Public history and culture in South Africa: the struggle continues

Abstract

"In South Africa, with the end of formal apartheid in 1994, the national government, provincial and local authorities have made all possible the memorialization of the anti-apartheid and liberation struggles that deserve critical attention and reflection. This is necessary because who were directly involved are growing older and their stories/narratives have begun to recede into the past in the name of continued social, economic, and political progress. Architects, urban planners and heritage professionals continue to play an important role in the memory-making and recording/telling process across South Africa's cultural landscape. Moreover, museum are spaces and institutions that collect, houses, research, reflect on, circulate and exhibit objects of historical, scientific, artistic and cultural significance. The nation's representation of culture in its museums is also revealing of dominant ideologies and to a degree may be interpreted as a kaleidoscope of research and collecting foci of the time."