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The City Agency

THE CITY The City was founded by Zahira Asmal in February 2010. Our work is amorphous, curious, and celebrates multiplicity. The City is a space for all.

Working out of Cape Town, South Africa, The City celebrates diversity and debate on a cross-continental scale. The City investigates the dynamic cultural, social and spatial activities shaping our contemporary urban consciousness. Through publications, curated experiences and strategic connections, The City disseminates information to targeted groups in the private, public and civic sectors. Harne

ssing a global network of visionary designers, thinkers and communicators, we develop innovative solutions to social, cultural and spatial challenges. We are motivated by the belief that imagination is the key to a shared future.

31/05/2024

The City is looking for a freelance graphic designer to work on our See project (link in the comments below).

If this interests you, please send your CV and portfolio to The City [email protected]

20/06/2023

Catch The City Agency on CNN this week!

Our very own, Zahira Asmal, will feature on CNN Inside Africa alongside 5 other Cape Town based entrepreneurs.

The segment will focus on Zahira's research in Cape Town, projects undertaken by The City now 13 years old, as well as the 3 year old Cultivate Collective and Cultivate Company, that Zahira founded at the start of lockdown in 2020.

The feature is filmed at the Zeitz MOCAA, Bo Kaap and at the Cultivate Marketplace.

—

The show will be aired on:
Saturday 24 June
17:30 Eastern Time | 23:30 South African Time
22:00 ET | 04:00 SA Time

Sunday 25 June
01:30 ET | 07:30 in SA
06:30 ET | 12:30 in SA
12:30 ET | 18:30 in SA

12/06/2023

This Wednesday, The City director, Zahira Asmal will be giving a talk at the University of Oxford in the UK.

The talk titled, "Welcome to Johannesburg", will take place in the Dahrendorf Room in St Antony's College at 4pm on Wednesday, 14 June 2023.

Abstract
Zahira Asmal narrates a journey through the obstacles, triumphs, and challenges of making place in a developing African City.

In a dynamic presentation, Zahira pulls together the threads of South Africa’s spatial history: colonialism, apartheid, forced removals, migrant labour, the new Afripolitan city. She critiques a development ideology that celebrates modernity, rather than successfully integrating the past into the present. She imagines a pan-African vision, where government, citizens, the diaspora all contribute equally to the making of the city.

Zahira investigates South Africa’s contested history. How has this influenced the making of memories and identities? How do culture and design professionals navigate the new democratic city? Who has agency to make place in the country’s biggest metropolis?

Zahira takes the audience behind the corrugated iron and razor wire that boards up old spaces in Johannesburg. She bravely invites us to witness her battles with a stubborn municipal bureaucracy. She offers her dreams and hopes for our analysis.

This is a unique, intimate and unmissable snapshot of the human aspect embedded within the design process. Zahira’s journey offers international insights, personal perspectives, and a good dose of optimism.

08/06/2023

The City director, Zahira Asmal, is with The Architectural Review in Brighton today for their Future Projects awards. Launched in 2002, the AR Future Projects awards are a window into tomorrows cities.

Zahira served as a judge alongside Jorge Perez and Duncan Blackmore.

Visit the link in the comments to view the winners of the 2023 AR Future Projects awards.

08/12/2022

Since launching in 2017 the See project has brought together individuals & institutions to exchange ideas, debate & develop methodologies to bring about representational equity in the public life of cities shadowed by colonialism & aparthied.

The City is fortunate to have learned from individuals & institutions offering time, knowledge & collaboration. They work tirelessly to make this young democracy inclusive and representative. We give thanks to the teams at the District Six Museum, Institute for Creative Arts & Urban Design Institute of South Africa.

We extended the See project beyond our borders, to places that have a connection to Cape Town’s past & present. We have been guided by the teams at the Consulate General of the Netherlands in Cape Town, Het Nieuwe Instituut, Research Center for Material Culture, Nationaal Archief, Rijks Museum, Black Archives & Black Heritage Tours. Special thanks go to Bonnie Horbach.

We are grateful for the financial support from the Creative Industries Fund & DutchCulture making global connections, activities and publications possible.

“The See project promised to generate rigorous debate, fresh discoveries and new ways to See and be seen. It has certainly delivered on that as well as having created impactful and long-lasting relationships,” - Zahira Asmal, director of The City.

Please join The City as we extend the work of See. The project actively seeks out stories, imagery & designs. Participation is invited from people living in Cape Town & from across the world.

Scroll through some highlights:

1. Launch of See, Sir David Adjaye in conversation with Zahira Asmal
2. Widening the Scope of History & Memory conversation with Wayne Modest
3. Monuments & Memorials Studio with Arna Mackic, pictured with Khalied Jacobs, District Six
4. Zahira Asmal takes the Dutch Ambassador, Han Peters, & CG, Sebastiaan Messerschmidt on a tour of sites of memory
5 & 6. Knowledge Sharing Workshop, District Six Homecoming Center
7. Transnational Workshop, Het Nieuwe Instituut
8. See Conference panel discussion led by Steven Robins
9. See Studio presentation, Uzair Ben Ibrahim
10. See Studio presentation, Kawthar Jeewa & Sara Frikech

07/12/2022

Highlights from the See Conference.

07/12/2022

The Contested City

Cape Town was selected as the location for the See project as it is a global port city, a hub for both the voluntary and forced migration of people. While its citizens reflect multiple, diverse histories, Cape Town has largely been modelled as an assimilated version of Europe and is not equally inclusive of all its cultures.

The majority of Cape Town’s residents remain a cultural minority - underrepresented in the public life of the city - a place they call home. Challenged by the lack of representation in Cape Town, Zahira Asmal initiated the See project to draw urgent attention to the identities, memories and histories that inform the evolving social, spatial and cultural realities of Cape Town.

“Cape Town was founded on public policy grounded on exclusion, initially through colonialism and later by apartheid, and lacks representation as a democratic city. We need to acknowledge and explore our pasts truthfully and meaningfully if we are to make Cape Town the city we wish her to be, for all.”

Scroll through images of memory and contestations in Cape Town:
1. Castle (Fort) of Good Hope, Cape Town
2. Vergelegen Wine Estate, Somerset West
3. Riebeek’s Hedge, Kirstenbosch
4. Huguenot Memorial, Franschhoek
5. Khoi initiation ceremony, embracing indigenous ancestry - denouncing “coloured”, Strandfontein
6. Rhodes Memorial, Cape Town
7. Taal Monument, Paarl
8. Kramat for Sayed Abduraghman Motura, Robben Island
9. Dislocated statue of Cecil John Rhodes, University of Cape Town
10. Tana Baru, Bo Kaap

Image Credit: Zahira Asmal

03/12/2022

Cultivating Futures

Zahira Asmal, director of The City and founder of inclusive wine initiative Cultivate, opened the evening and welcomed guests by explaining how she established the Cultivate Collective and company, in 2020. Membership is drawn from across the South African industry: winemakers, producers, analysts, sommeliers and wine consultants in export, marketing, tourism and innovation.

This set the scene for a sensory food and wine experience, open to the public. It was created by Spencer Fondaumiere, president of the South African Sommeliers Association, and Jocelyn Myers-Adams, a well-travelled, highly experienced chef who enjoys pushing culinary boundaries.

This delectable and intriguing experience offered a seemingly never-ending selection of shared dishes inspired by the themes of the See Studio and Festival: “Taming the wild”, “Invisible hybridity”; “How to belong here”; and “Rituals of remembering”. Jocelyn conjured up fresh interpretations of South African favourites, interpreting local ingredients, such as updating biltong (dried spiced meat) into a tasty paté, and combining Japanese and South African influences in chicken, meat and vegetable kebabs cooked outside on a grill.

Spencer’s wine selection, sourced from the Cultivate and friends stable, complemented the cuisine. He selected from the Aslina, Her, Klein Goederust and Spier Organic ranges.

📸: The City Agency

03/12/2022

Stepping Into History

Following teamwork and presentation preparations during the day, the See Studio participants were welcomed at the Athletic Club & Social by owner Athos Euripidou. Athos had moved from Durban to Cape Town with a plan to create a space that promotes inclusivity. Drawing inspiration from its roots as a speakeasy-style bar for athletes of all races during the apartheid era, Athos took to the city’s archives in search of old pictures of African sports teams. Coming up short, he sent a sports journalist into the townships, knocking from door to door, to unearth never-before-published photographs of African athletes, newspaper clippings, and old trophies dating as far back as 1932, to create a homage to the untold stories of unsung athletic heroes.

Athos’s gripping stories culminated in an exclusive jazz performance by Lady Felicity and the trumpets in a room dedicated to trumpeter, composer and singer Hugh Masekela, who wrote well-known anti-apartheid compositions such as Soweto blues and Bring him back home.

What a treat for the See Studio participants!

📸: Zahira Asmal

02/12/2022

See Studio Performances & Presentations Day 2

The See Festival drew to a successful close with the last day's presentations taking place through the beautiful city of Cape Town.

The day commenced and concluded with Nancy Jouwe and Janine Overmeyer respectively, working on the theme, “Rituals of Remembering: Intergenerational healing in forgotten histories”.

Nancy invited the public to join her in reading the city as an archive on a walking tour connecting various sites in the city including the Tana Baru and the Kramats of Tuan Guru and Tuan Said Aloewie, then to the Auwal Masjid, St George’s Cathedral, the Slave Lodge and Company’s Garden. Guided by Nancy, studio participants and the public entered the history and herstory of slavery in Cape Town, and its afterlife.

At the Company’s Garden the group met Kawthar Jeewa and Sara Frikech who worked on the theme “Taming the Wild: (DE) Colonial Imprints in Cape Town’s Natural World”. The group gathered around a picnic, and interacted with Sara and Kawthar’s hand-crafted canvas, while listening to their presentations and poetry recitals. The group engaged in ecology and colonialism while adding their own designs and expressions to the canvas.

Mitchell Esajas connected his theme, “Architectures of Resistance: Encountering justice through memory” at the Castle (Fort) of Good Hope. His presentation included a pop up exhibition from the Black Archives in the Netherlands where he is co-founder. Mitchell engaged all attendees in a lively debate on colonialism, reparations and redress.

The week's events concluded at the Camissa Museum with Janine Overmeyer. Her moving performance of original poetry pieces and songs took the group on a journey of identity, remembering and ultimately working together towards healing - an appropriate way to close off the See Festival 2022.

📸: The City Agency

02/12/2022

See Studio Performances & Presentations Day 1

The participants in the See Studio programme hail from various parts of Africa and the Netherlands, representing a range of creative disciplines. They were each allocated a theme and a partner to work together virtually and on site in Cape Town. The week's events culminated in the participants exchanging ideas, debating, and developing methodologies with the long-term goal of bringing about representational equity in the public life of cities shadowed by colonialism and apartheid.

After the series of enlightening and educational presentations, discussions and city tours that took place throughout the week, the See Studio participants had the opportunity to share their unique perspectives with the public.

Uzair Ben Ibrahim and Judith Westerveld worked on the theme “Invisible hybridity: A Journey into Music, Language, and Literature of the Cape”.

Uzair explored the revitalisation and utility of Arabic-Afrikaans, with a focus on sound, accent, and script, as means of identity-and place-making in the Cape. He posed the thought-provoking question of how a captive language can liberate and give voice to a people.

Visual artist, Judith Westerveld, guided a sonic workshop of the many |xam stories, particularly Crow Messengers, which were collected in the Bleek and Lloyd archive. These stories presented a rare perspective on Dutch colonialism in South Africa told by the |xam people, in their own words and in their own language.

Zamindlela Solwazi and Afeefa Omar worked on the theme “How to belong here? Ways of making home in Cape Town”.

Zami led an engaging discussion around the idea behind “belonging” and “making home” in Cape Town. Together with Celeste Jacobs, Sisipho Blayi, Minenhle Ntuli and Sinazo Chiya, Zami unpacked ways people make home in the city, given the social landscape and historical footprints that are still embedded in spaces that they occupy.

Lastly, we leaned into the human experience of space with Afeefa where she explored interpretations of belonging and identity, and how we relate with one another across time against the backdrop of historical division. The audience was drawn in and captivated by Afeefa's sharing of her original poetry which took us on a journey through several personal areas of her life and experiences as a Somalian woman living in South Africa today.

📸: The City Agency

02/12/2022

City Tour

Zahira Asmal alongside experts in urban design, community development and botany led a full day tour of Cape Town for the See Studio.

From Table Mountain, urban designer, Khalied Jacobs explained the spatial design and architecture of the city. The location provided the perfect backdrop to read the city from Table Bay to the Cape Flats.

Mandy Sanger led the Studio participants through the demolished and rebuilt areas of District Six, getting a better understanding of race during apartheid and present day as well as reparations, and repatriation.

After arriving at Kirstenbosch Gardens, we took a pause in the tour to connect with one another and exchange thoughts over a picnic lunch. Participants were joined by Rupert Koopman, a 20 year veteran of the botanical gardens, to explore the floral wealth, and the influences of colonisation on the Cape’s natural environment.

Judith Westerveld and Andrew Jacobs led participants in conversation at a hedge of indigenous Wild Almond trees that were planted in 1659 by Jan van Riebeeck and the remains of what is seen as the first Apartheid structure.

Lastly, participants toured the sites of discovery, “development” and unrest with Zahira Asmal. She guided everyone through Prestwich Street where the human remains of over 3 000 people have been discovered since 1993, in and around Green Point and the Waterfront. The last stop was Prestwich Memorial where the human remains are currently placed in cardboard boxes and housed in an ossuary.

📸: The City Agency and Zahira Asmal

01/12/2022

See Conference

The See Festival began with a full-day conference with presentations and discussions led by a range of experts representing fields as diverse as maritime archeology and farming, film-making and anthropology. Head to the IG Livestreams to see a selection of presentations from the conference.

Learn from Jaco Boshoff about the wreck of São José Paquete d’África slaveship which transported 500 enslaved people from Mozambique en route to Brazil in 1794. See artist Kamyar Bineshtarigh present his work titled, “Uncover”. This body of work started with his studio wall in Salt River, in a previously abandoned clothing factory. Listen to Dylan Valley in discussion with Adam Haupt and Shaquille Southgate reflect on language, politics and culture in Cape Town and how this relates to "coloured" identity today.

Closing the conference was a panel discussion convened by Prof. Steven Robins on the roles of activist and community-based responses to interventions in the socio-spatial and cultural landscapes of Cape Town. The panellists, Nazeer Sonday, Tauriq Jenkins, Gary Stewart, Denisha Anand, Jonty Cogger and Jacky Ponting presented their particular focus sites of contestation and shared insights that contribute towards deepening democratic participation and creating more inclusive urban futures.

📸: The City

29/11/2022

Today is the day! The Dezeen Awards 2022 Party is happening tonight in London at One Hundred Shoreditch Rooftop with our very own Zahira Asmal on the panel alongside other several prestigious judges.

Now in its fifth year, the programme has become the ultimate accolade for architects and designers everywhere.

This international panel includes architect, - industrialist Alberto Alessi, graphic designer, Paula Scher and others.

Dezeen

26/11/2022

Zahira Asmal conceptualised the brand identity and visual direction for Cultivate together with Bielle Bellingham and Robyn Newham before commissioning a duo of design teams to bring this vision to life at the marketplace. She worked with the architectural and interior design teams at Tsai Design Studio and Sook Collective to install the interiors. Her brief was clear: she wanted to create a brand located in an inclusive and more representative narrative and history of winemaking in South Africa.

"One of Cultivate’s aims is to surface our lesser-known history, that black people have been making and producing wines in the Cape for centuries – they have just not yet been foregrounded in the national discourse. Very few wine farms and estates highlight the black origins of winemaking in their grand stories," Zahira explains. "I wished to show a layering of time, and how the old and the current juxtapose, so one gets a sense of place, resilience, and longevity.

"Also, I wished for the interior design concept to highlight craft and making, especially making by hand, and the care and patience it takes to make something beautiful and special. I wanted our tones to be earthy and grounded, symbolising the members that are enrolled in the Collective – they were selected by me from various parts of Southern Africa. At Cultivate you will see old and new furniture, including bespoke pieces, and tones and artworks representing the members of the Collective and the people that live and work in South Africa.

visit the Cultivate marketplace -
C3 Salt Orchard
45 Yew Street
Salt River

www.cultivatecollective.co.za

25/11/2022

The Cultivate marketplace in Salt River is the base for the See Festival this weekend 26 & 27 November 2022.

It is a carefully chosen venue for the festival, as the research for the See project led Zahira Asmal to the winelands and ultimately to establishing the Cultivate collective and company.

Zahira’s research for the See project led her to studying history and memory in the South African winelands with particular focus on slavery and memorials. Since 2019 she has been documenting the stories of the enslaved and other Cape ancestors rendered invisible in the public memory of South Africa. Her research led her to meeting Professor Mark Solms who in turn commissioned her and The City to design an initiative that would focus on redress and representation in the wine sector of South Africa, providing young black people with more visibility, accessibility, and opportunity.

In 2020, Zahira established the Cultivate Collective currently consisting of 20 members, hailing from across Africa and now living in various parts of the Cape. Zahira chose an urban setting to locate the Cultivate marketplace because cities offer opportunities for visibility, interconnectedness, and exposure to complementary industries, which the collective can leverage. This urban marketplace has served as a hub for professionals in the wine sector to cultivate networks, exchange knowledge, drive business development and promote the next generation of wines made by Africans – and enjoyed by all.

Zahira Asmal
Spencer Fondaumiere
Cultivate Collective

19/11/2022

Food & Wine: Discovery through terroir and taste

Sommelier, Spencer Fondaumier and chef Jocelyn Myers Adams engage with the themes of the See Festival that deal with rituals, memory, belonging, nature and hybridity in Cape Town, and created an immersive and sensory experience of shared food and wine. This delectable experience is open to the public and includes multiple courses, and wine made by Cultivate members.

Venue: Cultivate, C3 Salt Orchard, 45 Yew Street, Salt River
Time: 18:00
Cost: R650 per person.
Tickets are available on Quicket.
Click the link for more information and tickets: https://linktr.ee/thecityagency

For more on Cultivate visit https://buff.ly/3ArTvhp

19/11/2022

"Looking Away"

Tour of Green Point and the Prestwich Memorial site with Zahira Asmal

Since 1993, the human remains of over 3 000 people have been discovered in and around Green Point and the Waterfront. During construction alongside Prestwich Street, in May 2003, human remains were discovered. There was mass opposition by various groups, including community and religious leaders, Khoi and San representatives, heritage sector NGOs and academics, to the exhumations of the human remains, and on 12 January 2004, the Prestwich Place Project Committee (PPPC) lodged an appeal to the Minister of Arts & Culture. The developer and the City of Cape Town proceeded with the exhumation of the remains. On 22 July the Minister of Arts & Culture dismissed the appeal to make way for the development of apartment and office blocks, restaurants, bars, and cafés.

Currently, the human remains are placed in cardboard boxes and housed in an ossuary at Prestwich Memorial. For the black people of Cape Town the exhumation of human remains at Prestwich stands in a long line of forced removals across the centuries, from colonialism to apartheid to the present day. Zahira leads a tour of the sites of discovery, “development” and unrest.

The tour forms part of the See Studio organised by The City Agency.

For more information and to book your tickets: https://linktr.ee/thecityagency

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Opening Hours

Monday	09:00 - 17:00
Tuesday	09:00 - 17:00
Wednesday	09:00 - 17:00
Thursday	09:00 - 17:00
Friday	09:00 - 17:00

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http://www.thecityagency.co.za/

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Videos

Sebastiaan Messerschmidt, Consul General of the Kingdom of Netherlands and partner to our See project shares his views around the importance of the project. There’s just one more day till submissions to our Open Call close. For more information, follow the link to our website. https://iseeyou.capetown/activities/open-call/ #SeebyTheCity