownership of this birthday party and turn it into a significant cultural event. Visitors to Grahamstown should also be thinking of how they can get a slice of the cake.
The Egazini Outreach Project turns ten years old next July. Located in a former apartheid-era police station, Egazini is a dynamic community arts, culture and heritage initiative.
The project was founded in June 2000 by two Grahamstown academics, Dominic Thorburn and Julia Wells, to enable local township folks to re-interpret the local historical Egazini battle site. Today, the Egazini Outreach Project functions as both a heritage initiative and as an economic empowerment project for local artists and crafters.
Egazini means “a place of blood” as it is the battlefield where the Xhosa Chief Makana attacked the British settlers of Grahamstown in 1819. The battlefield is protected by the South African Resources Heritage Agency as a heritage site.
The buildinf from which the project operates is located not far from this site and is more than just a place that pays homage to those whose blood was spilled in the battle. It is a place from which creativity and hope is kindled.
Violet Booi is one of the elderly women who work at the project to make prints and designs on fabric. Her enthusiasm for the project is overwhelming as she welcomes you to take a walk through the craft shop and its accompanying workshop spaces.
As you walk through the building, you can only marvel at how the haunting brutality of the old police station has been transformed by the artworks that are on display and for sale.
This is an empowering example of how the arts can allow local communities to take ownership of telling their history and through which they can sustain themselves economically.
However, it is rather disappointing that this remarkable heritage and cultural initiative is still somehow regarded as Grahamstown’s most well kept secret. A search through local tourism materials gives the Egazini Outreach Project very scant mention.
While the roads to Grahamstown are boldly marked to inform travellers that they are entering Frontier Country territory, there is not a single sign that points in the direction of the historic battle site or to the Egazini Outreach Project.
Perhaps, in anticipation of the project’s tenth birthday next year, directional signage could be a generous birthday gift that Makana Municipality could give to this arts and legacy project.
In a city that is rife with economic impoverishment and unemployment, the skills that Thorburn and Wells have invested with the local community members who manage the Egazini Outreach Project is commendable. However, the project can grow much bigger if local Grahamstown citizens take pride in the success of this project and make it their business to take visitors to Grahamstown to visit it and to support the local artists.
Each year during the National Arts Festival, the artists and crafters who work at the Egazini Outreach Project travel in local taxis to the city centre to sell their wares to festival visitors. The project receives scant promotion in local tourism collateral so most visitors to Grahamstown are oblivious of the existence of this dynamic space from which creativity just oozes.
Next year, more than a thousand visitors will gather at Miki Yili Stadium and which is a stone’s throw from the Egazini Outreach Project. The stadium is designated as a public viewing area during the Fifa soccer world cup.
It will be an indictment on the city if this significant tenth birthday of the project is not capitalised to draw soccer fans to support the local artists and crafters. Egazini may be a place of blood but it is right here where the Egazini Outreach Project stands as a testimony of hope for the artists who work in the old police station.
It is their blood and their sweat that will shadow the brutal history of the building and colour it with inspiration, creativity and productivity.
For the citizens of Grahamstown, the Egazini Outreach Project is a living testimony of how far we have all traveled in our journey to reconcile the past with the present. The tenth birthday of the Egazini Outreach Project must find us all joining hands to strengthen this road and to allow visitors to our city to travel this journey with us.
The birthday party must start in earnest. It must commence with Makana Municipality putting up directional signage to the centre. Local schools must take their learners to the centre to learn about the city’s history.
A new generation of academics and students at Rhodes University should be able to see the value of Thorburn and Well’s vision. They must commit themselves to grow that vision through newer university student outreach initiatives.
Local businesses should find ways through which they can channel their corporate social responsibility commitments to invest in the growth of the centre. Hotels and other accommodation establishments must keep information about the project at the disposable of their visitors. They should entice their guests to visit the centre.
The tourism authorities in the city and the province must commit themselves to increasing the visibility of the Egazini Outreach Project.
Even the National Arts Festival must join the party and celebrate the project as a dynamic example of how legacy, arts and economics can be married.
This must be the one party that the citizens of Grahamstown should not miss! We need to ensure that every visitor leaves the city with a piece of artwork bought from the artists and crafters at the Egazini Outreach Project. Their sweat is a creative way in which homage is paid to the spirits of the fallen in Egazini!
Ismail Mahomed is the Director of the National Arts Festival.
