Abstract
In May 2008 South Africa experienced a wave of xenophobic violence. Thousands of people were displaced and forced to seek shelter in local community centres. Michelle Atlas describes the experience of Lefika La Phodiso, a Johannesburg-based art therapy centre, which provided counselling and debriefing to residents at one of the refugee camps. Recognizing the need to advocate and transform experiences of hopelessness and helplessness within the camps, Lefika curated ‘Safe Spaces at Safe Shelters’, a multi-dimensional exhibition that explored experiences of displacement and xenophobia.
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Notes
I'd like to thank the Lefika team for all their hard work and commitment to this work.
Jianmin, Li (2008) http://www.csvr.org.za/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=929&Itemid=41, accessed 23 May 2008.
Jianmin, Li (2008) http://www.csvr.org.za/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=929&Itemid=41, accessed 23 May 2008.
Jianmin, Li (2008) http://www.csvr.org.za/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=929&Itemid=41, accessed 23 May 2008.
Bryson, Donna (2009) ‘SA on Alert for Xenophobic Violence’, http://athena.mg.co.za/article/2009-07-25-sa-on-alertfor-xenophobic-violence, accessed 25 July 2009, Mail and Guardian, Pretoria, South Africa.
References
Schroeder, Willem (2008) ‘Xenophobic Shelters 2008: A report on the Boksburg CoSS’, unpublished report, Johannesburg, South Africa.
Additional information
Describes the experience of an art-therapy centre in the aftermath of the 2008 xenophobic attacks in Johannesburg
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Atlas, M. Experiencing Displacement: Using art therapy to address xenophobia in South Africa. Development 52, 531–536 (2009). https://doi.org/10.1057/dev.2009.74
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1057/dev.2009.74