Bloody battlefield becomes peace symbol

ARRANGEMENTS for the series of ‘courageous conversations’ to commemorate the 175th anniversary of the Battle of Blood River / Ncome are progressing well as the speaker programme takes shape.

The organisers of the conference are the Msunduzi Museum in Pietermaritzburg and the Ncome Museum on the site of the battlefield, and they hope to break new ground in the debate on socio-cultural issues.

The three-day event is the direct result of a challenge issued by last year’s guest speaker at the centenary of the establishment of a museum at the Church of the Vow in Pietermaritzburg.

Speaking at the celebrations on the Day of Reconciliation last year, the Rector and vice-chancellor of Stellenbosch University, Professor Russel Botman, said Msunduzi Museum with its emphasis on transformation as well as its close association with Voortrekker history and the Battle of Blood River/Ncome reflected South Africa’s ability as a nation to make peace and strive for reconciliation.

He called on the Museum to regard reconciliation as an ongoing process and to provide a safe platform for ‘courageous conversations’ to take place and ‘talk this country into its future together’.

The ‘platform’ will be the newly constructed Ncome Museum near Dundee on the eastern side of the Ncome River and looking onto the replica laager of 64 bronze Voortrekker ox wagons on the opposite bank.

For three days speakers and members of the public will be gathering at this historic site commemorating one of the bloodiest battles fought on South African soil as the migration of Dutch-speaking farmers from the Cape Colony moved into the Zulu kingdom in the 19th Century and clashed with the army of King Dingane.

The Battle of Blood River/Ncome on 16 December 1838 has become a defining moment in South Africa history, initially for the policy of racial supremacy which intensified over the next 156 years, but also for the growing black resistance to this rule.

These events became a symbol, some would say a symptom, of the many years of suspicion and ill-feeling that came to characterise southern Africa.

Its anniversary in 1961 was chosen by the ANC to launch its military wing uMkhonto we Sizwe to take up arms against the white regime.

The first democratic elections in 1994 brought in a new dawn and the date became the Day of Reconciliation.

A year later the Truth and Reconciliation Commission began its work on 16 December.

‘As a museum we have embraced that spirit of transformation,’ says the Director of Msunduzi Museum, Mlungisi Ngubane.

‘Since 1994 the museum has moved away from a single theme and the museum, now known as the Msunduzi Museum (incorporating the Voortrekker Complex), has become the happy meeting place of a multicultural capital of KwaZulu-Natal while still maintaining its close links with events around the Battle of Blood River/Ncome.’

‘We are hoping to bring this spirit to Ncome, by providing a safe environment for open, honest and courageous discussion which will hopefully bring about cultural renewal and constructive change in heritage institutions.’