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Constitution Hill
P.O. Box 31005
Braamfontein 2017
Johannesburg, South Africa
Tel: +27-11-381-3129
Fax: +27-11-381-3108
African Sites of Conscience Network
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How Is It Remembered?
When the jails closed in 1983, the site lay abandoned for many years. In 1996, the judges of the newly established Constitutional Court announced that this notorious prison complex was to become the home of the Constitutional Court. This was a bold decision, highly symbolic of the extent to which the hopes for the new South Africa are built on, and honor, the pain of the past.
Since that momentous announcement, Number Four has undergone a remarkable process of transformation. It has become Constitution Hill, a major inner-city regeneration project and a thriving mixed-use precinct with the Constitutional Court as an anchor surrounded by the old prison buildings, which have become important heritage sites in the city. The fundamental curatorial principle in turning the prisons into visitor attractions has been to faciliate public ownership of the spaces, especially by the ex-prisoners themselves. Wherever possible, the process of making the exhibition is displayed - both to show the behind-the-scenes workings of the team and as an invitation to visitors and ex-prisoners to leave their responses to add another layer of interpretation to Constitution Hill.
Visitors to Constitution Hill experience the drama of the changes that have taken place in South Africa, as well as the dreams, hope and imaginings for the future through provocative exhibits and public programs. For instance, re-created cells of former inmates, containing the blankets they used and chess pieces sculpted out of bread, depict how prisoners spent their days, while a wall of portraits of former detainees asks visitors to consider who is a criminal.
This is a view up the Great African steps with the new Court building on the left hand side and the former prison for black males on the right hand side. Visitors walk up these steps, literally between the bleak past of South Africa as symbolised by the prison and the hopes for the future as embodied by the Constitutional Court.
"For the men and women who survived Number Four and who have now shared their memories here with us as free people, the pain may not go away. But, as harvesters of their stories, we hope our exhibitions go some way towards ridding future generations of the dark spell of prisons like Number Four. As one of the men told us, 'It's here where they trampled on our rights and it is here that hope is coming alive…I am no longer afraid to walk past the old Fort. I want my children to know what happened inside here.'"
Steve Kwena Mokwena, Curator, Heritage Education and Tourism (HET) curatorial team