November 7th, 2008
Black Liberation | Lived Experiences | Memorials | Music
Memorials in South Africa
The monuments and memorials research team focused on forms and sites of commemoration, monuments created during apartheid and after the 1994 government of national unity, museums, and the significance of monuments to South Africans. Few South Africans advocate for the destruction of colonial and apartheid monuments, but some, like our narrator Jeff Peires, a historian, advocate for their removal to a central location where interested people could visit these symbols of former regimes.The government has been the true engine for change in South Africa’s monuments and public history. Officials like Similo Grootboom of the Eastern Cape’s Department of Culture actively seek to build new monuments in order to honor the struggle out of which the country has only recently come. The government has granted funding to build new monuments, and communities may ask for funding to build a monument to an event or leader in that area.However, there is a cultural tension at play. Old monuments are symbolic of regimes that abused the rights of black and coloured South Africans, yet to destroy them would mean the destruction of another culture’s valued symbols. This type of action would destabilize the country and move away from the stated government goal of racial harmony in the new democratic South Africa. The question of how to please everyone in these situations becomes difficult.
A similar point of contention arises concerning names of places, streets, and buildings. Old names, such as King William’s Town itself, refer to people, places, or things that are originally not African. They mark the attempts of European colonizers to impose their understanding on the African continent, without regard to the existing culture of the black South Africans. The government has pushed to change many of these blatantly European names to African ones. While the government sees this as an important step, most respondents would prefer government funding currently used to change names to be used to tackle more pressing problems like poverty, homelessness, and unemployment.
(Photo Copyright © 2010, Ryan Koons)
Podcast: Memorials and Commeration
Created by James Chapnick and Corinthia Jacobs
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Memorials in Mississippi
The majority of the monuments that the research team examined were either related to the Confederacy, or symbols that were originally affiliated with the Confederate States of America and later appropriated by white supremacist groups during the Civil Rights Movement. These include the Confederate flag, which was incorporated into the Mississippi state flag in 1894. It has generated a great amount of controversy, but when given the opportunity, Mississippians did not vote to change the flag in 2001.
The research team also examined the monuments on the campus of the University of Mississippi, or “Ole Miss.”. The campus displays an interesting mix of monuments, from old stained glass windows that glorify Confederate soldiers and a monument to the Confederate Civil War dead, to a statue of James Meredith, the first African-American enrolled at the University. Ole Miss provides an interesting study of how both old and new coexist simultaneously in Mississippi.
The Mississippi state flag was a highly polarizing issue, often divided along racial lines. Incorporating the Confederate flag as a part of the state flag means different things to different people. Many white Southerners look at the flag as a point of pride, and a reminder of their heritage. Conversely, many African-American Mississippians look at it as an offensive reminder of slavery, violence, and the denial of civil rights during the Jim Crow era. The flag remains a major point of contention because many people find it offensive, while others vigorously defend it.
Major research was done in the archives of Carnegie Public Library, in Clarksdale, Mississippi. Some of the material used included The Clarksdale Press Register newspaper (on microfilm), and books on the history of Ole Miss.
The research team asked almost every narrator about their opinion on the Mississippi flag. Major contributors included Johnny Lewis, Bill Luckett, Geraldine Burton, Nettie Greer, and James Shelby.
(Photo Copyright © 2010, Ryan Koons)
Podcast: “Their heritage is my hell:” Mississippi State Flag Debate
Created by James Chapnick