A42 HOUSE MUSEUM hosted us for one of their regular book clubs, and we had an amazing, intimate deep dive into the realities of how surnames came about and the ways, good and bad, they affect our cultural and spiritual identities today.

In this episode, I wanted to trace the origins of what kept coming up in the last series, isithunywa

In Part 3 of this topic we spend time with the founders and congregants of the Seven Days Adventist Zion Church

In this episode, we spend time with Gogo Simenjalo and Gogo Zanemvula, a mother and daughter duo who use components of the Christian church and the bible as part of their healing practice

In this series we are exploring how healers balance African spirituality and Christianity. We will be attending different African Indigenous churches to try to get deeper understanding of this topic

This 3-part series is an in-depth exploration of the realities of the relationship between alcohol and spirituality in the practice of African culture

This 3-part series is an in-depth exploration of the realities of the relationship between alcohol and spirituality in the practice of African culture

This 3-part series is an in-depth exploration of the realities of the relationship between alcohol and spirituality in the practice of African culture

So this is part 2 of the topic of how the township destroyed African spirituality. It’s a conversation that I have been having with Bongisa Msuthu and Lerato Motshabi who are practitioners and academics within the architecture space. 

In the previous episode we explored the historical context of African architecture and how it informed how people structured their lives from a cultural and spiritual perspective. In this episode we now delve deep into the origins of township architecture. How it came about. The intention behind it and how the world it created shaped our cultural and spiritual identity. Let’s get into it. 

How did the physical structure of the township affect how black people navigated spirituality? Did it help to cultivate a better understanding of our connection to God or did it enforce a detrimental mindset?