Voortrekker Monument in Pretoria

The Voortrekker monument is a large granite building which represents Dutch settler nationalism in South Africa. It was built as an attempt to construct a narrative of Afrikaner nationalist pride, tying it in with a complicated legacy of colonialism and racial prejudice. It has thus been subject to criticism over its place in modern South Africa. Since the fall of apartheid, a counter-monument of Freedom Park has served to re-contextualise in physical space the distinctions drawn between settler and African identities. However, the legacy of the Voortrekker monument remains controversial. This case study shows the challenges of reckoning with the material histories of colonialist regimes in postcolonial nations and the challenges of addressing legacies of racism in post-apartheid societies.