Published December 05, 2023
“We are one,” said Gabi Ngcobo, the Curatorial Director at the Javett Art Centre at the University of Pretoria (Javett-UP) in her opening remarks at the Regional Symposium, “Southern African National Liberation Movements Heritage: Museums and Cultural Centres as Places of Learning” which took place in Pretoria on 1 December 2023. The UNESCO, Javett-UP and ICOM initiative brought together 20 museum, cultural institution, education, and artist practitioners to deliberate on this shared and vital history of African Liberation Movements, and how to meaningfully engage communities, and ultimately deepen public knowledge on this heritage.
While Southern African nations share a common history in the struggle for freedom—whether armed or not—this heritage is not as widely known as it should be due to many factors not limited to the time elapsed between independence and the present, collective amnesia, and a dearth of dynamic and engaging educational material surrounding the topic. In addition, young people are further removed from the histories, memories and cultural values and objects of their predecessors making the words of anti-apartheid activist Steve Biko poignant: “A people without a positive history is like a vehicle without an engine.”
The “Southern African National Liberation Movements Heritage: Museums and Cultural Centres as Places of Learning” programme addresses the important role that this history plays in the definition of citizens’ ideas of identity, cultural values and interconnectedness within the region and in the globe. As a starting point, UNESCO, Javett-UP and ICOM established a working group of 9 museum, education and culture practitioners from 8 countries who, over the last two months, have met to reflect on the dominant narratives that exist and uncover what is missing in the stories of Liberation. The working group were tasked with jointly and practically delineating how to fill in the gaps within these narratives in a document that would take the shape of a methodological framework. The Regional Symposium then brought this group and other thinkers from the region together to further contribute to the development of the framework.
Speaking to the importance of such processes, Khulekani Msweli, the Founder of JEREMPAUL a design and art brand from Eswatini and a member of the working group participants at the Symposium expressed, “these gatherings are of great importance because they allow us to collectively share our histories, honour those that shaped our democracies, and find ways in which those histories remain within our memories from generation to generation.” Indeed, co-curation, community-centered engagement and the longevity of these rich Liberation histories is at the root of the methodological framework being produced. Insights from ICOM members and experts from across the world further entrenched this ethos and how to meaningfully engage local communities and visitors in the telling of their memories and histories, thereby protecting and transmitting their cultural heritage and strengthening their sense of belonging and togetherness.
UNESCO, Javett-UP and ICOM envision that the educational programmes that will be developed from the methodology will enable local communities and visitors alike to form a deeper awareness of the struggle for liberation Southern African nations endured, forming strong cognitive and socio-emotional impacts for all.