graffiti Thabang Nkwanyana

**There is a need for understanding not vengeance, ubuntu not victimization.**

- South African Constitution, 1993

1955 Creative Collaboration is a sovereign mix of innovative social entrepreneurs from the ghetto and academia. We are in and from Kliptown, Soweto, South Africa. For years, our passions for social equity, racial justice and art have brought us together. We work to empower our neighbourhood through critical and radical thinking, collaboration, innovation and creativity.

1955 is not a charity. It is not a Non-governmental Organization (NGO). We are a social enterprise startup. We are a CIPC registered non profit company* (NPC) that puts our mission at the centre with income generation in a critical supporting role. Our name, 1955, is the year that the Freedom Charter was signed by the People’s Congress in Kliptown.

—
Thabang Nkwanyana, Robert Shai, Kristen Kornienko

Co-founders

Ubuntu: community, compassion, humanity.

1955 is…

films

1955 films works in video, drone and still images producing documentaries addressing the social and physical issues facing the shack communities of Kliptown.

We also produce virtual academic resources in partnership with universities both local and around the world. Contact us about virtual field trips to Kliptown. We will work with you to design short films and panel discussions for students to engage with the community.

See our documentary film trailer on Kliptown and its resident driven efforts to slow the spread of the Covid-19 virus.

We maintain the copyright on all of our creative works. All earnings go straight to the community. Our work pushes back at the extractive practices that take intellectual property and knowledge out of the community without benefit to the residents.

upcycling local plastic waste

We see the plastic waste that is polluting the streets and riparian environment of Kliptown as the raw material to economically support our social initiatives.

We are collaborating with local recyclers, fellow social entrepreneurs and 3D Print experts to turn local PET plastic bottles into 3D printer filament. Initially this filament will be geared toward the architecture profession and education. We will expand into other products and markets.

1955 piloted a grassroots initiative to combat the spread of Covid-19 in Kliptown

Project closed after 4 years: this campaign continued because it supported community public health and well-being and employed resident. It closed due to lack of sustainable funding.

3 June 2020 Op-Ed in the Daily Maverick

5 October 2021 the International Centre for Climate Change and Development’s Voices From the Frontline highlights 1955

Since early March 2020, 1955 has collaborated with medical experts, community knowledge and the latest science to pilot strategies to slow the transmission of the corona virus within the dense shack communities of Kliptown. Communal toilets are a high risk point of transmission, we are:

disinfecting communal toilets
supporting hand washing

Thank you to everyone who made this project possible.

Kliptown residents creating hand washing stations

photo_Nkwanyana, 2020

1955 will be…

photo_Nkwanyana, 2018

community radio station

Radio 1955 will be a resident lead grassroots community radio station in Kliptown. The content will draw on ancient African oral traditions, South Africa’s rich history of radio broadcasting and Kliptown’s unique multi-cultural heritage to explore contemporary intsomi (storytelling) as a public resource for social and educational issues. It is envisioned as a creative platform on the airwaves, a place to share information and showcase local talent.

The project is rooted in the tenets of South Africa’s Freedom Charter.