Has your wall become part of history

Hey Sophiatown residents, are you willing to have your wall painted in the name of preserving your community’s history?

Well, there is currently a community art project running within your neighbourhood and through it, a mural is painted on it that depicts a part of history distinct to your community.

The first of such walls to be painted belongs to long-time resident and community artist, Elisa Ray. The central motif of her mural is the oak tree. “This was the first champion tree of the country and the very first one to get champion status.

“It was given this status because of its historic and cultural significance. Before forced removals of 1955 people would meet under this oak tree, most notably, Trevor Huddleston who was an Anglican priest that did a lot of community work and also is said to have given Hugh Masekela his first trumpet.”

Painting her wall were a few University of Johannesburg Art Therapy Honours students. One of those was Isabella Franciso, who said they conducted community engagement prior to the project, and although the initial build-up around it was slow, she found it endearing to hear the ideas some in the community had when they were asked what words they would love to see on the wall and that word was drawn on the root of the tree.

One of the members of the Sophaitown Arts Festival Collective, Yavini Naidoo, said this year the collective would take to the streets, “Our way of doing this was to get residents to offer up their walls to paint something of history that they have a connection with. So we have a team of youth and archivists that will talk about different aspects of the history.”

She shared that there are so many stories to tell and as the collective, they love Sophiatown. “It is so fun to create a space in the streets to be able to share in the history.”

Details: Yavini Naidoo 084 560 1187.