Cultural Studies in Practice: UKZN Students Visit Durban Memorial Sites

As part of the Bachelor of Arts (Honours) in Cultural Heritage and Tourism programme, UKZN students, accompanied by staff members, toured Durban’s memorial landscape.

The purpose of the trip was to help students apply theories of representation, identity, material culture and cultural heritage to the sites they visited, with a particular focus on cultural memory and cultural tourism.

The module is offered in the discipline of Cultural Studies, Media and Fine Art, with the field trip being an important component of the module, as it seeks to move students outside the classroom and provide opportunities for them to apply their knowledge.

It also enables them to critically engage with the world around them, according to the module co-ordinator, Professor Sarah Gibson. The transport for the field trip was generously sponsored by the College of Humanities. Aligning the tour with the module, Gibson describes walking as a critical, decolonised, outdoor and mobile pedagogy.

Postgraduate students were taken on a tour of the monuments and statues in and around Durban, accompanied by Gibson, lecturer Ms Zainab Khan, and Emeritus Professor Donal McCracken.

Gibson said the trip was an informative and exciting excursion during which students visited nine statues.

The tour began with the monuments and memorials on Howard College campus itself, before venturing further afield to explore those at Albert Luthuli Square, Margaret Mncandi Avenue, and King Shaka International Airport.

Gibson commented that “the visits to the new Durban statues of Nelson Mandela and Oliver Tambo were a particular highlight of the field trip for staff and students as these had only been officially unveiled in March this year.”

Words: Sinoyolo Mahlasela

Photograph: Supplied