A Memorial to White Rule in Africa

On July 6th, after meeting with the South African Department of Education Offices on Race and Diversity and International Relations, in Pretoria, I went to the Voortrekker Monument lying just outside the city on a bluff overlooking the town. Built in the 1930s-1940s, at the beginning of the National Party's growing power (ultimately, this political party instituted the system of Apartheid) , in the art deco style, the monument pays hommage to the Afrikaaner pioneers who trekked from the Cape Provinces to the area of Johannesburg and Pretoria in the 1800s in order to remove themselves from British/foreign influence and to form their own nation. These ambitions would eventually be squashed with the British victory in the Boer War of 1898-99 when the South African republics were unified under the British Crown (1910). While it might seem imperialistic for those of European descent to lay claim to this land, at the expense of the local inhabitants, it is interesting to note the parallels between the memories and heritage seen in the Great Trek and Migration west in the United States.

Equally interesting is to note how indigenous peoples, in both countries, were portrayed in the memory of history during the time of the building of the monument. Views of race and gender are equally revealing as African warriors are seen in frescoes, at the Voortrekker Monument, murdering white women and children only to be ultimately overcome by white male power. In the United States in the late 1800s/early 1900s, the black male was also often seen, in overally violent and sexual terms, as a threat to white womanhood and, therefore, the continuation of a "pure" white race. The saving grace in both instances, and in both countries, is a growing interest in the study of history that looks at memory from diverse perspectives and in a way that allows the learner to analyze incidents rather than to be merely fed facts.

For these reasons, it is necessary not only to study the history of a certain time period but to look at history at various times in the retelling. As such, examples of memorialization, such as the Voortrekker Monument, continue to serve an important purpose in youth education.