Sites of unfinished independence in Johannesburg and Kinshasa

Abstract

This article looks at the material remains of the African independence era in Johannesburg's Constitution Hill (2004) and Kinshasa's Tour de l'échangeur de Limete (1974) according to how they function within their respective cityscapes. Adapting Walter Benjamin's method, I trace the contemporary meanings of built representatives of momentous eras.

Cet article étudie les restes matériels de l’époque de l’indépendance africaine dans Constitution Hill à Johannesburg (2004) et au Tour de L’échangeur de Kinshasa (1974) selon la façon dont ils fonctionnent au sein de leurs paysages urbains respectifs. En adaptant la méthode de Walter Benjamin, je m’attache aux significations contemporaines de constructions représentatives d’époques momentanées.

Keywords:

• African independence
• architecture
• Kinshasa
• Johannesburg

• Mots clés: indépendance africaine
• architecture
• Kinshasa
• Johannesburg

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Notes

1 Apartheid was a system of racism by law that was formally in place from 1948 to early 1990.

2 Meaning, ‘Tower of the Exchange in Limete’. This refers to the suburb in which the site is situated.

3 So uncommon are towering forms in Limete that Sammy Baloji and Filip de Boeck have made a video installation, photographic series and text around one individual's personal tower project (De Boeck and Baloji 2017, 216–226).

4 The architecture academy of Kinshasa today introduces Euro-America as the central root of modernist innovation and does not look at examples of buildings in the Congo.

5 As described by De Boeck and Baloji (2017, 51).

Additional information

Funding

I wish to acknowledge the financial support of the NRF, through the DST/NRF SARChI Chair in Social Change (Grant No. 70782) at the University of Fort Hare.