The Mail & Guardian’s city guide for Durban includes mention of the Grey Street literary trail, developed with KZN Literary Tourism.
Grey Street literary tour
If you happen to be in Durban on the last Thursday of the month, check out the Grey Street literary tour for a more authentic experience of the area. Trace the lives of famed figures such as Fatima Meer, Phyllis Naidoo and Mahatma Gandhi and experience the places that inspired literary works by Imraan Coovadia, Aziz Hassim, Ravi Govender and Mariam Akabor. The half-day tour costs R250. Contact: +27 312 602 308
Nellie Hlongwane interviews story-teller Gcina Mhlophe for the Ulwazi Programme.
Born in Hammersdale Township, Durban in 1959, Gcina Mhlophe-Becker is a well-known South African freedom fighter, activist, actor, storyteller, poet, playwright, director and author. She does her most important work through charismatic performances, working to preserve storytelling as a means of keeping history alive and encouraging South African children to read.
We are currently involved in producing, with Vuleka Productions, a series of six web documentaries for the eThekwini Municipality’s Libraries and Heritage department. The documentaries look at the history of Inanda through interviews with prominent members of the community, including Ela Gandhi, Lulu Dube, Baba Zondi and Mr Ximba (of the Shembe Church), amongst others.
The documentaries will be released online, with DVD copies available from the city’s libraries.
DURBAN SINGS is a pilot project collaboratively initiated and collectively developed by Molefi Mafareka Ndlovu, community research scholar at the Centre for Civil Society (CCS, UKZN), and Dr. Claudia Wegener, a visiting scholar from the University of the Arts London (UAL), together with 50 young people from 12 Durban community organizations, many of them now trained and networked as editorial collectives of audio producers for micro-media hubs in their local organizations and areas.
The project has a base at the university as a CCS outreach initiative – it includes training and workshops for recording, interview, audio-editing, oral history and IT skills; oral history data-collection, on-line and off-line archiving, project management, public presentations, networking, blog-editing, and broadcasts. An extensive on-line audio archive is uploaded at www.archive.org; and collections of oral history interviews from Clermont, Folweni, Inanda, Ntuzuma, Marianridge, Mzinyathi, Umlazi and the inner city are networked via their own blogs, the ‘switch-board’ blog at www.durbansings.wordpress.com and a ‘community portal’ at the CCS web-site: https://www.ukzn.ac.za/ccs/default.asp?11,62
DURBAN SINGS is funded by the Rosa Luxemburg Foundation.
Editors presenting the project for discussion at the City Cultures Seminar:
Venue:ccrri seminar room, 2nd floor George Campbell building, South Campus, Howard College Campus of teh University of KwaZulu-Natal. Use the south entrance into the building; and Entrance 3 on Rick Turner (Francois) Road if driving.
