Heritage as Therapy

Abstract

Since the democratic dispensation in South Africa, heritage as a category has been necessarily framed by the specter of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission, its place in wider society, the general underpinnings of amnesty, forgiveness and the desire to move forward as a nation. Human rights activism, truth commissions, and juridical proceedings are powerful mechanisms for dealing with historical trauma. More materially, South African cultural productions, including objects, memorials, museums, heritage sites and public spaces of commemoration provide another therapeutic arena. After 13 years of democracy, the material spaces of daily life provide a vantage point to examine how practices of remembering and forgetting pervade the public sphere and the world of things, and how traumatic embrace is configured to include (and exclude) certain constituencies as our case studies demonstrate. Spectacles of trauma and memory in the new South Africa are similarly shot through with other interventions including the pressures of state politics, development tactics and international tourism. Perhaps like never before, this `state in search of a nation', has been under an international spotlight and has been held up as a beacon for other oppressive contexts and post-conflict states.