A Cultural Conundrum? Old Monuments and New Regimes: The Voortrekker Monument as Symbol of Afrikaner Power in a Postapartheid South Africa

This article addresses the ambiguities of historical symbolism and the processes by which cultural contracts are transacted under circumstances marked by a distinct change and reversal of power relations in society. It focuses specifically on the trajectory of the symbolism of the Voortrekker Monument in Pretoria, South Africa--a dominant symbolic expression of earlier Afrikaner nationalism in a postapartheid South Africa that has witnessed the loss of a great deal of formal Afrikaner political power to the African National Congress (ANC) government. The way in which symbolism is remolded in this case depends on the interplay between ethnic historical consciousness, wider socioeconomic developments, and the nature of political imperatives.

Architects, Academics, and the Monument

Prominently situated on a hill overlooking the southern entrance to the city of Pretoria stands the Voortrekker Monument, a giant square granite structure that looks like an ancient fortress guarding access to a city that during the apartheid years gained notoriety as the nerve center of National Party government.

The monument was completed in 1949 as a tribute to the Voortrekkers who colonized the interior of South Africa in the nineteenth century. The migration from the Cape Colony, known as the Great Trek, resembled American westward expansion and was characterized by numerous clashes with indigenous communities. The eventful history of the trek is illustrated by twenty-seven panels of overpowering marble friezes inside the monument, reportedly one of the largest historical representations of its kind in the world. Conceived and completed during a period of feverish Afrikaner nationalism in the 1930s and 1940s, the portrayals make no concessions: black people are uniformly represented as barbaric savages standing in the way of brave and heroic Boers claiming to bring civilization to the interior in the nineteenth century. In this representation serving the foundational myth of exclusive Afrikaner power, there is no room for subtlety or any admission that the opposing chieftains might have had their own very compelling reasons for resisting white encroachment.

Architecturally there are similarities between the Voortrekker monument and well-known European monuments such as the Dôme des Invalides in Paris and the Volkerschlachtdenkmal in Leipzig, which boast domes, sculptures, granite walls, and arched windows. While European architectural concepts dominate, African influences are evident in the decorative zigzag patterns on the outside of the Voortrekker Monument. The architect, Gerard Moerdijk, was unrestrained in his vision and planning of the monument; it "had to remind people for a thousand years or more the great deeds that had been done." ¹ Little could Moerdijk have foreseen that within forty to fifty years his interpretation of what constituted great deeds would be largely discredited politically.

The monument nevertheless left a distinct impression on the built environment in certain South African cities. The idea of a fortlike structure as a defiant and defining symbol of Afrikanerdom can be detected in the construction of urban landscapes of power. It was arguably replicated in 1960s buildings such as the inward-looking formation of the Rand Afrikaans University, a concrete citadel in Johannesburg with small windows and large exterior walls, and the overwhelming squareness and impenetrable design of the South African Broadcasting Corporation in the same city. These overbearing buildings create the impression that they were built, almost in a fit of megalomania, to celebrate Afrikaner power and achievement and to complement the earlier triumphalism of the Voortrekker Monument. ²

Given its prominence, the monument has attracted its fair share of academic attention. There are detailed descriptions of protracted attempts to coordinate the building of the monument. More important, the historical representation of the monument and its alignment with Afrikaner nationalism, ethnic mythmaking, and apartheid have been the subject of several analyses. ³ While these contributions did much to highlight the specific symbolism of the monument, they are partial in...