Likely to be the most famous of South African memorials and a magnet for national as well as international tourists, who seem largely oblivious of its nationalist history and continuing political and racist connotations as the symbol of nationalist triumphalism. It is located high on a hillside just outside central Pretoria and in the same vicinity as Schanskop and now the area known as Freedom Park. Its foundation stone was laid in 1938 by an 1838 Voortrekker descendant at the culmination of the Second Trek activities. It was inaugurated by DF Malan in 1949 around the National Party election victory; reputedly, around 250,000 people were present. It valorises the Boer settler presence in South Africa and their triumphs over adversities and is replete with heavy-handed symbolism. These include a shaft of sunlight which strikes on an empty tomb (symbolically representing a Voortrekker leader, Piet Retief) at the base of the monument at a particular moment on 16 December each year (the anniversary of the Battle of Blood River), and a flame which since 1938 has never been allowed to go out. The empty tomb has etched onto it some words from the ‘Die Stem’ nationalist anthem by Langenhooven.
View Voortrekker Monument gallery here
