The role of national museums in South Africa: A critical investigation into Iziko

Museums of South Africa focusing on the representation of slavery.

Carlyn Strydom

STRCAR028

Town A minor dissertation submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the award of the degree of Master of Philosophy specializing in HeritageCape and Public Culture in African Studies Faculty of theof Humanities University of

2017

University

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The copyright of this thesis vests in the author. No quotation from it or information derived from it is to be published without full acknowledgement of the source. The thesis is to be used for private study or non- commercial research purposes only.

Published by the (UCT) in terms of the non-exclusive license granted to UCT by the author.

University of Cape Town

Table of Contents Declaration ...... 3 Acknowledgements ...... 4 Abstract ...... 5 Introduction ...... 7 Chapter 1: Museums theoretically and their relationship with history ...... 10 Chapter 2: The birth of the museum in South Africa ...... 21 Chapter 3: South African historiography and the question of slavery ...... 39 Chapter 4: Iziko Museums, nation building and transformation ...... 59 Conclusion: Future Museum ...... 80 Appendix ...... 83 Bibliography ...... 84

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Declaration This work has not been previously submitted in whole, or in part, for the award of any degree. It is my own work. Each significant contribution to, and quotation in, this dissertation from the work, or works, of other people has been attributed, and has been cited and referenced.

Carlyn Strydom, 31 August 2016

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Acknowledgements

I would like to thank my supervisor Professor Anthony Bogues for his guidance and exceptional insights during my work on this thesis. I would like the staff at Iziko Museums of South Africa for sharing their knowledge with me and for providing me with access to the Social History Collections. I extend particular thanks to Lailah Hisham and for answering all my technical questions relating to the Iziko archive.

I would like to thank the for funding my research without whom this thesis may not have been possible.

Lastly, I would like to thank my friends and family for the motivation to continue this study and my parents in particular for their love and support on this journey.

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Abstract

This thesis is concerned with the ways in which museums have been used as vehicles to convey notions of the nation. It looks specifically at the Iziko Museums of South Africa’s social history sites that deal with the subject of slavery. It is concerned with the absence of a narrative of slavery at

Iziko museums before the demise of Apartheid and looks the historical and socio-political changes that lead to its emergence in South African historical consciousness. It is a study of the history of museums as well as the ways in which history has been used in museums. It looks at the ways Iziko, as a national museum, has guarded and promoted ideas of the nation as decided by the state. The thesis examines the ways in which the museum has transformed since its inception in the colonial period up to the present day. The time period investigated is 1825 to 2017.

Guiding questions for the thesis are: for what purpose were museums created in South Africa; what are the implications of colonial practice on the ways in which they functioned; why has the history of slavery has been disavowed in South African historical consciousness; what led to the rise of the study of slavery in South Africa; what has the emergence of the new museology meant for museum practice; how have heritage studies transformed the South African historical landscape.

The thesis begins with a theoretical literature overview of m