Museification of the Traumatic Past in South Africa: Competing Narratives

Abstract

The article summarizes the results of a case study undertaken with the help of non-participant observation in January 2020 in South Africa. Three memorial sites have been observed: the Apartheid Museum, the Liliesleaf Farm Museum and the Voortrekker Monument. Data collection and analysis have allowed identifying the ideological and evaluative content of the expositions of museums that serve the purpose of commemorating the traumatic past of South Africa, and tracing their relationship with other commemorative narratives and the evolution of historical policy in the 20th -21st centuries. The authors draw parallels with some elements of Soviet domestic and, in particular, national policy, which, without declaring segregation goals directly, engendered similar consequences, and became evaluated as encouraging ethnic particularism in the post-Soviet period. The article concludes that in all cases in question, representations of collective trauma and armed struggle fulfill a legitimizing function, justifying the rights of ethnic and racial groups to the territory and nation building. In general, museum displays and memorials dedicated to apartheid and commemorating events related to state building represent South African society as deeply divided.