ABSTRACT
Freedom Park is a monumental scheme, one that wishes to symbolise a reconciled nation. In the words of then President Thabo Mbeki, this ‘Legacy Project’1 ‘is the most ambitious heritage project to be undertaken by the new democratic government … an ambitious and noble task.’2 The fulfilment of this ambition involved a convoluted path, with far-reaching and extended debate as to the unique properties of African indigenous knowledge and cultural practices, the recovery of traditions, and a search for ‘authentic’ forms of representation. It may be noted that in prior chapters, public designs evolved primarily in relation to programmatic needs – be they perceived or real. In most cases, pragmatics would lead the process, and the symbolisation of ‘Africa’ would be graĞed onto the logistics of the scheme. At Freedom Park, however, things worked the other way round, with ideological concerns taking a much more determinate role and where the search for deeply authentic modes of symbolisation has wished to determine the very essence of this scheme. Spanning some ten years from 2000-2010, the development of this pre-eminent project charts the successive foci of the leaders that gave it shape, and the project can be read as palimpsest of this complex process.
