August 18, 2004
By Lucille Davie
FATHER Trevor Huddleston would be proud of what is being done in his name in the house alongside his former church, the Anglican Christ the King, in Sophiatown.
The Trevor Huddleston CR Memorial Centre has a number of projects aimed at uplifting the community, one of which is producing items "Made in Sophiatown".
The City of Johannesburg is supporting the efforts with a recent order for 5 000 pencils, attractively decorated with beaded heads attached to the top.
Once copyright has been secured, the Made in Sophiatown brand will appear on all items produced at the centre.
The church was built in 1935, and has had several owners after the Anglican church sold it in 1967, after its community were removed to Soweto to make way for white residents. In 1997 the Anglicans bought the church back again, but in the intervening years the church had undergone several changes, which meant that, although the church tower was declared a national monument in 1995, the church didn't qualify.
The centre is a Section 21 company, created five years ago, and now employs four full-time staff and two part-time tutors. Besides the pencils it produces colourful mugs, t-shirts, ethnic garments and artworks. Its funding comes Anglo American and Vodacom, the Bishop Simeon Trust in the UK, and the lottery.
At the end of August the centre plans to open a shop in the tower of the church, at 39 Ray Street, where the branded items will be on sale.
Jo Didibeng, director of the centre, says that six full-time women crafters were given basic training, and are now supplying garments to Lasa Clothing Culture in Melville, as well as producing items for the shop. One of the women, says Didibeng, is in her 80s, and happily comes from Soweto every day to learn new skills and socialise with her fellow seamstresses.
Five full-time artists are attached to the centre, one of whom, Obrien Jabulani Zwane, recently held a solo exhibition at an art gallery in Midrand, at which he sold five works. Zwane says he's received business management instruction from the centre and has now compiled a portfolio of his work, which he photographs and signs, something he previously neglected to do. He exhibits his work at the monthly Art in the Park at Zoo Lake and has some of his work on display at a gallery in Rosebank.
The centre helps the artists buy materials, and offers them space to produce their art. Some artists are now receiving commissions.
Didibeng is most proud of the centre's flagship project - computer training for unemployed young adults and adults, most of whom are domestic workers from the immediate community.
The young adults come from Soweto and nearby Westbury, Newclare and Coronationville to attend the four-month course on basic computer skills. The course, with enrolment at 30, has now become so popular that there is a waiting list, says Didibeng. The centre uses the upstairs gallery at the back of the church as a classroom. On Saturdays it runs the course for 15 domestic workers.
Didibeng says proudly that some 600 people have completed the computer literacy course over the past two years.
The centre also has a community library which is used by local schoolchildren, particularly those whose parents are not able to help them with homework, largely because they didn't finish school themselves. Volunteers assist with homework, and the books provide a resource not usually available to the children.
In the meantime, other developments to mark 50 years since the first removals from Sophiatown started in 1955, are progressing. These developments include a memorial wall, a Gerard Sekoto mural on the wall of the church where Huddleston preached in the 1940s and '50s, a huge floor map of old Sophiatown, and the restoration of a beautiful 63-year-old mural inside the church.
The Sekoto mural
Sekoto lived in Sophiatown for several years in the 1930s. The mural, done by students from the Gerard Sekoto Foundation, is now complete, positioned on the outside northern wall of the church. It depicts Huddleston walking down an untarred Sophiatown street with a child tugging at his cassock. In the background is the yellow house originally painted by Sekoto when he lived in Sophiatown. On an adjacent wall, based on another Sekoto painting, is a field of soccer players.
The 50th anniversary is planned to take place in February 2005.
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