Commemorating the past in the urban present: Living heritage on Constitution Hill/Johannesburg

Abstract

Located in the centre of Johannesburg, Constitution Hill represents a distinctive memorial site that commemorates the experiences of male and female prisoners with the state-sponsored violence of apartheid. As part of a larger urban development, Constitution Hill juxtaposes the heritage installations in the three former prison buildings with the new Constitutional Court, the Commission for Gender Equality, as well as some commercial and rental space. The hybridity of the site reflects the curators’ emphasis on living heritage, on remembering the past in response to the needs of the present. Such a multifunctional space of commemoration, political activism, and urban rehabilitation has to navigate competing interests: ideally serving as a campus for human rights, while also requiring the temporary closure of the permanent exhibitions when the venue is used to host other events. Based on extensive archival research and repeated visits to the Women’s Jail between 2013 and 2016, I argue that this urban memorial museum is shaped by often conflicting demands which undermine the objectives of the curators and former detainees who had wanted to expand the archive of apartheid experiences and render visible women’s unique responses to institutionalised racism and its insidious infiltration of everyday life.