Other South African Memorials
Commemoration is a public matter in which remembrance of the dead is made visible in a landscape or cityscape, and is particularly associated with governance and the state. It is about remembrance in a political as well as public context, rather than remembering personal grief and loss, although the two often become intertwined. In the South African context, commemoration of the concentration camp dead quickly became intertwined with commemoration of the war dead, then soon after that it was associated with the rise of nationalism. Concentration camp cemeteries, sad and touching places, were often overwritten by placing nationalist memorials in them. In many places, the surrounding area is also marked by many public acts of material remembrance made within a nationalist frame: resonant years include 1910 and Union, and 1936 to 1938 and the Great Trek re-enactment (AKA Second Trek). The Great Trek re-enactment in particular was intended to mark the landscape and show possession, and there are memorials at many places that the ox wagons crossing the country visited or passed through. There are also memorials to those people seen as heroes in ‘the history’ as viewed by nationalism. Photograph galleries of a range of such memorials together with short descriptions of them will be found here.
For further information, see the ‘Read about’ guides.