History, Truth Telling and the Legacies of Slavery in South Africa

If South Africa is to overcome its legacies of apartheid, it needs to address the deeper historical foundations of the country's present-day inequalities and strained social relations. In particular, how Cape slavery helped establish patterns of socioeconomic and racial inequality from which apartheid later emerged. Since 1994, new museum galleries and a revised national curriculum have sought to do this. However, Cape slavery's links to apartheid have often been oversimplified and its legacies downplayed. Mistrust of coloured identity politics has also seen museums shy away from exploring coloured perspectives on Cape slavery, further undermining efforts to understand the impact of Cape slavery on South African society. This article argues that returning to the values of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC) could help South Africa's museums and schools enhance their approach to exploring the history of Cape slavery, its links to apartheid and its harmful legacies. Museums should seek to be sites of historical truth telling and dialogue in which differing perspectives about the history and legacy of Cape slavery are discussed as this could be reparative. Examples from British and South African museums are drawn upon to illustrate how a process of historical truth telling concerning Cape slavery could be realised.