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“I WANTED TO MAKE VISIBLE THE PRODUCTION OF DISPOSABLE LIVES (IN THE ATLANTIC SLAVE TRADE AND, AS WELL, IN THE DISCIPLINE OF HISTORY), TO DESCRIBE ‘THE RESISTANCE OF THE OBJECT,’ IF ONLY BY FIRST IMAGINING IT, AND TO LISTEN FOR THE MUTTERS AND OATHS AND CRIES OF THE COMMODITY.”(HARTMAN,2008)

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1. Treasure Hunter’s Map of the Wreck Site: In the 1980s treasure hunters discovered the wreck of the Sao Jose and mistakenly identified it as the wreck of an earlier Dutch vessel.
2. The Captain’s Testimony of the Wrecking of the Sao Jose: Between 2010 and 2011, SWP discovered the captain’s account of the wrecking of the Sao Jose in the Cape Archives in South Africa. This combined with the treasure hunters’ report from the 1980s, developed new interest in the site.
3. Manifest of the Sao Jose: Between 2012 and 2013, The Slave Wrecks Project(SWP) uncovered an archival document in Portugal stating that iron bars were loaded onto the Sao Jose before it departed for Mozambique, further confirming the site as the Sao Jose wreck.
4. Document of Sale of a Mozambican, 1794: Between 2012 and 2013, SWP later located a second document in Mozambique confirming the sale of a Mozambican onto the Sao Jose.
   
5. Site Map of the Sao Jose Showing the Locations of the Recovered Objects: Between 2014 and 2015, the first artefacts were brought above water, including an iron ballast and timbers, through a targeted retrieval process according to the best archaeological and preservation practices. Using CT scan and x-ray technology. SWP identified the remains of the shackles at the wreck site.
   
6. Found objects: The iron ballast, pulley blocks, portion of the ship’s hull, and shackles that were retrieved from site.

 
Site dossier(Ndziba,2021).

CRITICAL FABULATION & THE ARCHIVE:
The term “critical fabulation”, which was coined by US writer and academic Saidiya Hartman, in her article, Venus in Two Acts, defines a writing methodology that combines historical and archival research with critical theory and fictional narrative(2008). The study proposes a heterotopia at the site of the Sao Jose Paquete de Africa shipwreck on the ocean floor whose invisible inhabitants – the drowned enslaved children of the shipwreck – have built and rebuilt forts of sand to protect what is currently their final resting place. This fantastical landscape is contained within a transparent tub that is filled with sand and water to model the material conditions of the site, while the site conditions are recreated through sand-play, and experimentation with non/living matter¹ at an intimate scale. This practice of space-making produces a series of spatial interventions that are projected onto the real life site at various scales. The final projected intervention is a passage along the South African coast that bridges the gap between the site of the shipwreck, and the home of the drowned enslaved children in the Mozambique Channel. The passage culminates with the drowned enslaved children utilising algae as both a host and vehicle to colonise the ruin of the Chapel of Nossa Senhora de Baluarte at the Fort of Sao Sebastio.

1. 00:18: The is estimated to have been 7 to 10 metres wide, 30 to 40 meters long, and weighed 300 to 400 tonnes. The wreckage of a vessel of this magnitude would make a big imapact on the ocean bed.
   
2. 01:04: While the remains of the Sao Jose continue to elude divers, an iron ship ballast was discovered on site. A ship ballast was used to offset the weight of human cargo on a ship due to its relatively light weight. Additionally, copper fastenings and copper sheathing were unearthed.
   
3. 02:06: As documented by eyewitnesses, the ship broke apart on the rocky reef in a matter of hours. As a result, fragments of the Sao Jose plummeted to the ocean floor. Over the last two centuries these fragments have been scattered and concealed beneath layers of sand on the ocean bed.
   
4. 02:18: Over the years, fragments of the shipwreck would resurface on the ocean bed, only to disappear again. In the 1980s the wreck was discovered by treasure hunters who “misidentified it as an earlier Dutch ship.”
   
5. 03:00: Divers compared the conditions of the site to being “in a giant washing machine.” The continual surge made it difficult to document the site and to recover objects.

Stills from Forts of Sand: A Creation Myth(Ndziba,2021).

SAND-PLAY:
Scene 1 - Forts of Sand: A Creation Myth maps and encodes the series of events that have unfolded at this site, since the day of the shipwreck over 200 years ago. The creation myth maps the spatial implications created by the shipwreck, as well as the natural conditions of site. The myth also maps what we cannot see. Namely, the shipwreck, the remains of the drowned enslaved children and their spirits. Real life phenomena, such as the “washing-machine-like” conditions of the site - as reported by the divers - are rescripted as a structural component of the fortification of the underwater cemetery by the spirits of the children. Sand-play has the capacity to render the material conditions of site at the intimate scale, as the sand is allowed to perform as an honest material.  


Stills from Hello from Clifton 4th!: An Intercepted Broadcast(Ndziba,2021).
Scene 2 - Hello from Clifton 4th!: An Intercepted Broadcast scripts the above-sea-level conditions at Clifton 4th Beach, through a dual broadcast. The audience is located at the beach, and underwater at the site of the shipwreck simultaneously. The dual broadcast explores the double haunting between white childhood and black childhood that manifests at Clifton 4th beach. Although it is brief, the presence of the spirits of the drowned enslaved children starts to encroach on the above-sea-level condition. The audience is made to occupy their point of view, through sand-play, and a change in the camera angle from a wide shot in first scene to a POV shot in the second scene.

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EXPERIMENTATION WITH NON/LIVING MATTER:
While undergoing the narrative and archive process, mycelium spores and a liquid culture (3% honey solution) are introduced to the fantastical landscape, as an experimental way to model the process of Eutrophication at the site of the shipwreck. Eutrophication is a process, in which excess nutrients are introduced to a body of water, which results in the overgrowth of algae in the form of algal bloom. (Pugh, 2019) In a press release, the City of Cape Town stated that algal blooms are a normal and common occurrence off the coastline of Cape Town, and South Africa more broadly.(2018)




In Scene 3 - Sins of the Father: A Prophecy it is revealed that the collective consciousness of the children uses an event of an algal bloom at the site of the shipwreck as a vessel to rise to the surface of the water. As non/living matter, the growth of the mycelium becomes an analogue for the formation of the commensalistic² relationship that the children have formed with the algal bloom.




In Scene 4 - Homebound: The 4th Passage³ the drift algae becomes a vehicle, through which the children return to the Island of Mozambique. At this point of the experiment the mycelium has formed like an algal mat that floats on the surface of the water. The journey along the South African coastline is modelled through play, in which the mycelium breaks apart, as algal drift would in the ocean. Drifting algal mats are “conglomerates of (usually) ephemeral filamentous algae”(Arroyo&Bonsforff,2016) that break away from the main body of algae to reform as mats of different sizes. They provide shelter for juvenile fish, and a mode of transportation for various species of invertebrates. As a result, they enhance the colonisation of new areas, when they are swept by strong currents that allow them to reach far away areas.(Arroyo&Bonsforff,2016)



Site: The ruin of the Chapel of Nossa Senhora de Baluarte, which was built in 1522 on the Island of Mozambique(Fitzpatrick,2010), is believed to be the oldest colonial structure in the Southern Hemisphere. Images courtesy of Zamani.




The journey culminates with the arrival of the children at the Island of Mozambique. The colonisation of the chapel ruin by the children as algae is modelled in a live exhibition that is conceptualised as a an experiment. The experiment is presented as a series of 1:500 scale models of the ruin. The control is a concrete mixture made with a typical concrete ratio (1 part cement, 3 parts aggregate, 3 parts sand), the aggregate is substituted with cellulose fibre like psyllium husk or sterilised leaves (which provides food for the mycelium), and the sand is substituted with brown rice flour. The models are partially submerged in a liquid culture (3% honey solution), which is a substitute for the ocean water. The liquid culture provides a good liquid medium for the mycelium cultures to grow in. The experiment reveals how the real life phenomenon of the degradation of stone buildings by algae⁴ can be rescripted, as the children catalysing the degradation of the ruin, and becoming a possible breeding ground for new plant species.⁵

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1 The slash (‘/’) in non/living, as defined by philosopher and transdisciplinary gender studies scholar, Marietta Radomska, signifies the processual enmeshment of the organic and inorganic, living and non-living, and growth and decay. (2018) 
2 Commensalism is a relationship between two species, in which one benefits from the association (nutrients, shelter, support, locomotion), while the other (the host) is unaffected(Encyclopaedia Britannica,2004).
3 In the 1st leg of the journey, the Sao Jose carried cargo like firearms or gunpowder to Mozambique. Upon arrival, the cargo was exchanged for slaves.(Africans in America/Part 1/The Middle Passage,2021) Fully loaded with its human cargo the Sao Jose set sail for Brazil on what would have been the 2nd leg (middle passage). After the shipwreck, the surviving slaves were sold in Cape Town. Thus, the ship did not complete the 2nd and 3rd legs of the journey. The 4th Passage is a return to the Island of Mozambique.
4 Algae is acknowledged to be a primary colonizer of stone surfaces. Since algae require only light and water to grow, they can live endolithically and are able to survive most types of stress, they may become even more important as agents of stone degradation in the future.(Gaylarde,2020)
5 Ecologically, algae are at the base of the food chain.(Ecological Importance of Algae,n.d.)
Sources consulted:

1. Algae Research and Supply. n.d. Ecological Importance of Algae. [online] Available at <https://algaeresearchsupply.com/pages/ecological-importance-of-algae> [Accessed 30 May 2022].
2. Arroyo, Nina & Bonsdorff, Erik. (2016). The Role of Drifting Algae for Marine Biodiversity. 10.4324/9781315370781-6. [Accessed 28 April 2024].
3. Fitzpatrick, M., 2010. Mozambique. Lonely Planet, P.211.
   
4. Gaylarde, C., 2020. Influence of Environment on Microbial Colonization of Historic Stone Buildings with Emphasis on Cyanobacteria. Heritage, 3(4), Pp.1469-1482.
   
5. Hartman, S., 2008. Venus in Two Acts. Small Axe: A Caribbean Journal of Criticism, 12(2), Pp.1-14.
   
6. ‘Naturally occurring algal blooms along False Bay coastline not toxic’ (2018) City of Cape Town [Preprint]. City of Cape Town, Media Office. Available at: <https://www.capetown.gov.za/Media-and news/Naturally%20occurring%20algal%20blooms%20along%20False%20Bay%20coastline%20not%20toxic> [Accessed: 26 April 2024].
   
7. Ndziba, M. 2021. Forts of Sand: A Reimagining of Black Childhood through Worldbuilding (Master’s Thesis). Johannesburg: University of Johannesburg. Available at: <http://hdl.handle.net/102000/0002> [Accessed: 19 September 2023].
8. PBS Online. 2021. Africans in America/Part 1/The Middle Passage. [online] Available at <https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/aia/part1/1p277.html> [Accessed 11 October 2021].
   
9. Radomska, M. (2017). Non/living Matter, Bioscientific Imaginaries and Feminist Technoecologies of Bioart. Australian Feminist Studies, 32(94), pp.377–394. doi:https://doi.org/10.1080/08164649.2017.1466649.

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