Credo Mutwa Village to be restored:
ONE of Soweto's premier tourist attractions, the Credo Mutwa Cultural Village, is in a sad state of disrepair. However, the City is determined to restore it to its former glory.
May 27, 2005
By Lucille Davie
Johannesburg News Agency (www.joburg.org.za)
The Credo Mutwa Cultural Village in Jabavu, Soweto, one of the township's premier tourist attractions, is in a serious state of disrepair. However, it is to be restored in early 2006.
Surveys of the site are being conducted, with a report expected by June. Once the tender process is complete, restoration will start.
"We have really wanted to do this for a number of years," says Eric Itzkin, the deputy director of immovable heritage in the City's department of arts and culture.
The village, consisting of clay sculptures and buildings in the Oppenheimer Gardens in Central Western Jabavu, was completed by well-known artist, author and traditional healer Credo Mutwa, in 1974.
The large painted sculptures of human and animal figures have a mythical and, in some cases, fearsome quality, depicting African culture and folklore. The buildings are constructed in a variety of African building styles.
Mutwa, who now lives near Hartbeespoort Dam, used to practise as a healer at his house in Diepkloof in the 1970s. He met Gilbert Briscoe, manager of parks at the time, and between them, they decided to create the village.
Briscoe arranged for Mutwa to be employed by the city council as the supervisor of the gardens. Mutwa was creating sculptures and making figures out of recycled metal at his home at the time, says Briscoe, in addition to healing and putting on plays.
Mutwa has published three books: Indaba My Children (1966), Africa Is My Witness (1966) and My People: Writings of a Zulu Witchdoctor (1969).
The village sits alongside the historic conical Oppenheimer Tower, built in 1957. It was named after mining magnate Ernest Oppenheimer, who donated money for the demolition of shacks and construction of houses, in Moroka in Soweto.
Surrounding the tower are attractive landscaped gardens filled with indigenous medicinal plants.
A conservation architect will guide the restoration, with assistance from artists and craftsmen who assisted Mutwa originally. A photographic record consisting of 180 slides of the early development of the village exists, and will be used to guide the reconstruction.
The figures were constructed using a variety of techniques and materials: cement and mud mortars, stone and brick masonry and recycled metals. The report will detail what materials were used for each figure.
This month the City of Johannesburg's mapping and survey department completed a detailed topographical survey, consisting of 7 500 readings. A photographic inventory was also taken. The cost of the restoration is expected to be R600 000.
The Credo Mutwa Cultural Village is also known as Khayalendaba, or "Place of Stories", and has always been associated with story-telling, rituals and ceremonies, plays and other cultural activities.
This tradition will be restored with the hosting of a major international theatre production at the site in June.
Vuka! Vuka!, or "Wake up!", a large, outdoor, multimedia show featuring artists from the Netherlands, Spain and South Africa, will be staged at the Oppenheimer Gardens from 22 to 26 June.
It involves artists from different theatre groups in KwaZulu-Natal, Limpopo and Gauteng, school children from the Topsy Foundation, sound-scape producer Michael Banabila and well-known musicians Pops Mahomed and McCoy Mrubata.
The show will move to Grahamstown, before returning to Joburg in July. From 9 to 16 July it will be performed at the IH Harris School in Doornfontein.
Vuka! Vuka! forms part of the Road to Arts Alive programme. A tent in the Oppenheimer Gardens will be able to accommodate 800 people for the free performances.