Page 80 - Research & Innovation Report 2020

ENGINEERING, THE BUILT
ENVIRONMENT AND TECHNOLOGY

The most ancient sites along

the Eastern Cape coast

A lot more work needs to be done to acknowledge the wisdom and science of the first
indigenous people of southern Africa.

The Spirit of Water: Practices of cultural reappropriation. Indigenous
heritage sites along the coast of the Eastern Cape-South Africa,
is the name of the book published in 2021 by Firenze University
Press, Florence University, authored by Dr Magda Minguzzi from
the School of Architecture, in co-authorship with the Khoisan chiefs
of Nelson Mandela Bay.

“The whole project was a partnership with twelve Indigenous
leaders from the greater Nelson Mandela Bay area. Started in 2015
by my NRF Community Engagement Programme research group,
its scope was to investigate methods and procedures that could
help re-establish the link between the Indigenous communities
and their ‘forgotten’ heritage sites. The representative chief for
the Cape Khoi at Cape Recife, Chief Xam ≠ Gaob Maleiba of the

Research collaboration on the early developmental stages
of fish larvae in the stone walled fish traps, Cape Recife
Nature Reserve. From bottom left to right: Dr Francesca Porri
(SAIAB), Dr Magda Minguzzi, Chief Xam ≠ Gaob Maleiba,
Damasonqua tribe, Dr Paula Pattrick (SAEON).

Damasonqua tribe, told us, ‘We are finally able to write our own
history from our point of view.’”

Research started with precolonial fish traps along the greater
Nelson Mandela Bay coast, including at Cape Recife, with the first-
ever drawings of them featured in the book: “We refer to them as
‘precolonial’ because they cover a wide time frame; we know they
were there more than 2000 years ago and that they were built and
used by people along the coast. These are the most ancient sites,
culturally and architecturally, along the Eastern Cape coast. The
Khoisan chiefs performed ancestral rituals to honour their heritage
and spoke about how the history of oppression affected and still
affects their lives.”
Dr Minguzzi interviewing Jean Burgess, First Indigenous
Peoples leader of the Ghonaqua people, Eastern Cape coast. In 2021, Dr Minguzzi also a published a paper on this work
This interview and those with the Khoisan chiefs of Nelson in the journal Architecture SA, titled: ‘Practices of Cultural
Mandela Bay are featured in the book, “The Spirit of Water”. Reappropriation. A project on Khoisan heritage in the Eastern

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