The long shadow of apartheid: a critical assessment of heritage transformation in South Africa 25 years on

ABSTRACT

Based on insights gained from two decades of research on South African heritage and monuments, this paper critically reflects on the status quo of heritage transformation in South Africa 25 years after the end of apartheid. It assesses new directions in national heritage policy and government strategy in relation to recent developments around post-apartheid heritage and the popular demand for a removal of ‘colonial statues’, which gained impetus from the #Rhodes Must Fall campaign. It is argued that the government’s approach to heritage transformation and most notably its treatment of white minority heritage, dominated by the ‘juxtaposition model’, has had limited success. The paper illustrates how heritage and the memory of the past are entangled with socio-political and economic realities in the present, which in turn is overshadowed by the long-term effects of apartheid and impacted by global or transnational considerations, such as foreign investment and tourism.

KEYWORDS:

• (post)apartheid
• heritage
• memory
• South Africa
• statues
• transformation

Acknowledgments

I am most grateful to the anonymous peer reviewers of this manuscript for their constructive feedback and useful suggestions, as well as Dr Denver A. Webb for his most valuable insights and information. As this paper draws on research conducted over a period of many years, the National Research Foundation of South Africa should also be acknowledged for financial support in conducting field work and attending conferences.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Sabine Marschall

Sabine Marschall is Professor of Cultural and Heritage Tourism (School of Social Sciences) at the University of KwaZulu-Natal in Durban, South Africa. She has researched commemorative monuments and heritage (tangible and intangible) in post-apartheid South Africa for many years. Her publications in this field include the monograph Landscape of Memory: Commemorative Monuments, Memorials and Public Statuary in Post-apartheid South Africa (Brill, 2010).