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Creative Cities, Graffiti and Culture‐Led Development in South Africa: Dlala Indima (‘Play Your Part’)

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  • Rike Sitas

Abstract

Creative cities and culture‐led development discourses have come under increasing scrutiny as elite‐centric economic development agendas tend to trump ‘civic creativity’ ideals as imagined by Charles Landry. In South Africa, culture‐led development and cultural policy tends to primarily mimic that of the global North, largely focusing on culture as a catalyst for economic and property development. Public art commissioning processes tend to focus on decorative projects as part of urban upgrading, which are often associated with ensuing gentrification and displacement of the urban poor. In contrast to focusing on these kinds of regeneration strategies, this article investigates Dlala Indima, a hip‐hop‐led graffiti project in a rural township in the Eastern Cape of South Africa. This article situates graffiti as a critical social and spatial practice to argue that this case challenges normative cultural planning paradigms. Dlala Indima's work is an alternative approach to cultural development by and for young people who are usually marginalized by the mainstream practice of culture‐led economic development. The project challenges dominant creative cities and culture‐led development discourses in three ways: first, it challenges the normative processes of regeneration; secondly, it grounds participatory practice; and finally, it shifts participation from ‘tyranny to transformation’ through the ubuntu of hip‐hop, the notion of ubuntu being based on the communitarian notion of ‘ubuntu, ngubuntu ngabantu’—‘I am because you are’.

Suggested Citation

  • Rike Sitas, 2020. "Creative Cities, Graffiti and Culture‐Led Development in South Africa: Dlala Indima (‘Play Your Part’)," International Journal of Urban and Regional Research, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 44(5), pages 821-840, September.
  • Handle: RePEc:bla:ijurrs:v:44:y:2020:i:5:p:821-840
    DOI: 10.1111/1468-2427.12894
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    1. Tessa Maria Guazon, 2013. "Creative Mediations of the City: Contemporary Public Art as Compass of M etro M anila's Urban Conditions," International Journal of Urban and Regional Research, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 37(3), pages 864-878, May.
    2. Frank Moulaert & Hilde Demuynck & Jacques Nussbaumer, 2004. "Urban renaissance: from physical beautification to social empowerment," City, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 8(2), pages 229-235, July.
    3. Kurt Iveson, 2010. "The wars on graffiti and the new military urbanism," City, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 14(1-2), pages 115-134, February.
    4. Jamie Peck, 2005. "Struggling with the Creative Class," International Journal of Urban and Regional Research, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 29(4), pages 740-770, December.
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    1. The Re‐Arrangements Collective & Fabien Cante & Ajmal Hussain & Timo Makori & Surer Qassim Mohamed & Alana Osbourne & Francesca Pilo' & Kavita Ramakrishnan & AbdouMaliq Simone & Rike Sitas & Adeem Suh, 2023. "Movement 5. Sensing The Affective Lives Of Arrangements," International Journal of Urban and Regional Research, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 47(3), pages 510-521, May.
    2. Liza Rose Cirolia & Rike Sitas & Andrea Pollio & Alexis Gatoni Sebarenzi & Prince K Guma, 2023. "Silicon Savannahs and motorcycle taxis: A Southern perspective on the frontiers of platform urbanism," Environment and Planning A, , vol. 55(8), pages 1989-2008, November.
    3. Naai-Jung Shih, 2024. "AI-Generated Graffiti Simulation for Building Façade and City Fabric," Societies, MDPI, vol. 14(8), pages 1-20, August.
    4. Antonio Moya‐Latorre, 2022. "URBAN CELEBRATION IN A BRAZILIAN FAVELA: From an Art Festival to a Youth Movement," International Journal of Urban and Regional Research, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 46(6), pages 1035-1053, November.
    5. Jenny Mbaye & ANDY C. PRATT, 2020. "Cities, Creativities and Urban Creative Economies: Re‐descriptions and Make+Shifts from Sub‐Saharan Africa," International Journal of Urban and Regional Research, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 44(5), pages 781-792, September.
    6. Andreea-Loreta Cercleux, 2022. "Graffiti and Street Art between Ephemerality and Making Visible the Culture and Heritage in Cities: Insight at International Level and in Bucharest," Societies, MDPI, vol. 12(5), pages 1-25, September.

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