humanities Article Enshrining Gender in Monuments to Settler Whiteness: South Africa’s Voortrekker Monument and the United States’ This Is the Place Monument Cynthia Prescott 1,* , Nathan Rees 2 and Rebecca Weaver-Hightower 3,* 1 Department of History, University of North Dakota, Grand Forks, ND 58202, USA 2 Department of Art, History, and Philosophy, University of West Georgia, Carrollton, GA 30117, USA; [email protected] 3 Department of English, Virginia Tech, Blacksburg, VA 24060, USA * Correspondence: [email protected] (C.P.); [email protected] (R.W.-H.) Abstract: This essay examines two monuments: the Voortrekker Monument in South Africa and the American This is the Place Monument in Utah. Similar in terms of construction and historical purpose, both employ gender as an important tool to legitimize the settler society each commemorates. Each was part of a similar project of cultural recuperation in the 1930s−1940s that chose as their object of commemoration the overland migration in covered wagons of a group of white settlers that felt oppressed by other white settlers, and therefore sought a new homeland. In a precarious cultural moment, descendants of these two white settler societies—the Dutch Voortrekkers of South Africa and Euro-American Mormons (Latter-day Saints or LDS) of Utah—undertook massive commemoration projects to memorialize their ancestors’ 1830s−1840s migrations into the interior, holding Afrikaners and Mormons up as the most worthy settler groups among each nation’s white population. This essay will argue that a close reading of these monuments reveals how each white settler group Citation: Prescott, Cynthia, Nathan employed gendered depictions that were inflected by class and race in their claims to be the true Rees, and Rebecca heart of their respective settler societies, despite perceiving themselves as oppressed minorities. Weaver-Hightower. 2021. Enshrining Gender in Monuments to Settler Keywords: monuments; the Voortrekker Monument; This is the Place Monument; Mormon; Latter Whiteness: South Africa’s day Saints; Afrikaner; Boer; settler; memorialization; whiteness Voortrekker Monument and the United States’ This Is the Place Monument. Humanities 10: 41. https://doi.org/10.3390/h10010041 1. Introduction Received: 15 January 2021 In the early twentieth century, Western European nations and their settler societies Accepted: 22 February 2021 around the globe celebrated military and political achievements by erecting elaborate public Published: 2 March 2021 monuments. In South Africa and the western United States, the focus of this essay, these monuments celebrated the planting of new settler societies and—at least implicitly—the Publisher’s Note: MDPI stays neutral conquest of indigenous lands and peoples (Prescott 2019). These public commemorations with regard to jurisdictional claims in of European-descended explorers, statemen, and generic mother figures were grounded in published maps and institutional affil- idealized depictions of individuals as paragons of particular raced and gendered cultural iations. values, presenting implicit arguments for the legitimacy of settler society. As such, it is not surprising that these same monuments in more recent years have served as sites of resistance for a changing populous that has sought to reframe the cultural conversation. For instance, South Africans and Americans in recent years have targeted some monuments for Copyright: © 2021 by the authors. removal, most famously in the “Rhodes must fall” movement in Cape Town and in efforts Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. across the US to remove monuments to the American Confederacy. This essay examines two This article is an open access article monuments not from those movements that, though part of the same larger conversation distributed under the terms and about material culture and memory, have not drawn the same level of controversy as the conditions of the Creative Commons Rhodes and Confederate monuments: the Voortrekker Monument in South Africa and Attribution (CC BY) license (https:// the American This is the Place Monument in Utah. Similar in terms of construction and creativecommons.org/licenses/by/ historical purpose, both also employ tropes of gender to justify the settler society each 4.0/). Humanities 2021, 10, 41. https://doi.org/10.3390/h10010041 https://www.mdpi.com/journal/humanities Humanities 2021, 10, x 2 of 18 Humanities 2021, 10, 41 2 of 17 Similar in terms of construction and historical purpose, both also employ tropes of gender to justify the settler society each commemorates. As this essay will demonstrate, settler commemorates.societies employed As this representations essay will demonstrate, of gender, settleralongside societies race, employedas an important representations tool in le- ofgitimizing gender, alongside colonization. race, as an important tool in legitimizing colonization. TheThe remarkably remarkably similar similar historical historical background background of of each each monument monument is is what what brings brings them them intointo comparison. comparison. Each Each was was part part of of a a project project of of cultural cultural recuperation recuperation in in the the 1930s 1930s−1940s−1940s thatthat chose chose as as their their objectobject ofof commemorationcommemoration the overland overland migration migration in in covered covered wagons wagons of ofa agroup group of ofwhite white settlers settlers that that felt feltoppressed oppressed by other by other white white settlers, settlers, and therefore and therefore sought soughta new ahomeland. new homeland. In a precarious In a precarious cultural cultural moment, moment, descendants descendants of these of thesetwo white two white settler settlersocieties—the societies—the Dutch Dutch (or “Boer”) (or “Boer”) Voortrekkers Voortrekkers of South of South Africa Africa and andEuro-American Euro-American Mor- Mormonsmons (Latter-day (Latter-day Saints Saints or orLDS) LDS) of ofUtah—u Utah—undertookndertook massive massive commemoration commemoration projects projects to tomemorialize memorialize their their ancestors’ ancestors’ 1830s 1830s−1840s−1840s migrations migrations into into the the interior, interior, holding holding Boer-de- Boer- descendedscended Afrikaners Afrikaners and and Mormons Mormons up up as as the the mo mostst worthy worthy settler settler groups groups among among each each na- nation’stion’s white white population population (Prescott (Prescott et et al. 2020)2020) To dodo so,so, bothboth drawdraw on on a a European European tradition tradition ofof building building massive massive granite granite or or granite-faced granite-faced structures structures with with relief relief sculptures sculptures on theon interiorthe inte- orrior exterior or exterior (see Figures (see Figures1 and2 ).1 Inand South 2). In Africa, South architect Africa, Gerardarchitect Moerdyk Gerard andMoerdyk a team and of a fourteam sculptors of four sculptors designed adesigned three-story a three-st buildingory adorned building with adorned sculpture with tosculpture commemorate to com- thememorate Voortrek the and Voortrek its leaders and to its emphasize leaders to emphasize Afrikaner heroismAfrikaner and heroism cultural and dominance cultural dom- in theinance wake in of the a disastrouswake of a civildisastrous war loss civil to war the British.loss to the Their British. commemoration Their commemoration of the Boer of Voortrekkers’the Boer Voortrekkers’ attempted attempted settlement settlement on indigenous-African-controlled on indigenous-African-controlled lands supported lands sup- politicallyported politically ascendant ascendant Afrikaners, Afrikaners, who would who soon would introduce soon introduce racist apartheid racist apartheid policies. poli- In thecies. US, In artistthe US, Mahonri artist Mahonri Young, Young, grandson grands of LDSon of prophet LDS prophet and Utah and territorial Utah territorial governor gov- Brighamernor Brigham Young, Young, created created the This the is theThis Place is the Monument Place Monument to celebrate to celebrate the centennial the centennial of the Mormons’ establishment of their settlement in Utah and the five-decade work of integrating of the Mormons’ establishment of their settlement in Utah and the five-decade work of into the US culturally as well as legally (Patterson 2020, pp. 31–55). An important part of integrating into the US culturally as well as legally (Patterson 2020, pp. 31–55). An im- the project meant depicting the Mormon minority as “all American” while erasing the taint portant part of the project meant depicting the Mormon minority as “all American” while of polygamy.1 erasing the taint of polygamy.1 FigureFigure 1. 1. VoortrekkerVoortrekker Monument Monument exterior. exterior. Source: Source: Wikimedia Wikimedia Commons, Commons, https://commons.wiki- https://commons. media.org/wiki/File:Voortrekker_Monument_922580097.jpg (accessed on 25 February 2021). wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Voortrekker_Monument_922580097.jpg (accessed on 25 February 2021). 1 Beginning in secret in the 1830s, and then openly after 1852, Latter-day Saints practiced a form of polygyny they termed “plural marriage,” wherein leading Mormon men married multiple wives simultaneously. The LDS Church ended the practice beginning in 1890. See (Ulrich 2017) 1 Beginning in secret in the 1830s, and then openly after 1852, Latter-day Saints practiced a form of polygyny they termed “plural marriage,” wherein leading Mormon men married multiple wives simultaneously.