Take a 350-year journey through South Africa’s liberation history on a guided tour of the Long March to Freedom exhibition. See 100 life-size bronze statues of iconic individuals who struggled against oppression in South Africa from the early 1700s to Freedom Day in April 1994.
Meet your guide and set off on a journey through South Africa’s liberation history, told through the lives of 101 iconic individuals beautifully crafted as life-size bronze statues.
From the rebel chiefs and revered kings to the more well-known activists of the 1980s and 1990s, each figure is poised in walking motion, symbolically fighting for the liberation of South Africa while marching forward to the inevitable advent of democracy.
The collection starts out with the leader of the Goringhaikonas – also known as Herry die Strandloper – Autshumato (1625 – 1663), who was the first political prisoner sent to Robben Island for defying a European power before it moves its way through rebel chiefs and revered kings to the more well-known activists.
Learn about the idea behind the exhibition, which came when television personality Dali Tambo, visited the grave of his late father, anti-apartheid politician Oliver Tambo, and told him, “There isn’t a statue of you in this country and I’m planning to do one.” From the grave his father spoke to him and said, “Don’t do it for me, do it for all of them.”
Stand face to face with the likes of Nelson Mandela, Joe Slovo, Helen Joseph, Annie Silinga, Ida Fiye Mntwana, King Moshoeshoe I and many more. Hear Tambo’s words ring loudly in your ear, “We want these freedom fighters to be remembered as real people, not just faces in history books. Our dead are never dead to us until we have forgotten them. Let’s keep them alive by remembering them.”
See how the Long March to Freedom gives life to those who fought heart and soul and often with their own lives for the freedom of South Africa. Every statue has a unique presence and representation of the individual, with details meticulously sculpted and engraved into South Africa’s past, present and future.
