NOT many people have done as much to conserve South African architecture, culture and heritage as Professor Franco Frescura.
When he recently received the country’s top culture and heritage conservation award, his peers and others agreed it was fitting recognition for the Durban-based academic, who has spent more than 45 years in this field.
The Heritage Association of SA presented the Simon van der Stel Gold Medal for Heritage Conservation to him in November.
Frescura, 76, an erstwhile professor at the University of KwaZulu-Natal, who formerly headed their architecture department, is currently an honorary professor at Wits University and also works part-time as the director of education at Durban’s Phansi Museum.
Included in Frescura’s academic legacy is his association and collaborative efforts with various universities around the world. He has also written numerous research articles, which have been published widely.
His doctoral thesis on southern Africa’s indigenous architecture and settlement patterns is widely regarded as one of best works on the subject.
He has authored 17 books and served on various committees over the years, including at the ANC’s national policy commission for land, housing and culture and the Codesa talks in the early 1990s.
Frescura, who immigrated from Italy with his family at the age of 9, said it was a “great honour” to receive the Heritage Association of SA’s award.
“As far as I know, it is the first time for someone from KZN… and it is also a medal with a dubious history.
“If you look at my history, you will notice that mine is also dubious, because I was a student activist who was arrested in the 1970s.”
Frescura’s cartoons, especially the one on former prime minister John Vorster, brought him much trouble.
“I called him a corrupt neo-Nazi. I come from a generation where we fought with the means available.
“John Vorster was the first person to win this award, but I was not begrudging to receive it. I accepted it because for me it is the closure of a circle.”
Frescura said the award recognised the things he and others had fought for.
“They might have given it to dicey people in the past, but also some pretty important people like Philip Tobias, and just about every other important architect in the country,” he said.
Frescura’s efforts to have “indigenous art” recognised, which he regards as his own field of architecture, were pioneering.
“I did my PhD on indigenous art. I was the first to do this and put it on the map.
“Over the years, I struggled to get it recognised as valid architecture, and as a valid expression of our people and their customs and values.
“There is an intricate explanation of how it (indigenous art) works. This is one of the flagships of our culture. When you see this, you know this is South Africa.”
He recalled an occasion when he was seated next to an American passenger on a plane flying from Windhoek to Johannesburg over Gaborone.
“She looked down and saw markings on the ground, which were stone circles made by ancestors. Some of them go back 400 to 500 years.
“She asked: ‘What are those funny things?’
“I said: ‘Those are ancient settlements done by black people.’
“I pointed to the position of the family’s head, and where his brothers and other family members were located. I showed her where the wives would have been if they were polygamists.
“The other circles would be children building their own homes, and in the middle you could read where the cattle were kept.”
Frescura said he always welcomed explaining such subjects to people who didn't know better, or were too ignorant to know.
He said another aspect of his work was explaining how people had settled previously, and he referred to one of his books, Durban Once Upon a Time, which he released about eight years ago.
“It explains how whites came to Durban and why they think, or used to think, the way they do.”
Frescura said the origins of apartheid were also covered in the book.
“When it came to putting down the basis of apartheid, the bureaucrats from Pretoria came to Durban to see how the English had done it.”
He said the British created a colonial environment for themselves in Durban and “didn’t give a damn about the politics”.
In explaining the Groups Areas Act and the Grey Street model, which had previously been a focal point of trade and residence for people of Indian descent, he said a British military officer employed by the municipality had brought the concept to life.
“He was the guy who issued trading licences, and he got the idea of where Indians should gather and where they should put their shops.
“Later on, the nature of Grey Street began to change, but as a historian it is my job to explain it and delve into the tribal secrets.”
Frescuria said there were some secrets Durbanites didn’t want to talk about.
“I couldn’t explain why there was so much vitriol on the part of churchmen and those who wrote about the aMalisha (rickshaw-pullers) because they made so much money.
“They were young men who had come to make money for their lobolo.
“But the rickshaw-pullers were at the heart of the prostitution and drug trade in Durban, because they were in a position to meet those coming off the ships and show them a good time, and they had photos of their madams.”
He said rickshaw-pullers received a “special shilling”, which was known to be the special gift they got from their madams for being faithful workers.
“She slept with you. This wasn't to be spoken about.”
Frescura said another aim of the resistance movement, mainly in KwaZulu-Natal, was to normalise society by encouraging intermarriage among Indian, black and coloured people.
“Also, whites who wanted to live normally after World War II settled at the bottom end of Grey Street, where they met and dated Indian girls, and also intermarried.”
As a “kind of normal society” began to develop, the government introduced the Group Areas Act, he said.
“I was the first guy, as far as I know, who did the history of Johannesburg, including both black and white. I did that during my student days, around 1972.
“That paper was my first serious attempt, and it has been untouched to this day because it was really good.”
“As a cultural worker and historian, it gave me the opportunity to provide a better insight into the skewed view given on apartheid, which is still being perpetuated. Politicians are not talking about history as it happened.
“Part of my job, through research, was to look at this kind of history,” said Frescura, who was sent to Gqeberha by the ANC and worked directly with Govan Mbeki after his release from prison in 1988.
“He headed the ANC’s culture, housing and land desks.
“I will not deny that I am a politician at heart. I can't be in Parliament, and I can't be in a position of authority, but I can exercise my authority through my ability to write,” he said.
SUNDAY TRIBUNE