Voortrekker Monument

Visual: pretentious, old-fashioned, huge cube of a monument made of granite.

Covers 2.1 acres (1 hecter) and looks onto a beautiful landscape of Pretoria.

What a day of contrasts! A well planned day! My words cannot serve justice to the experiential learning that occurred as the day went by and my thoughts and questions that will continue to follow afterwards.

The monument commemorates the Afrikaners fight for Independence from the English in the early-mid 1800's and about the struggles faces with African tribes along their settlement progression.

We had a very informative tour from a retired man who was genuinely very proud of how far he could trace his Afrikans heritage. He asked us, "Imagine if you had to pack up everything you would need for the rest of your life time in a wagon! What would you pack?" Now had we this tour before the apartheid museum I believe that I would have been more sympathetic to his cause and his claim. However, as it was I could only think: "Well, what if you had nothing to beging with it? Then what?"
I firmly believe that he had the right to be proud of his heritage and also share the struggles from his own personal perspective, but I just could not be as sympathetic/empathetic/ appreciative due to the deep contrasts of the things experienced that day!

Meaningful theme:
'We for you South Africa' = "Ons vir jou Suid Afrika" was written on a stone sarcophagus within the monument.

Hmmm . . . whose South Africa? Who is making the laws and who gets to enforce those laws?

Voortrekker Monument

*** Voortrekker Monument
Visual: pretentious, old-fashioned, huge cube of a granite and marble (on the inside).
From the top of the hill that the monument is on you can see a beautiful panorama of Pretoria. And thus the monument can also be seen from quite a distance away!

What a day of contrasts! A well planned day! My words cannot serve justice to the experiential learning that occurred as the day went by and my thoughts and questions that will continue to follow afterwards.

Our tour guide is a retired and passionate man who is eager to share the struggles faced by his direct Afrikaner ancestors in the 1800s.
The story of struggle and the trekkers journey presented from the Africana point of view is visually portrayed on marble slates, like a 90 meter comic strip. It shows how the white man negotiated and fought wars to get the land of the black natives. Then it focuses on the 1830s-1950’s Afrikaner’s struggle to win independence from the British.
The Afrikaner fight and unity slogan is “Ons vir jou Suid Afrika” = We for you South Africa.

Again, the mindset and notion of land ownership baffles me.

It was so frustrating to hear the story of this struggle right after the apartheid museum. How can one be so closely presented with the other!?!?! At one point the tour guide directed our attention to one scene were the Afrikaner trekker had to pack up his belongings into a wagon with a gnew (a black wildebeest that pulled the cart) and prepare his trek journey. He said, “Imagine if you had to pack up everything you would need for the rest of your lifetime in a wagon? What would you pack?”
Well jeez, what if you never even had anything to pack? What if you had no warning that you had to pack up? What a CONTRAST!

I was interested to learn that South Africa has 3 capitals: Pretoria (administrative), Cape Town, and Bellefontaine (judicial/ appeal court).