Yvette Gresl
On June 16 1976 groups of Soweto schoolchildren took to the streets to protest against Bantu education and Afrikaans as a medium of instruction. Police, sent to the township to suppress the uprising, opened fire. The shooting of protestor Hector Petersen was poignantly captured in one of South Africa’s most publicised press photographs, now an icon of the resistance to apartheid.
Today a museum commemorating Petersen is under construction in Orlando West, Soweto. Johannesburg architects Phill Mashabane and Jeremy Rose of MRA, the winners of the Robben Island Millennium Structure and Freedom Pathway competition, designed the structure.
The site they selected is not far from where Petersen was killed. The African National Congress Youth League erected a memorial to Peterson on the actual site of his death.
The subtlety and restraint that characterises MRA’s scheme for Robben Island is evident in the design for the museum.
The ANC Youth League memorial has been integrated within a large, openair gathering space through which the visitor walks before entering the museum. This space, constructed with bands of cobbles and grass, is inscribed with a physical line running from the museum to the actual site of Petersen’s shooting. Along one of the boundaries of the gathering space is a series of slate walls, interrupted by openings that form thresholds through which visitor’s may pass. A subtle water feature has been built in front of the memorial. Adjacent is a garden of contemplation.
MRA has conceptualised the museum as a redbrick, spiral structure around an outdoor courtyard. The visitor’s journey through the museum space will follow a linear, historical narrative, beginning with the events leading to apartheid through to the June 16 uprising and ending with the current political context. The museum will also include an auditorium.
The Hector Petersen Museum is due to open on Heritage Day, September 24.