Mai Mai Market AMbush in Collaboration with 1:1 and PublicActs
Capturing Stories and Meaning Through Transformation and Symbolic Planting
Our Heritage is only the Beginning!
The Mai Mai market, with its embodiment of African (primarily but not exclusively Zulu) culture, exists within our city. Currently it operates somewhere between the formal and informal, somewhat hidden from the majority of the citizens’ eyes.
This space can become a site where we acknowledge and share the ecological and cultural heritage of this country and this region, and find ways to ensure that intercultural and intergenerational exchanges take place, to make this city representative of this country and this continent, and make an inclusive society, where we understand each other better, learn from one another, and celebrate our common history and future.
The Story-Planting PublicAct aimed to capture stories and meaning of KwaMai Mai, a traditional muthi market in the inner city of Johannesburg, through transformative and symbolic planting.
Through a series of participatory processes and engagements with a variety of local space-users, we were informed about the connections and values people associate with the market, and what the market contains and represents.
Discussion with Mdu, Mai Mai Commitee. (photo by Jhono Bennett, 2014)
We had many formal and informal engagements with local leadership, traders, customers, and passer-bys inside and around the market. This was primarily a trust-building process, but also served as developing a relationship where we could potentially facilitate a process to undercover shared meaning and visions for the future of Mai Mai.
Speaking with this range of people allowed us to understand the diverse perspectives, interests and needs in such a dynamic and complex environment, trying to understand how decisions are made, how conflicts are resolved, and power dynamics.
This was also crucial in building a relationship and trust with local stakeholders and community, to ensure the process is participatory, collaborative, relevant and lasts beyond the activation.
We facilitated two exercises to explore the meaning of Mai Mai, and the knowledge inside Mai Mai, using plants.
Dialogue with the Elders about the Heritage of the KwaMai Mai market, and the heritage within Mai Mai.
"This is where I am connected to my culture, this is where I am connected to my home" Sizwe, 2014
Traditional knowledge surrounding medicinal plants is also a very sensitive issue, and therefore needs to be carefully approached. That is why throughout this activation, we only used plants which everyone knows and has an experience with, and does not conflict with anybody’s intellectual property rights. This would allow for stories to emerge, around the significance of these plants in their lives, without limitations and conflict.
The first was with a group of elders, who we invited to join this conversation.
We uncovered a variety of beautifully intimate stories of people’s lives, cultures and connections to this space, as well as to what the space holds.
The session ended with a ceremonial planting of Aloe arborensis, an indigenous aloe with many medicinal properties, in a wooden palette. A beautiful final touch was when one participant suggested we put the palette on the roof of Mdu’s container. A lovely addition to the dark, polluted cooking space.
Following this engagement we continued to conduct interviews with the people within the foodcourt in Mai Mai. We were unable to speak to the people inside the actual market, out of request from Mdu, as this requires a certain amount of protocol due to the many tourists and researchers who come to that space, which disturbs many of the traders, nyangas, sangomas and residents of the space. During the interviews we spoke to many people who make their livelihoods through this space, and many of the meanings revealed the economic benefits of working here.
Jhono and Sun conducting interviews with space-users (photo by Jhono Bennett, 2014)
The actual space that we finally decided to transform for the festival was decided by Mdu, as he cleaned up a space in the food court, following our discussion with the elders. Such a locally initiated outcome is something that we really were inspired by, and how this decision was made
The site after Mdu's cleanup (photo by Jhono Bennett, 2014)
The PublicActs/Johannebsurg activation at Mai Mai used the meanings that were uncovered through the previous engagement to continue the research.
Making the planters (photo by Jhono Bennett, 2014)
Captured meanings in planter boxes written in English and Zulu (photo by Jhono Bennett, 2014)
We wrote 11 meanings onto cut palettes, and asked people present and passing-by to plant in the box with the meaning that they identified with. While doing this we planted in the area that Mdu had cleaned, and variety of locally indigenous plants, which have some medicinal and cultural value. The plants were selected as they are not sensitive, and almost everyone would have some knowledge, experience and story about the plant, as they are commonly used plants.
Children drumming, being part of the activation
Passer-bys and Participants were asked to plant a plant in a container, with a meaning that relates to them. Meanings were captured during the discussion with the elders, and in interviews with some people who use and trade in the market.
Here you see Liliana planting with the Nduna (chief) of the Mai Mai.
This container says: "This Place has Value"
(photo by Jhono Bennett, 2014)
After Shot (photo by Jhono Bennett, 2014)
A final, transformed space, capturing a variety of meanings and values that people hold to this space.
