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Commemorating the ‘Trojan Horse’ massacre in Cape Town: the tension between vernacular and official expressions of memory

2010; Taylor & Francis; Volume: 25; Issue: 2 Linguagem: Inglês

10.1080/1472586x.2010.502671

1472-5878

Sabine Marschall,

Visual Culture and Art Theory

Abstract This paper engages with the process of memorialisation in post-apartheid South Africa, focusing on the case study of the so-called Trojan Horse Massacre memorial in Athlone, Cape Town. Unveiled in 2005, this memorial is the latest of a series of attempts to publicly memorialise the three young victims of a local ambush attack organised by the South African security forces in August 1985. The paper investigates how these memorials as cultural expressions manifest the intersection of the official or monumental and the vernacular or popular, which, according to John Bodnar, always characterises public memory. It is argued that the increasing institutionalisation of the memory of this event, especially during the post-apartheid period, has resulted in an increasing shift away from the vernacular and toward the official – a development that is paralleled in many other commemorative initiatives in post-apartheid South Africa. This shift is accompanied, and perhaps defined, by the increasingly significant role accorded to visual images in the design of the memorial marker. Different products of visual representation, both fictional and documentary, are investigated for their suitability as source imagery for the public memorial. The use of visual images in public memorials is meant to allow diverse audiences to relate to the memory marker, but such visual representation arguably also solidifies hegemonic narratives and may invalidate alternative memories. Notes [1] The CBS footage is available on the internet, such as on YouTube and on the Human Rights Media Centre website (http://www.hrmc.org.za). [2] Notably, they claimed that they had not been consulted and that they considered the marker inappropriate and incomprehensible (Coombes 2003 Coombes, Annie E. 2003. History after Apartheid: Visual culture and public memory in a democratic South Africa, Durham and London: Duke University Press. [Crossref] , [Google Scholar], 110; Bilbija et al. 2005 Bilbija, Ksenija, Jo Ellen Fair, Cynthia, E. Milton and Leigh, A. Payne. 2005. "Introduction". In The art of truth-telling about authoritarian rule, Edited by: Bilbija, Ksenija, Jo Ellen Fair, Milton, Cynthia E. and Payne, Leigh A. Madison, WI: University of Wisconsin Press. [Google Scholar]; see also 'Struggle Memorials Unveiled in Cape Town', Independent Online [http://www.iol.co.za], 21 March 2000). [3] With the support of the wider community, the families of the Gugulethu Seven eventually succeeded in motivating for the construction of a more imposing new memorial, unveiled on 21 March 2005. Ntombomzi Piet, the sister of one of the seven activists, told a news reporter that 'the men's families were happy that the sacrifice of the seven was finally being recognised with a proper memorial. The monument that used to be here on the spot where they died was not fitting and we as the families were not proud to be associated with it … When we saw monuments of others … like Hector Pieterson we felt aggrieved because Cape Town's heroes did not have a proper memorial' (Mtyala 2005 Mtyala, Quinton. 2005. Memorial honours Gugulethu Seven. Cape Times, March: 22 [Google Scholar]). [4] Personal interview with Shirley Gunn, Human Rights Media Centre, Cape Town, 26 June 2005; see also Independent Online, 21 March 2000. [5] The Monument to the Victims of State Terrorism in Buenos Aires, a project initiated by the city rather than the national government in 1999, now constitutes the most important public memorial to the victims (Lois and Lacabe 1999 Lois, Graciela, and Margarita Lacabe. 1999. In search of vindication: Reparations for human rights violations in Argentina. In KO'AGA ROÑE'ETA se.vii [electronic bulletin board; cited 29 March 2010]. http://www.derechos.org/koaga/vii/lois.html (http://www.derechos.org/koaga/vii/lois.html) [Google Scholar], 6). Inspired by the Vietnam Veterans Memorial, it lists the name of every person disappeared or killed. [6] A media release by the Municipality's Directorate of Communication and Marketing (2005) does however claim that the mothers were consulted and approved of the removal. Appollis was so distraught about the incident that he wrote a poem about it. [7] Personal interviews with Shirley Gunn, Human Rights Media Centre, Cape Town, 26 June 2005 and 15 June 2009; personal e-mail communication from Malcolm Campbell, ACG Architects, 26 February 2009. [8] Examples include the Hector Pieterson memorial in Soweto, the Sharpeville Massacre memorial, the Langa memorial near Uitenhage, the Cradock Four memorial in Cradock, and the Solomon Mahlangu memorial in Mamelodi. [9] Personal e-mail communication from Malcolm Campbell, ACG Architects, 26 February 2009. [10] See for example the Steve Biko statue in East London; the Solomon Mahlangu statue in Mamelodi; Mahatma Gandhi in Pietermaritzburg; the Duncan Village Massacre in Buffalo City is represented through a bronze statue of a Xhosa warrior; many statues of African chiefs associated with anti-colonial resistance have been erected in various places (such as Dinuzulu in Durban and Greytown; Chief Tshwane in Pretoria/Tshwane; or Chief Mogale wa Mogale in Mogale City [Krugersdorp]). [11] Itzkin (2006 Itzkin, Eric. 2006. "Sunday Times Centenary Heritage Project. Unpublished term paper prepared for the module". In Public Culture WSOA 520, supervised by Cynthia Kros, Johannesburg: University of the Witwatersrand. [Google Scholar]) raises this in the context of his discussion of a controversial proposal for a memorial in honour of those who were tortured and lost their lives while in police custody at the notorious John Vorster Square police station in Johannesburg. [12] Based on her interactions with the community, Gunn felt that the orange railway truck should feature prominently. The existing design with the three policemen popping out of the crate, but without showing the truck, emerged as a compromise solution (Campbell, personal e-mail communication 2009). [13] The visual component, according to Minnaar, is the only weak element in the concept, 'coming across as symbolically contrived. The cut-out figures resemble shooting galley targets and have a comical, clinical presence which seems to contradict the essential human tragedy of the real deaths of the neighbourhood children' (Minnaar 2005 Minnaar, Melvyn. 2005. A powerful reminder of a tragic past. Cape Times, October: 18 [Google Scholar]).