Carving out a new view of history

CHARL, Henry and Ivan, all young Afrikaners, were taking a breather after visiting what may be the only monument to a language anywhere in the world. Its parabolic shape, culminating in a 170ft granite and concrete spire, looms on a hilltop above the town of Paarl in the winelands of the Western Cape.

When the Afrikaners ruled South Africa they erected many monoliths such as this, which celebrates the Afrikaans tongue. There is the Voortrekker Monument near Pretoria, the Vrouwemonument ("women's monu- ment") in Bloemfontein, which commemorates the women and children who died in British concentration camps during the Anglo-Boer War, and, most controversially, the bronze laager at the site of the Battle of Blood River in KwaZulu-Natal, where the Boers killed 3,000 Zulus without loss on 16 December 1838. Until recently, the date was a public holiday when Afrikaners held services in honour of what they believe was the covenant with God which gave them victory.

The present ANC government sees the need for a "more balanced" heritage, with new monuments, museums and commemorations - an initiative greeted with suspicion by Charl and his friends. "I can't help but question their intentions," said Charl, 34, who quit the military when a black woman was appointed over him. "The significance to us of these memorials is not political but religious. There is an eternal flame at the Voortrekker Monument which represents the survival of Christianity in Africa, but these people don't understand the meaning of such places."

Professor Musa Xulu, deputy director general of the arts and culture ministry, says there are plans to erect a memorial before the 160th anniversary this year to the black warriors who died at Blood River. While admitting there was a risk that any counter-memorial would be desecrated by right- wing diehards, he said the existing monument was "too sectarian - it does not contribute in any way to the spirit of reconciliation in South Africa."

The government's Legacy Project, which aims "to acknowledge the previously neglected, marginalised and distorted South African heritage", will honour among others Chief Albert Luthuli, former ANC president and Nobel Peace Prize winner. A museum and "Freedom Park" will be opened in President Nelson Mandela's birthplace in the Eastern Cape when he retires next year, and a Women's Monument is planned in Pretoria "to honour their part in the liberation struggle".

Next year marks the centenary of the beginning of the Anglo-Boer war. "We are worried that this could be divisive," said Prof Xulu, a fear confirmed by one of the men at the monument near Paarl, who claimed that a committee set up by Afrikaners to organise commemorative activities had suffered interference. "The government has made it clear that it won't tolerate their plans," he said.

Prof Xulu aims to set the war in a wider context. "It was seen simply as a clash between white groups, but some 20,000 black people died in the conflict. That went unrecognised because of the way history was shaped at the time." He says the government is playing a co-ordinating role in the commemoration: "We hope to stabilise the emotions surrounding this episode in history, and ensure that it is remembered in a rational way."

Thabo Mbeki, Mr Mandela's heir apparent, admitted recently: "We are not one nation, but two nations, and neither are we becoming one nation." Talking to the three representatives of the other nation on a hilltop above Paarl, it was clear that Mr Mbeki's comment applied to memories of the past, not just attitudes to the future. Charl had his own prediction. "If the ANC gets a two-thirds majority next year, then it's over for us," he said. "We'll be driven into the sea."