Remembrance

January 9th was a hot day! The places that we went to today were: the Voortrekkers Monument, Freedom Park, and the Union Buildings.

At the Voortrekkers Monument we had a guided tour. In the monument were 27 panels that represented the pioneer history of South Africa, and I found it very interesting how there were so many panels and how each represented a part in the history. This monument was also very interesting, because every little aspect, like many other South African monuments and museums, have symbolic meaning. I enjoyed visiting this museum because I was able to get better understanding about the history on how South Africa came to be, and the pre-apartheid/ colonization history of the country.

After Voortrekkers we headed to Freedom Park. In the park there was a lot of symbolisms, but the part that really caught my attention was the Wall of Names. This is a wall that remembers people that have passed away in 8 major conflicts (Apartheid, South Africa War, WW1, WW2, and more). These people fought in these conflicts and lost their lives because of it; however, you will not see the names of those that died on the side of apartheid. This is something our guide brought up: shouldn’t we also put the names of those that were not on our side so that our children and their children know their entire history and not make the same mistakes? There was one name that I was incredibly surprised to see: Fidel Castro. From what I know about Cuba, from the perspective and knowledge as a Mexican American is that Castro was a horrible dictator that treated the Cuban people horribly. From what I understand he was a horrible man, so I was surprised to see him on this wall. Our guide said that the Cubans were very helpful to South African people, and that there is a lot of controversy around his name being put on this wall, but the same can be said about other names. I found this point very interesting, because it is true… there will always be different perspectives on a subject and therefore controversy.

We ended our visit at Freedom Park by going to the adjacent museum. I especially enjoyed the parts about early humans and the myths surrounding the creation of human kind. One of the myths I learned today was that of the chameleon and the lizard. God tasked the chameleon with going down and telling humans that they will never die, and he tasked the lizard with telling humans that they will all eventually die. Apparently, the lizard (for some reason) arrived first and told the humans that they will all eventually die. They began seeing death around them, and they were like: oh the lizard is correct, so when the chameleon came and told them they would never die they didn’t believe him. However, they then realized that the chameleon was also right, because their ancestors still remained, but in a spiritual realm, so both animals where right: all humans would die, but they would all live forever. I think this is an incredible story surrounding death and the after life, and that is why I really enjoyed this part of the museum.

We also stopped by this huge Nelson Mandela statue to take pictures and also see the Union Buildings. Overall, it was a great day, because it was a day of remembering. We learned about how the Voortrekkers are remembered, and we learned of another way that apartheid and other conflicts are remembered by the country (through the park). It was another great day of learning about social movements, but I also enjoyed how there was also a deeper spiritual aspect to the day. Not only spiritual in terms of the chameleon and lizard, but also with one of the trees at Freedom Park where we had to remove our shoes because it was a sacred space.