In South Africa, Wandile Mthiyane deconstructs the legacy of apartheid through architecture
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Wandile Mthiyane fidgets in the passenger seat: ” It’s here ! Looks like the floods didn’t destroy anything, there is progress! » At the end of the path that winds through the green hills around Durban, he points to a small house that has just risen from the ground.
In 2014, the couple’s adobe shelter that lived on the land was washed away by a storm. This time the walls withstood the rains that claimed the lives of more than 450 people in April. Didn’t even have to mop the floor. Wandile Mthiyane is relieved: this house with orange and white walls is his manifesto.
At 28, the South African is at the head of a unique architectural firm: the Ubuntu Design Group. When others dream of building skyscrapers, he wants to repair society. Born in 1994, Wandile Mthiyane grew up on the ruins of a world where “architecture was designed to oppress”. For nearly half a century, under the apartheid regime, black populations were confined to townships, far from the economic centers reserved for whites outside working hours.
“Houses of 40 m240 kilometers from the city centers, so that they spend 40% of their income on transport in order to keep them in poverty”summarizes Wandile Mthiyane.
A scholarship for the United States
Thirty years later, things haven’t really changed. “The laws have fallen, but the walls are still there. Physically, we still live in a form of apartheid”continues the architect, who grew up in one of these poor townships on the outskirts of Durban.
Since he was 12 years old, Wandile Mthiyane has wanted to build houses that are stronger than the heaps of sheet metal built with his friends and which fell on them as a kid. With his baccalaureate in hand, he dreams of studying in the United States. His family doesn’t have a penny. Never mind. He snatches an exceptional scholarship by besieging the town hall of Durban and flies away to study at Andrews University, in Michigan.
In the United States, the student discovers the history of segregation and participates in the Black Lives Matter movement. “When I came back to South Africa in 2015, some things jumped out at me. These high walls in white residential areas, it’s a form of apartheid. But it’s hard to have this conversation here. The country has a lot of problems, unemployment is high, people have other priorities. »
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