Although we were behind schedule, we still had the chance to
drive up to the city of Pretoria, the formal capital of South Africa. The jacaranda-lined streets are quite lovely,
while also bustling with urban life. The
city is older than Johannesburg, and was the center of Afrikaner political
power. The capitol building has two
large chambers, and is built to reflect the uneasy power sharing between the
British and the Afrikaners after they united to form modern South Africa;
literally, the building was created to divide and separate. Now though, the long sloping lawn in front of
the capitol is the home of a giant statue of Nelson Mandela, with his arms open
out to the country. The scale of the
statue and the open arms really change the feeling of the capitol, making it
seem more open and welcoming.
We passed the courthouse where Oscar Pistorius is currently
on trial for murder. This case is
certainly the equivalent of the OJ Simpson trial in the U.S., and even though
we didn’t go inside the courthouse, we could see that the building was
literally surrounded by temporary security posts and press stands, crowd barriers
and photography ramps. It is the setting
for a media circus for sure.
We also went past the Voortrekker Monument, which was
erected by the nationalist Afrikaner government in 1949 to commemorate a
victory over the Zulus called the battle of Blood River. The Afrikaners considered this 1838 battle to
be the turning point in their drive not just to survive but to conquer as they
colonized South Africa. This lopsided
battle—where fewer than 500 Dutch settlers killed more than 3000 Zulus was interpreted
as a sign from god that this territory was meant to be theirs. The monument was opened just as the
Afrikaner’s far-right Nationalist Party came to office in 1948, bringing the
full apartheid regime. The dedication of
the monument included thousands of Afrikaners dressed in traditional Boer
settler clothes, camping on the lawn, re-enacting a glamorized version of
settler life. It also featured a
military display of army helicopters, planes, and soldiers; the blend of
military might and selective historical pageantry was designed to reinforce the
gloss of Afrikaner divine right over the future of South Africa. What is really interesting today is the
monument itself; it is made of dark mud-brown stone and is practically
windowless, built in a kind of brutalist late art-deco style. It sits at the top of a long hill, and
manages to convey a sense of power, in a sort of squat defensive kind of a
way.
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