From Memory to Marble: The historical frieze of the Voortrekker Monument Part I: The Frieze

From Memory to Marble is an investigation by an art historian and an archaeologist into why and how a major monument was created: the Voortrekker Monument in Pretoria. Built during the rise of Afrikaner Nationalism and inaugurated in 1949, the Monument houses one of the world’s largest historical friezes in marble. By turning 18 years of history into 92 metres of marble the frieze gave permanent form to the founding myth of Afrikanerdom, the ’Great Trek’ into the hinterland of South Africa (1835-52). The visual narratives carved in the frieze and the debates that lie behind them are the focus of this book. Both provide a rare window onto the pernicious ideologies that were to dominate South Africa up to the end of apartheid - and onto the Monument’s legacy, ranging from unquestioning agreement to strident rejection.