The Politics of Remembrance in South Africa

During our stay in Cape Town, it became very apparent how the statues and monuments which reside around the city for remembrance instead act as ghosts of colonial past that reinforce the social and political order of their time. I have written a lot about the contradictions in South Africa, and again I noticed this cultural pattern in how history and “icons” are preserved. For example, the constant overlap of Van Riebeeck and Cecil John Rhodes in the “founding” and preservation of Cape Town is stunning to me. The colonial history and oppression still echoes its presence in a post-apartheid South Africa by maintaining the history of these men in their buildings, street names, and statues across South Africa.

In Cape Town alone there are statues of Rhodes on Devils Peak, upper campus of University of Cape Town, and in Company Gardens. In particular what I find so troubling about two of these statues—is that they are erected to look as if he is staring down his subjects. In this case, his subjects are the people living in the Cape Flats. Most people paint Rhodes like a great legendary man, however there is a deep history with these nationalistic apartheid statues. These statues are created in the name of oppressive pasts. Rhodes dies in 1902 as an imperialistic icon who believed in spreading the wealth among Anglo-Saxons. He hoped to build railways all over the African map to connect British colonies. I know in some historical accounts of Rhodes, he is blamed for much of the cultural genocide in South Africa during this time—especially with property rights and overall racial superiority.

In maintaining memories like this, painful pasts are embodied and reinforced in Cape Town. Shirley Gunn, Executive Director of the Human Rights Media Center explained to us that South Africans live with their past, even if they are unhappy with it because it is part of their landscape. Even though some people find it hard to live with and try to deface these statues and monuments. In many cases, statues have been stolen or sold. It is just inappropriate to put expensive materials in poor communities. Shirley explained that there are other ways to remember. For example, carving plaques in the tree and turning found objects into positive things. In 2000, Cape Town commissioned artists to come up with memorial for Trojan Horse shootings. It was not an easy memory to interpret. The Trojan Horse shootings were both a part of history and a mistake. In 2005, Shirley got the job and gathered all the mothers together for first time to process and consult with them. From there, a slogan was painted on the wall accompanied by their personal stories of pain and loss. The Trojan Horse memorial showed the significance and power of telling a story and of representing painful narratives to their community. But even as we visited this memorial in Athlone with Shirley—pieces of the memorial were missing. Someone had stolen part of the plaques from the memorial with the mothers stories. The steal plaques from this structure were most likely stolen to be sold or traded to scrap yards. As we left Shirley this particular day, she was already making phone calls and reaching out to the community to try to find out if anyone saw it anything.

I am curious at how South Africa might transform these public spaces post-apartheid. Reinterpret oppressive monuments and make those less visible monuments—more visible. After seeing many of these monuments, I believe some reassessing of the symbolic landscapes in Cape Town could be constructive in creating a new post-apartheid national identity. But I guess that brings up the question: are their certain parts of history that are unusable? Are oppressive histories less offensive if they are historical roots of the country? Would resistance to oppression be to resist memories of colonial oppression in the forms of these statues (like Rhodes)? Maybe this could lead to new interpretations for heritage sites that incorporate the identities of those who struggled. For more information on the Trojan Horse Memorial and other HRMC Projects: http://www.hrmc.org.za/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=63&Itemid=30