tag:theconversation.com,2011:/us/topics/uct-32435/articlesUCT – The Conversation2022-05-03T13:50:32Ztag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1821692022-05-03T13:50:32Z2022-05-03T13:50:32ZHow vulnerable is the University of Cape Town to destructive wildfires?<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/460512/original/file-20220429-20-ut9yfa.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">A water chopper hovers over University of Cape Town on April 18, 2021 as a wildfire spread across the mountain.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Brenton Geach/Gallo Images via Getty Images</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>Just over a year ago, a wildfire caused <a href="https://www.news.uct.ac.za/news/photoessays/-article/2021-04-20-in-pictures-runaway-fire-destroys-some-of-ucts-historical-buildings">considerable damage</a> to the University of Cape Town and surroundings. Irreplaceable <a href="https://theconversation.com/significant-archives-are-under-threat-in-cape-towns-fire-why-they-matter-so-much-159299">African collections</a> were destroyed. The <a href="https://mostertsmill.co.za/">last active windmill in Africa</a> was severely damaged. Many were surprised by the fire and the <a href="https://www.news.uct.ac.za/article/-2021-04-23-sad-moment-as-treasured-jagger-reading-room-remembered">widespread damage</a> it caused. </p>
<p>Two previous autumn fires in <a href="https://www.iol.co.za/news/south-africa/fireman-injured-battling-table-mountain-blaze-56396">March 2001</a> and <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20090320233452/http://www.iol.co.za/index.php?set_id=1&click_id=13&art_id=nw20090318045517793C643498">March 2009</a> approached the university campus. The 2009 fire even scorched some trees on the <a href="https://www.news.uct.ac.za/article/-2009-03-30-devils-peak-blaze-skirts-upper-campus">campus boundary</a>. </p>
<p>What has been learnt about the risk of a repeat event?</p>
<p>Fire risk is the consequence of <a href="https://theconversation.com/the-table-mountain-fire-what-we-can-learn-from-the-main-drivers-of-wildfires-159477">interrelated factors</a> and is complex. As part of my PhD research I have examined the relationship between <a href="https://ascmo.copernicus.org/articles/8/31/2022/">wind and rainfall variability</a> and specifically to the <a href="https://ascmo.copernicus.org/articles/8/63/2022/">2015-2017 drought in Cape Town</a>.</p>
<p>In this article I look at some of these factors in relation to the 2021 fire and their potential influence on future events.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/the-table-mountain-fire-what-we-can-learn-from-the-main-drivers-of-wildfires-159477">The Table Mountain fire: what we can learn from the main drivers of wildfires</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>Hot and windy weather during ever drier and warmer autumns after the summer dry season represent a particular risk. Fires around the university are <a href="https://www.news.uct.ac.za/article/-2021-06-23-reflecting-on-the-devastating-uct-fire">necessary and inevitable</a>, but dense, flammable, often invasive scrub on the campus perimeter and some of the <a href="https://www.sanparks.org/assets/docs/parks_table_mountain/tmnp-fire-investigation-report.pdf">trees around buildings enhance the risk</a>. </p>
<p>But there’s much we don’t know and urgently need to <a href="https://www.news.uct.ac.za/article/-2021-06-23-reflecting-on-the-devastating-uct-fire">research further</a>. </p>
<h2>The event</h2>
<p>SANParks, the body responsible for managing South Africa’s national parks, commissioned <a href="https://www.sanparks.org/assets/docs/parks_table_mountain/tmnp-fire-investigation-report.pdf">a study</a> investigating the cause of – and response to – the fire. The study found that it was deliberately started before 9am on 18 April 2021. The suspects were driving on a freeway along Devil’s Peak, the spectacular backdrop to the university jutting out from Table Mountain. </p>
<p>Initially the fire spread slowly in calm conditions. But from 10am conditions suddenly deteriorated as dry, gusty north-westerly winds arrived. The fire intensified and destroyed buildings in the zone where natural areas transition to built up spaces – what’s known as <a href="https://www.news.uct.ac.za/article/-2021-06-23-reflecting-on-the-devastating-uct-fire">the Wildland Urban Interface</a>.</p>
<h2>Fire causes</h2>
<p>A recent paper introduces the concept of <a href="https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1111/gcb.14861">ignition catchments</a> – roughly, all the places a fire could start from to reach you. The university campus’s catchment is much smaller than it was in <a href="https://www.researchgate.net/publication/270684981_Burning_Table_Mountain_an_environmental_history_of_fire_on_the_Cape_Peninsula">pre-colonial times when fires could freely cross the Cape Flats</a>. </p>
<p>During the <a href="https://researchspace.csir.co.za/dspace/bitstream/handle/10204/4451/van%20Wilgen_2010.pdf?sequence=1">fire season</a> (roughly December to April), winds mostly come from <a href="https://ascmo.copernicus.org/articles/8/31/2022/">the south or south-east</a>. South-east of the university lie suburbs which are unlikely to sustain large fires. To the south, the indigenous Afrotemperate Forest of Newlands would likely act as a <a href="https://www.iol.co.za/news/south-africa/fireman-injured-battling-table-mountain-blaze-56396">“natural firebreak”</a>. </p>
<p>Only fires starting in the small grassy area between the forests and the university, invaded by flammable trees, pose a significant risk from the south.</p>
<p>Fires coming downhill from the west would tend to <a href="https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0245132">spread more slowly</a>. But under certain conditions, the risk of downhill spotting – fires lit by burning embers shot out ahead of the main fireline –<a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2212420918307623">may be greater</a>. </p>
<p>Spotting was responsible for the fire gutting buildings in the middle of campus. It crossed a <a href="https://www.timeslive.co.za/sunday-times/opinion-and-analysis/2021-05-09-the-fire-at-uct-not-just-the-usual-suspects/">four-lane highway</a> in multiple places, as fires were lit 350m ahead of <a href="https://www.sanparks.org/assets/docs/parks_table_mountain/tmnp-fire-investigation-report.pdf">the main firefront</a>. </p>
<p>North-westerly winds also pose a considerable fire weather risk for the university. In a <a href="https://ascmo.copernicus.org/articles/8/31/2022/">recent paper</a> we examined the relationship between wind direction and rainfall in the area. Usually north-westerly winds bring cool, moist and cloudy weather after travelling across the cold <a href="http://app01.saeon.ac.za/sadcofunstuff/MajorOceanCurrents.htm">Benguela Current</a> along southern Africa’s west coast. Sometimes in autumn, though, such as on the day of the fire, they are hot, dry and gusty. </p>
<p>The wind pattern around Table Mountain is <a href="https://core.ac.uk/download/pdf/20274056.pdf">extremely complex</a>. Nearby wind data are hard to obtain, but we do know that at the <a href="http://www.meteomanz.com/sy1?ty=hd&ind=68816&d1=18&m1=04&y1=2021&d2=18&m2=04&y2=2021&h1=12Z&h2=12Z&l=1">airport</a> and <a href="http://www.meteomanz.com/sy1?ty=hd&ind=68817&d1=18&m1=04&y1=2021&d2=18&m2=04&y2=2021&h1=12Z&h2=12Z&l=1">harbour</a>stations, north-westerly winds gusted to over 40km/h around 2pm.</p>
<p>This led to a very high <a href="https://twitter.com/TableMountainNP/status/1383781973353582600">predicted fire danger index</a>. Near the university, the South African Weather Service recorded maximum temperatures of 35.8°C. </p>
<p>Relative humidity is the other <a href="http://scholar.sun.ac.za/bitstream/handle/10019.1/113027/van%20Wilgen_FynbosEcolEvolConserv_2015.pdf?sequence=3&isAllowed=y">crucial meteorological determinant of fire behaviour</a>. At 11am it was just 10% <a href="http://www.meteomanz.com/sy1?ty=hd&ind=68819&l=1&d1=18&m1=04&y1=2021&d2=18&m2=04&y2=2021&h1=09Z&h2=09Z">in town</a>. This is drier than desert air usually is. Such low humidity is known to drive extreme fire behaviour.</p>
<h2>Hotter, drier autumns</h2>
<p>The three preceding weeks were also unseasonably hot and dry. A very slow-moving regional <a href="https://twitter.com/extremetemps/status/1381998574460932099">dome of heat</a> drove this pattern. During April 2021 Cape Town received <a href="https://www.weathersa.co.za/home/historicalrain">less than 25% of normal rainfall</a>.</p>
<p>A recent <a href="https://www.researchgate.net/publication/329486149_Mechanisms_behind_early_winter_rainfall_variability_in_the_southwestern_Cape_South_Africa">study</a> found a long-term pattern of autumn drying, predicted to get worse with climate change. Dry autumns were associated with a wave-4 pattern in the Southern Hemisphere (four pairs of highs and lows around the hemisphere). It is clearly visible in April 2021 <a href="https://climexp.knmi.nl/monthly_overview_world_weather/index.cgi?var=t2m_ecmwf_w&mon1=apr&year1=2021&anomalie=ja&kort=nee&expert=nee&type=kaartwereld">temperature</a> and <a href="https://climexp.knmi.nl/monthly_overview_world_weather/index.cgi?var=z500_ecmwf_sh&mon1=apr&year1=2021&anomalie=ja&kort=nee&expert=ja&type=kaartwereld&id=">pressure anomalies</a> (deviations from normal).</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/460511/original/file-20220429-13-e8nbdd.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="Graph with blue squiggly lines showing different temperatures." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/460511/original/file-20220429-13-e8nbdd.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/460511/original/file-20220429-13-e8nbdd.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=426&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/460511/original/file-20220429-13-e8nbdd.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=426&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/460511/original/file-20220429-13-e8nbdd.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=426&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/460511/original/file-20220429-13-e8nbdd.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=536&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/460511/original/file-20220429-13-e8nbdd.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=536&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/460511/original/file-20220429-13-e8nbdd.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=536&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Average monthly temperature anomalies (deviations from the long-term average) for April from 1910-2021 from the Berkeley Earth daily maximum temperature dataset over the South-Western Cape (west of 19°E and south of 33°S)</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Author supplied</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Long-term, continuous temperature data for individual locations in South Africa are very difficult to assemble. In gridded <a href="http://berkeleyearth.org/">Berkeley Earth</a> maximum temperature data for the area around Cape Town since 1910, the three warmest Aprils were 2014, 2017 and 2021. Other temperature <a href="http://climexp.knmi.nl/selectfield_obs2.cgi?id=6412952fc2d9242730e393cea7c0d7da">datasets</a> yield similar results. So do nearby <a href="http://www.meteomanz.com/sy3?cou=0&ind=68715&y1=2000&m1=01&y2=2021&m2=12&fm=04&so=102">station data</a> available <a href="http://www.meteomanz.com/sy3?cou=0&ind=68817&y1=2000&m1=01&y2=2021&m2=12&fm=04&so=102">since 2000</a>.</p>
<p>Given the findings of recent drought <a href="https://www.worldweatherattribution.org/the-role-of-climate-change-in-the-2015-2017-drought-in-the-western-cape-of-south-africa/">attribution</a> studies for the region, it is likely that the autumn warmth and dryness have become more common recently due to climate change. However, <a href="https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s10584-011-0030-z">many other variables</a> that are more difficult to analyse also influence plant susceptibility to fire.</p>
<h2>Fuels</h2>
<p>After the March 2009 fire the University of Cape Town removed some alien trees to reduce fuel loads. It has now removed most of the remaining pine and other alien tree stands along the north-western perimeter of Upper Campus. </p>
<p>Over the past two decades, SANParks has also made significant progress in <a href="https://www.jstor.org/stable/26269053?seq=1#metadata_info_tab_contents">clearing invasive tree stands</a>. This despite intense opposition, mostly from local recreational users who frequently support “forest” preservation with arguments based on ecological and climatic <a href="https://www.iol.co.za/capetimes/news/breaking-down-myth-planting-forests-could-help-drought-regions-15294218">misconceptions</a>.</p>
<p>However, at the time of the 2021 fire dense stands of flammable, mostly alien <a href="https://tokaipark.com/2021/04/devils-peak-fire/">shrubs and low trees</a> dominated some areas bordering <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0254629914001732">the campus</a>, particularly in the north where the fire came from. Despite extensive clearing operations since the fire, a dense thicket of invasive alien shrubs and trees is emerging along both sides of the university perimeter. It will need to be monitored as a future fire risk.</p>
<p>The native fynbos and renosterveld vegetation are both <a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.2989/10220119.2021.1991473?src=recsys">fire-prone and fire-dependent</a>, whereas introduced tree and shrub species are also <a href="https://www.timeslive.co.za/news/south-africa/2021-04-24-born-to-burn-the-alien-trees-that-turned-cape-town-fire-into-a-disaster/">adapted to burning</a> and <a href="http://www.scielo.org.za/scielo.php?script=sci_arttext&pid=S0038-23532009000500009">proliferating rapidly thereafter</a>.</p>
<p>Hence, rapid spread of fire near the University of Cape Town is an ever-present <a href="https://tokaipark.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/04/UCT-2012-%E2%80%93-UCT-Heritage-Park-Management-Framework.pdf">risk</a> once fuel loads are restored. </p>
<p><em>A longer version of the article can be found <a href="https://www.csag.uct.ac.za/2022/04/18/devils-peak-fire-18-19-april-2021-one-year-later/">here</a>.</em></p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/182169/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Stefaan Conradie received funding from the South African National Research Foundation. </span></em></p>Fire spreading rapidly is always a risk at the University of Cape Town.Stefaan Conradie, PhD student, University of Cape TownLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1278442019-12-02T14:11:21Z2019-12-02T14:11:21ZHow art and technology helped bring faces of the dead to life<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/304076/original/file-20191127-112499-1cv5azx.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Je'nine May/UCT</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>Facial reconstruction is best known as a forensic tool that can help identify human remains and reconnect them with families for burial or memorialisation. The technique has a potent claim on our imaginations.</p>
<p>These images are usually produced when other identification methods have failed. It’s usually a last resort with very high stakes. This is perhaps why, when forensic depictions lead to recognition in spite of their own technical limitations, it can feel like a miracle, providing an essential, often long-awaited, piece of an investigative puzzle.</p>
<p>Facial reconstruction becomes most culturally visible when it is applied to <a href="http://archaeologicalmuseum.jhu.edu/the-collection/object-stories/who-am-i-remembering-the-dead-through-facial-reconstruction/the-facial-reconstruction-process/">archaeological research</a>. Depicting past people enables viewers to imagine them as individuals rather than specimens. The facial image becomes a powerful and complex medium, fostering connections between historical events and personal lifeways, and re-establishing a degree of personhood. </p>
<p>This research is facilitated by advances in imaging technologies, and benefits from interdisciplinary input. In turn, it creates new opportunities for the retrieval of previously unknown or suppressed knowledge that reshapes our understanding of the past.</p>
<p>What has become known as the <a href="https://www.news.uct.ac.za/features/sutherland/">Sutherland Reburial project</a> offers a unique opportunity to reflect on the objectives of recreating faces from skulls. The project involved creating facial depictions based on <a href="https://theconversation.com/skeletons-and-closets-how-one-university-reburied-the-dead-126607">human remains unethically acquired</a> by the <a href="https://www.uct.ac.za/">University of Cape Town</a> in the 1920s. </p>
<p>The project has become a platform to ventilate the unfinished business of human remains discovered from <a href="https://www.sahistory.org.za/article/khoikhoi">South Africa’s unpleasant past</a>. It has also set a precedent for repatriation and restitution initiatives. The most critical is the involvement of direct descendants with links to the farm where the majority of these remains were exhumed, and their specific request to “see the faces” of their ancestors. Giving us their permission with their instruction, they collaborated in producing scientific knowledge for the benefit of the source community in Sutherland.</p>
<p>The project has also demonstrated how science, art and technology converge in contemporary facial reconstruction and depiction.</p>
<h2>How it’s done</h2>
<p>At the start of May 2019, the project was undertaken by <a href="https://www.ljmu.ac.uk/research/centres-and-institutes/institute-of-art-and-technology/expertise/face-lab">Face Lab</a>, recognised as an international leader in craniofacial research and analysis, with an entirely digital workflow. </p>
<p>Facial reconstruction interprets the details of the skull to recreate face shape through modelling of facial soft tissues, estimating the shape and size of facial features and using methods developed over a century of scientific and artistic collaboration. </p>
<figure class="align-right zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/304425/original/file-20191129-95250-l5foxz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/304425/original/file-20191129-95250-l5foxz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/304425/original/file-20191129-95250-l5foxz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=359&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/304425/original/file-20191129-95250-l5foxz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=359&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/304425/original/file-20191129-95250-l5foxz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=359&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/304425/original/file-20191129-95250-l5foxz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=451&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/304425/original/file-20191129-95250-l5foxz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=451&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/304425/original/file-20191129-95250-l5foxz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=451&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">The human remains do not have to be handled by Face Lab, who work on scans of the remains.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Face Lab, Liverpool John Moores University</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p><a href="https://link.springer.com/content/pdf/10.1007/s12024-006-0007-9.pdf">Current methods</a> have shown that shape can be accurately recreated with less than 2mm of error for approximately 70% of the facial surface.</p>
<p>The surface details of a face, known here as “texture”, are a matter of interpretation. Eye and hair colour, skin tone, wrinkles, scars and other marks, and some aspects of the ear cannot be reliably predicted from the skull alone. <a href="https://journals.plos.org/plosgenetics/article?id=10.1371/journal.pgen.1004224">Genetic phenotyping</a> is making some advances here, but not without <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2017/10/19/nyregion/dna-phenotyping-new-york-police.html">significant controversy</a>.</p>
<p>Yet these details are essential for creating a plausible face, so we must make a reasonable attempt, restricted by what can be justified by the available data. </p>
<p>In Face Lab, we refer to the final result as a “depiction” to distinguish between the process of recreating face shape – informed by anatomical standards that apply across all populations – and the highly interpretive process of adding surface details. The final depiction should employ visual strategies known to optimise recognition, but also infer ambiguity where necessary. </p>
<figure class="align-left zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/304424/original/file-20191129-95272-cnvu6r.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/304424/original/file-20191129-95272-cnvu6r.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/304424/original/file-20191129-95272-cnvu6r.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=359&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/304424/original/file-20191129-95272-cnvu6r.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=359&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/304424/original/file-20191129-95272-cnvu6r.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=359&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/304424/original/file-20191129-95272-cnvu6r.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=451&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/304424/original/file-20191129-95272-cnvu6r.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=451&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/304424/original/file-20191129-95272-cnvu6r.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=451&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Some of the many faces reconstructed during projects at Face Lab.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Face Lab, Liverpool John Moores University </span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Our job is therefore to predict the “most likely” in-life appearance of an individual by attending as closely as possible to the specific, not the average. Producing the right sort of face, with the features in a certain proportional and spatial relationship to each other, determined by a skull’s own architecture, is what narrows the search for an unidentified victim in a forensic context. </p>
<p>Refining individualising detail – a gap between the upper teeth, prominent ears, a crooked nose or asymmetric eyes – increases the chances of successful recognition.</p>
<h2>In the lab</h2>
<p>Face Lab worked with 3D digital models of the Sutherland skulls produced from CT scans, which provided excellent surface detail along with internal information that refined feature prediction and allowed estimation of missing jawbones (mandibles). This was necessary for three individuals in this group. </p>
<p>Where bony fragments were missing or damaged, reassembly was a necessary first step. The more bone is absent, the more qualified the final result.</p>
<p>Face Lab employs a 3D modelling programme with a haptic (touch-sensitive) interface. This process non-destructively mimics a manual sculpting process, enabling optimal preservation of fragile or damaged bone by building up the soft tissues of the face in virtual clay. Rendering the various layers transparent to view the underlying skeletal structure at any time during the process enables continual evaluation.</p>
<figure class="align-left zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/304426/original/file-20191129-95207-ta9e52.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/304426/original/file-20191129-95207-ta9e52.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/304426/original/file-20191129-95207-ta9e52.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=594&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/304426/original/file-20191129-95207-ta9e52.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=594&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/304426/original/file-20191129-95207-ta9e52.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=594&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/304426/original/file-20191129-95207-ta9e52.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=746&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/304426/original/file-20191129-95207-ta9e52.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=746&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/304426/original/file-20191129-95207-ta9e52.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=746&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">A reconstruction of a woman called Saartje in the Sutherland Reburials Project.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Face Lab LJMU/UCT</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<figure class="align-right zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/304427/original/file-20191129-95215-1uzzgng.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/304427/original/file-20191129-95215-1uzzgng.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/304427/original/file-20191129-95215-1uzzgng.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=602&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/304427/original/file-20191129-95215-1uzzgng.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=602&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/304427/original/file-20191129-95215-1uzzgng.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=602&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/304427/original/file-20191129-95215-1uzzgng.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=757&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/304427/original/file-20191129-95215-1uzzgng.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=757&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/304427/original/file-20191129-95215-1uzzgng.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=757&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">A reconstruction of the face of Cornelius Abraham in the Sutherland Reburials Project.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Face Lab LJMU/UCT</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Extensive visual research guided our final presentation choices for the Sutherland faces. This was supported by information from within the team, including ancient DNA which confirmed biological sex in some cases, as well as kinship and geographical origins. </p>
<p>We chose to present these people as they most likely would have appeared at their approximate age at death. The environment in which they lived and their likely lifestyle – harsh weather, basic diet and physical labour – would have affected their appearance. Older adults would have likely had more heavily wrinkled skin than contemporary people of the same chronological age.</p>
<p>Clothing was suggested based on contemporaneous archival photographs taken in the same broad geographical area. Adding a sepia tint introduced an element of colour in keeping with 19th century photographic techniques and visually situates them in the period in which the majority lived. </p>
<p>They are historical interpretations produced with forensic fealty.</p>
<h2>Unnerving reality</h2>
<p>Presenting the images to the families evoked complex emotions, from intense curiosity to guarded apprehension. The level of realism was clearly unnerving, but ultimately compelling. </p>
<p>The faces were ciphers for a process of recognition that was about being seen and heard. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/304423/original/file-20191129-95242-1p4tptq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/304423/original/file-20191129-95242-1p4tptq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/304423/original/file-20191129-95242-1p4tptq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/304423/original/file-20191129-95242-1p4tptq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/304423/original/file-20191129-95242-1p4tptq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/304423/original/file-20191129-95242-1p4tptq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/304423/original/file-20191129-95242-1p4tptq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/304423/original/file-20191129-95242-1p4tptq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Showing the families the facial reconstructions of their ancestors previously buried on Kruisrivier farm in Sutherland.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Je'nine May/UCT</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>In a place where indigenous histories are conspicuously absent, the Sutherland families believe that having these stories brought to life in a tangible and dignified way fosters meaningful connections between the past and present, and for future generations.</p>
<p>Local heritage practices in South Africa have not taken advantage of what these techniques can deliver. The Sutherland Project is one model of what opening up institutional processes and analyses to those affected by historical crimes might look like. </p>
<p>Informed by how humanitarian values might contribute to historical redress initiatives, the Sutherland project poses ethical questions that have specific local expression but are globally relevant. </p>
<p>The biographies this process was able to reconstruct, embodied in these eight faces, are highly specific. But they stand for the experiences of many others over many decades, who have been lost to history, but from whom we have a great deal left to learn.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/127844/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Kathryn Smith receives support for her doctoral research from the National Research Foundation. The Sutherland Reburial project was supported by the National Geographic Society.</span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Caroline Wilkinson does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Through science, art and technology, we are able to reconstruct the faces of the dead based on their remains. The researcher who did this work for descendants in Sutherland explains the process.Kathryn Smith, Visual/forensic artist, PhD researcher, Liverpool John Moores UniversityCaroline Wilkinson, Professor at School of Art and Design, Liverpool John Moores UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/673892016-10-20T15:29:34Z2016-10-20T15:29:34ZWhat must fall: fees or the South African state?<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/142515/original/image-20161020-8862-1x1eefy.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Siphiwe Sibeko/Reuters</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>The polarising effects of <a href="https://theconversation.com/africa/topics/feesmustfall-21801">#FeesMustFall</a> are now pervasive in the academy, and probably beyond. Academics turn on each other, as do their schools and faculties. </p>
<p>Whole universities are pitted against one another – the <a href="http://www.thedailyvox.co.za/tactics-future-feesmustfall-wits/">“Wits option”</a> vs the <a href="http://www.politicsweb.co.za/comment/the-degradation-of-uct">“UCT option”</a>. Some academics are accused of being blindly supportive of “the innocent students” and parading their colours as the immaculate left; while others are <a href="https://www.facebook.com/groups/493499504144839/">seen</a> as blindly securocrat, unreconstructed racists, or terminally bewildered.</p>
<p>So let’s (try to) agree on a modicum of common ground. Remarkably, there is a lot of it about. No-one can reasonably argue that universities are not underfunded. No-one can reasonably argue that the impact of underfunding has been transferred to fee increases, and that in turn, black (primarily African and coloured) students bear the burden. Given the failure of the post-apartheid economy to sufficiently redistribute wealth and the abject failure of trickle-down economics, <a href="http://www.thedailyvox.co.za/a-letter-to-white-people/">“black debt”</a> is a reality. </p>
<p>Let’s also accept that for many students, much of the academy is an alienating, overwhelmingly white, Eurocentric space and experience. Students arrive and are expected to meet imported norms, seminar room sarcasm, unknown customs, foreign authors, hard marking and plain hard slog of tertiary education, while being young and going through their own life transitions, and doing so in “othered” spaces, out of vernacular, and so on.</p>
<p>Let us also agree that virtually no university or further education college has genuinely grappled (institutionally, not at the level of the individual) with what it means to <a href="https://theconversation.com/decolonise-more-than-just-curriculum-content-change-the-structure-too-44480">decolonise</a>, beyond (at best) looking around quickly for some black/African authors. This is not true at school level, where many advances have been made – but these are islands in an ocean. Students swim in the ocean.</p>
<p>Let’s also accept the dangers of commodified knowledge and universities, and the fact that the system is slowly becoming a sausage machine for lawyers, accountants, MBAs and others deemed economically necessary for the economy. Those schools and faculties seen to add no “dollar value” are discriminated against locally and globally. </p>
<p>I say “let’s agree” because these issues have all been <a href="https://www.wits.ac.za/news/latest-news/general-news/2016/feesmustfall2016/statements/draft-pledge-on-access-to-higher-education.html">agreed</a> to by both protesters and university management. There may be quibbles over the severity of this or that issue in this or that part of the sector, but the central issues are undisputed.</p>
<h2>Divided we fall</h2>
<p>So what divides us, and with such vehemence? For the immaculate left, it is ultimately a capitalist state that has no interest in the poor emerging from poverty; overlapping with black people in a society dominated by whiteliness; creating an unreconstructed racial capitalism that needs to be toppled. Students in this view lack agency, and are in every context victims of external forces. Every action is the response of victim to oppressor. </p>
<p>“Senior management” is seen to lead with security, follow up with more security, and have no interest in negotiation or compromise. Students just want a free, decolonised education in a transformed institution and are shot for daring to ask for it – and they remain innocent, brutalised “black bodies”.</p>
<p>For those who are not in this group, there is a basic commitment to teach, and to getting students to complete the academic year. They are disregarded as <a href="https://theconversation.com/navigating-south-africas-loaded-political-lexicon-42791">“liberals”</a>, the ultimate South African insult. Security is regarded as a necessary evil – but since many academics have personally been assaulted and/or abused and/or disrupted, and many targeted for hiding students desperate to learn and/or shielding them from protesters, security seems a basic necessity. The pleas from students for support to finish the year have been incessant.</p>
<h2>Returning to class</h2>
<p>What is at fault with all these views is the assumption that if protesters win enough compromises – such as sector-wide agreement on free, quality, decolonised education and the need to plan, design and cost it so that it can be an implementable reality not a slogan (being self-evidently not swiftly realised) – they will return to class. And they will do so as victors. We know that the vast majority of non-protesters also want to be back in class - and a great many are there already. But this core assumption is wrong.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/142520/original/image-20161020-8862-1ps4wz7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/142520/original/image-20161020-8862-1ps4wz7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=387&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/142520/original/image-20161020-8862-1ps4wz7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=387&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/142520/original/image-20161020-8862-1ps4wz7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=387&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/142520/original/image-20161020-8862-1ps4wz7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=487&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/142520/original/image-20161020-8862-1ps4wz7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=487&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/142520/original/image-20161020-8862-1ps4wz7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=487&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Students use shields belonging to private security during clashes with police at Wits University.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Siphiwe Sibeko/Reuters</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>It is increasingly difficult to retreat from the notion that this is an incipient insurrection. While some protesters are undoubtedly idealistic and brave fighters for free quality education, the movement of 2015 has been colonised by political parties and anarchist movements in 2016. A movement without prominent leaders of 2015 has become leaderless in 2016. </p>
<p>Acts of bravery and camaraderie in 2015 have become acts of racist abuse and thuggish violence in 2016. Burning has replaced marching; destruction of university infrastructure is a key goal. This is no longer #FeesMustFall as we knew it – it has become #StateMustFall. </p>
<p>Universities are being used for testing the potential for broader insurrection –- if you can bring down universities you can bring down cities, if you can bring down cities, you can collapse and take control of the state. No compromise will get the core protesters back into class, or satisfy their academic or political mentors, because their goal is so much larger: state capture. It has allegedly been <a href="http://f3magazine.unicri.it/?p=402">done</a> once under democracy, so why not again?</p>
<h2>Who is to blame?</h2>
<p>Politics hates a vacuum, more than nature. The ruling African National Congress (ANC) is <a href="http://city-press.news24.com/News/an-illegitimate-morally-and-politically-compromised-president-malema-doesnt-hold-back-20160217">morally compromised</a> on every front. Seemingly all courts in the land are packed with lawyers attempting to stop good governance and allow uninterrupted <a href="http://www.corruptionwatch.org.za/why-is-corruption-getting-worse-in-south-africa/">bingeing</a> at the trough. The brazen moves to cover various political derrieres are breathtaking – but create space for any other party to claim the moral high ground. </p>
<p>In <a href="http://www.sahistory.org.za/topic/june-16-soweto-youth-uprising">1976</a> during the Soweto youth uprising, protesting students were given political education by mainly the <a href="http://www.sahistory.org.za/article/black-consciousness-movement">Black Consciousness Movement</a>.
Those students went into exile got their education from the liberation movement organisations, the ANC and the Pan-Africanist Congress (PAC). Whether they were <a href="http://www.sahistory.org.za/article/origins-formation-sharpeville-and-banning-1959-1960">Africanist</a> – closer to the PAC – or <a href="http://www.sahistory.org.za/sites/default/files/DC/theooct90a/theooct90a.pdf">Charterist</a> – aligned with the ANC – they were taught about the democratic state that had to be built and the principles on which it was to be built. Who now provides political education for protesting students?</p>
<p>The ANC is utterly compromised and cannot claim the moral authority to “lead”. The Democratic Alliance and ANC student wings, <a href="https://www.da.org.za/get-involved/da-youth/">DASO</a> and <a href="http://www.sahistory.org.za/topic/south-african-students-congress-sasco">Sasco</a> respectively, were loud in proclaiming their various Student Representative Council victories earlier in the year but have vanished from the scene. The prominence of <a href="http://effighters.org.za/">Economic Freedom Fighters</a> leaders – at national and student level – may or may not be relevant. So too the various incarnations of <a href="http://blf.org.za/">Black First Land First</a>, pan-Africanist student movements and others. We are reduced to using student leaders of the 1980s as <a href="http://www.news24.com/SouthAfrica/News/if-sa-wanted-to-it-would-have-free-education-mpofu-20161008">mediators</a>, still on the faulty assumption that protesters want to return to class. They don’t. They are far more ambitious than that.</p>
<p>We have to call the bluff of those who keep moving the goalposts. Universities have agreed to free, quality, decolonised education in a transformed institution. Exam dates have been changed. Exam content is being modified to accommodate lost classes. But then the <a href="http://www.timeslive.co.za/local/2016/10/09/Wits-will-remain-shut-until-our-demands-are-met-%E2%80%93-student-leader">demands shift</a> – we want this fully legislated now, or we won’t return to class. Or, we want amnesty for students suspended after due process regardless of what they did. Or, we want students arrested by police released. And so on and so on. These are patently not demands that the academy has the legal mandate to meet, even if we assume it had the will so to do.</p>
<p>If we do not call this for what it is, we face the danger of realising apartheid architect <a href="http://www.sahistory.org.za/people/hendrik-frensch-verwoerd">Hendrik Verwoerd’s</a> dream – the man who <a href="http://www.azquotes.com/quote/727563">advised</a> us:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>There is no place for [the Bantu] in the European community above the level of certain forms of labour … What is the use of teaching the Bantu child mathematics when it cannot use it in practice? That is quite absurd. </p>
</blockquote>
<p>If, as seems likely, for the second year in a row, university students in South Africa are going to complete only part of their annual curriculum, and will be examined on only part of their curriculum, the result is that every subsequent year is divided between “catching up” on what was missed and squeezing a year of teaching into less time – we face the danger of ensuring that no student will receive even a quality colonised education (an oxymoron for some, of course). We are not educating our students to compete locally or globally. We are crippling them. They are being sacrificed for the few who see state capture as tantalisingly close.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/67389/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>David Everatt does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>University authorities in South Africa have agreed to most fees protesters’ demands. Yet, the protesters keep moving the goalposts. Do they want more than fees to fall?David Everatt, Head of Wits School of Governance, University of the WitwatersrandLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.