Abstract
The Company’s Garden and its immediate surroundings in Cape Town house several statues and other monuments commemorating people or events dating back to the era of the Cape Colony and the Union of South Africa. The only conspicuous exception is a memorial for Archbishop Tutu at the bottom entrance to the garden, next to St George’s cathedral. Even more significant are the two statues of General Jan Smuts, a former prime minister of the Union, situated 500 m from each other. The one statue, which stands next to Government Avenue in front of the Iziko South African National Art Gallery, was sculpted in a modernist style by the British artist Sydney Harpley (1927–1992). It was unveiled on 29 May 1964. The second Smuts statue is a realistic work by the South African artist Ivan Mitford-Barberton (1896–1976) and is situated on the pavement in front of the Iziko Slave Lodge next to Adderley Street. It was unveiled on 26 January 1974.
Due to their divided past, South Africans experience tension regarding public statues and other monuments, which are currently not representative of all communities in the country. The National Heritage Resources Act 25 of 1999 provides for a balanced approach to heritage protection in South Africa. It makes provision for corrective steps to address inequalities and protects public monuments which were already in existence when the law was passed. Any removal of an existing statue or other monument must be authorised by the responsible heritage authority, which in this case is Heritage Western Cape.
Slave labour played an important role in developing and maintaining the Company’s Garden during the commandership of Jan van Riebeeck (1651–1662) and thereafter. The Iziko Slave Lodge is a declared national monument. It was erected in 1679 and housed slaves up to 1811. During the second half of the 18th century the building was enlarged, and its western facade extended up to the Heerengracht, later to become Adderley Street. In 1926, with the broadening of Adderley Street, the facade was moved back to its present position. There can be no doubt that between the second half of the 18th century and 1811 the Slave Lodge occupied the area where the second Smuts statue now stands. This means that it occupies what could be regarded as a contested heritage space.
To make the monumental landscape in and around the Company’s Garden more representative of all communities in South Africa, and considering the history of slavery in the Cape, it would be appropriate to move the second Smuts statue to another location. City of Cape Town should take the initiative by approaching Heritage Western Cape for permission. This process would involve public participation, which means that the question may arise as to whether Jan Smuts should be publicly honoured at all. This would involve the future of the first statue as well. This article answers the question in the affirmative, and deals with Jan Smuts as a remarkable, versatile person who, apart from his indelible mark on history as a South African politician and statesman, also received international recognition as a philosopher and naturalist. Although Smuts was not able to find a lasting solution for the country’s racial problems, this does not make him a racist. While deeply involved in international matters (including two world wars, peace negotiations and attempts at lasting world peace), he had to fight an ongoing domestic political battle which twice cost him the premiership and his parliamentary seat. People accusing Smuts of racism should perhaps ask themselves what would have happened to civil rights in South Africa if Nazi Germany had won the Second World War.
In anticipation of public participation and debate as well as the factors Heritage Western Cape will have to consider, this article also discusses the two Smuts statues by comparing their artistic merits and the reasons why they were erected where they stand. Critics agree that Harpley’s modernistic rendering of Smuts is by far the better artwork of the two. The artistic value of the Harpley surpasses that of Mitford-Barberton’s statue and enriches the cultural landscape in the Company’s Garden and of Cape Town as a whole. On the other hand, critics are outspoken in their view that apart from being a poor likeness, the second Smuts statue is not expressive of the subject’s inner qualities.
Smuts’s connection with the area where the statues are situated is obvious. It is close to the Houses of Parliament of which he was a member for 40 years. However, with Table Mountain as backdrop, the Harpley statue implores the onlooker to view Smuts holistically as statesman, philosopher and mountaineer. Mitford-Barberton’s work, on the other hand, narrowly confines the viewer’s impression of Smuts. His unconvincingly stiff portrayal of Smuts is exacerbated by the statue’s awkward placement on a busy pavement with the Iziko Slave Lodge on the one side and an equally busy Adderley Street on the other. According to artist and art critic Erik Laubscher the second statue is out of proportion with the surrounding architecture and clutters the top of Adderley Street. Available archival material (including the minutes of meetings of the National Monuments Council at the time) bears no evidence of any consultation with or objections by the Council regarding the placement of the second statue in such close proximity to a national monument.
Both from an artistic and a historical point of view the first statue should be retained, albeit subject to reinterpretation and public debate on Smuts and the way Harpley portrayed him. Regarding the removal of the second Smuts statue the question arises as to its appropriate relocation and replacement by a new monument. In 2008 a slave memorial comprising 11 inscribed granite blocks was inaugurated at Church Square opposite the Groote Kerk. At the time some members of the public showed a preference for a more visual commemoration of the abolishment of slavery in the Cape. The removal of the Smuts statue from its present location in front of the Iziko Slave Lodge would provide the ideal opportunity in this regard.
Whither the second Smuts statue? The ideal location would be Kirstenbosch, provided such a move meets the approval of the authorities there. The starting point of the internationally known Smuts Track is in the botanic garden, at the bottom of Skeleton Gorge. This would be a better tribute to Jan Smuts as nature lover, botanist and mountaineer than its present location. The Smuts House Museum at Irene near Pretoria could be considered as an alternative.
Keywords: art criticism; Matthys Bokhorst; commendatory art; Company’s Garden; contested heritage space; Government Avenue; Sydney Harpley; Heritage Western Cape; Iziko Slave Lodge; Iziko South African National Art Gallery; Ivan Mitford-Barberton; National Heritage Resources Act; Jan Smuts; Smuts Memorial Committee
Kommentaar
I think that a proper new venue for the second Jan Smuts statue could be the town of his birth, Riebeeck Kasteel. Historically small rural communities have been largely neglected in terms of significant statuary honouring the sons and daughters of their towns.
A secondary option could be Table Mountain - Jan Smuts had a great affinity for the mountain, not only as a symbol of spiritual significance - but his love and awe of the natural world is well known. Smuts often refer to mountains and the natural world as his main sources of inspiration. It is significant that one of his professors at Cambridge - consider him, together with Charles Darwin and the poet John Milton to be the Top three scholars to attend Christ Church College.
The selection of Table Mountain would also be a nod to our shared history with the British Empire - and especially our participation and contribution under the leadership of Gen.Smuts in both WW1 and WW2. And let's not forget the historical visit by the Royal Family in 1947 during which an elderly but still fit and trim Smuts led them on an excursion up the mountain.
The artwork would also remain under the auspices of the Western Cape Provincial Authority - if either of these sites should be selected.