Men and ‘Women’s Magic’: Contested Narratives of Gender, Seidhr, and ‘Ergi’

This article explores the role of remembering and history in the process of planning new spaces. We trace how the organizational remembering of past spaces enters the conception (i.e. planning) of a large culture center. By drawing on Henri Lefebvre’s reflections on history, time and memory, we analyze the processual interconnections of his spatial triad, namely between the planned, practiced, and lived moments of the production of space. We find that over time space planning involves recurrent, changing, and contested narratives on ‘lost spaces’, remembering happy spaces of the past that articulate a desire to regain them. The notion of lost space adds to our understanding of how space planning involves, through organizational remembering, a sociomaterial and spatiotemporal work of relating together different spaces and times in non-linear narratives of repetition.

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(Un)Liberated and Contested Narratives

Advances in Public Policy and Administration - Handbook of Research on Advocacy, Promotion, and Public Programming for Memory Institutions ◽

10.4018/978-1-5225-7429-3.ch018 ◽

2019 ◽

pp. 334-347

Author(s):

Bongani C Ndhlovu

Keyword(s):

South Africa ◽

Public Sphere ◽

South African ◽

Social Cohesion ◽

Nation Building ◽

The State ◽

The Public ◽

The Public Sphere ◽

The Many ◽

Contested Narratives

This chapter analyses the influence of the state in shaping museum narratives, especially in a liberated society such as South Africa. It argues that while the notion of social cohesion and nation building is an ideal that many South African museums should strive for, the technocratisation of museum processes has to a degree led to a disregard of the public sphere as a space of open engagement. Secondly, the chapter also looks at the net-effect of museums professionals and boards in the development of their narrative. It argues that due to the nature of their expertise and interests, and the focus on their areas of specialisation, museums may hardly claim to be representative of the many voices they ought to represent. As such, the chapter explores contestations in museum spaces. It partly does so by exploring the notion “free-spokenness” and its limits in museum spaces. To amplify its argument, the chapter uses some exhibitions that generated critical engagements from Iziko Museums of South Africa.

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