"Slavery in the Cape Colony was officially the central form of social, cultural and economic organization from 1658 – 1834, and vital to the production of many of the key architectural sites from this period. While slavery and associated forms of racialized forced labour are largely represented as mild in early architectural histories of southern Africa, if present at all, there are moments when tracings, slippages and holes in historical narratives point to stores of revolt, mutiny, and precarious yet peripheral care. Unconfessed Architectures asks for a close listening to the sound of ghostly subaltern footsteps already present within the architectural archive, as a site which speaks to the wider imbrication of coloniality and violence, as present and enduring within the materiality of these homes and by extension, architectural history as a discipline. Beyond this axis of land, architecture, mountain and water as a site of archival violence, the practice of ‘caring to listen’ also points the potential of an alternative archival imaginary."