Makhanda is the Xhosa warrior who led the attack on the British garrison in Grahamstown in 1819.
For those who don’t know, Grahamstown was named after John Graham who was the colonel who led the British army in various battles in the fight for the town.
To some, Graham was a hero, but to others, the name leaves a bitter taste in the mouth.
With this proposed renaming, people are again divided about the issue.
To some, it is a colossal waste of money that could be better spent elsewhere.
To others, it is something that should have been done long ago.
However, what people don’t understand is the way a place makes you feel has a profound effect on how you experience it.
If you walk around a place that has symbols that remind you of the architects of your pain and make you feel uncomfortable, then understandably you will not feel at home or welcome there.
As a rational person, you would challenge issues that deal with the context in which you live.
Some people will not understand this, but according to Judge Albie Sachs: “The intangible is very powerful to people who can feel it but invisible to those who can’t.”
So what is the solution to creating a town that makes all people feel welcome?
According to Sachs, we must transform and not destroy or remove statues.
Rather, he proposed that we have artwork that confronts the reality of the man.
As an example, Sachs mentioned Willem Boshoff who proposed covering the mural of Jan van Riebeeck in South Africa House in London with glass panels and inscribing them with the names of the slaves and Khoisan people displaced by van Riebeeck.
When people look at the mural, they are forced to confront van Riebeeck and the destruction he wreaked.
Herein lies the problem: we can create artwork that confronts the reality of people like van Riebeeck, but if people continue being blind to the intangibles then we are not really doing anything.
Transformation is not just about changing names and removing statues, it’s about education and making sure that conditions which make others feel like outsiders are dealt with.
The process of that transformation includes reclaiming the identity of that place.
Imagine you were named Joseph.
Then someone kidnapped you, robbed you of your goods and abused you and insisted you be called Luke.
Would you not upon release insist on going back to your original name as part of the process of getting back to who you were?
That’s the way I think of this country and its transformation process.
At the end of the day, most of us who live here have no intention of moving somewhere else.
So why not transform it into a place that is home for everyone?
Follow us on our social media platforms:
