Fort West à PRETORIA

LE PROJET DE REHABILITATION DE FORWEST

Fort West, to the west of Tshwane (Pretoria), is a 389 hectares property that has diverse cultural heritage features. A number of indigenous ruins are scattered across the site as well as British drystone fortifications. The site is named after West Fort, a Boer republic fort conceived by a former French army officer and built in the French military architecture style in 1897-98. The village itself is a former leper colony and psychiatric hospital. Fort West Village Ltd is developing all this property, of which a quarter is put aside as a conservation area and the venture has been designated a Tshwane Metro Special Mayoral Project. Fort West Heritage Foundation (FWHF) is the non-profit-making organisation set up in 2003 to ensure the safeguarding of Fort West’s cultural heritage through the development of policy guidelines and through fundraising and activities for its conservation, presentation and accessibility.

The French Embassy in South Africa wished to promote the French links inherent in the fort and to contribute to the conservation and promotion of the other cultural heritage features at Fort West. Youth volunteer heritage conservation projects are well-developed in France and recognised as an original tool for conserving built heritage and encouraging youth citizenship. The idea of the Fort West heritage volunteer camp was to facilitate the transfer of ideas and know-how in heritage conservation and enhancement, as well as in youth volunteering projects.

So the French Embassy in South Africa called upon CHAM for its know-how in youth heritage conservation projects. Following a week’s feasibility trip at Fort West, CHAM concluded that volunteer camps could not only contribute to the conservation and enhancement of Fort West’s heritage but could also be an appropriate tool in responding to certain wider needs of today’s South African society (including providing training and skilling possibilities for youth, promoting volunteerism, citizenship and cultural diversity and contributing to transformation imperatives through participative and inclusive heritage activities). CHAM thus proposed to cooperate with FWHF in order to organise an experimental youth volunteer heritage conservation workcamp at Fort West through provision of experienced and trained personnel for the design, preparation, carrying out and evaluation of the project.

From 12th June to 2nd July 2005 a group of over twenty volunteers and facilitators (from South Africa, Zimbabwe, Mozambique and France) worked and lived together for three weeks. The way of functioning was based on standard practices used on youth volunteer camps in France and Zimbabwe.

Work was at the heart of the project and the group worked in the field an average of 7 hours daily, five days a week. The work involved establishing a heritage hiking trail encompassing a number of heritage features, as well as enhancing three of these features, in particular the fort. Towards the end of the camp, volunteers assembled their ideas, observations and suggestions to produce detailed and well-informed recommendations to the foundation as to how the trail could be developed.

As well as the work aspect, the project involved group life and discovery of Gauteng’s cultural heritage. Outings on days off were planned to enable volunteers to learn about South African history, as well as relax.

Camp life was an integral part of the project as everyone lived together on site in cottages at the former hospital and all took part in the daily tasks. Each day started with a group meeting and extra meetings were held when information needed giving out or a specific problem discussed. Meals were provided by a caterer, with teams of two volunteers helping out in the kitchen each day and doing the housework. The evenings were often spent around the camp fire, talking and listening to music.

On the last Wednesday of the project an open day was organised to present the results to around thirty invited guests, including parents and tutors, archaeologists, the press and representatives of the project’s partners and sponsors. Volunteers organised a small exhibition to present the project.

At the end of the camp, and volunteers were given attendance certificates as well as testimonials to strengthen their employment prospects and / or to serve as a diploma for a practical course contributing to their studies.

In the course of setting up and running this project at Fort West, partners such as SAHRA (South African Heritage Resources Agency, the statutory organ taking care of the nation’s cultural heritage) and the Department of Arts and Culture (DAC), expressed interest in working on similar heritage partnership projects. This is promising for the development of similar activities in South Africa and CHAM would be ready to study possibilities of other partnerships.