Background to Iziko’s Freedom Project for 2007-2008

The theme of slavery and human rights is one of Iziko’s strategic focus areas. The story of the slave trade is told at the Iziko Slave Lodge Museum, but echoes of Cape slavery are found in other Iziko Social History museums, including Groot Constantia, Koopmans-De Wet House and Bo-Kaap Museum, as well as the Castle of Good Hope.

An exciting programme of slavery-related activities will be running at Iziko in 2007 and beyond, as part of an ongoing initiative to raise pubic awareness of the legacy of slavery and with an eye on the commemoration of the first Cape Slave Rebellion of 1808.

This key Iziko focus also has a synergy with events being planned by the British Government and museums to commemorate the bicentenary of the slave trade abolition in the British Empire (1807-2007). Iziko, the Museum of London / the Museum in Docklands, and the Barbados Museum and Historical Society Bridgetown are planning to collaborate in a triangular project to mark the bicentenary. The well-known South African playwright, John Matshikiza, has been commissioned to write a play interpreting the struggle against slavery and the significance of the Buxton- Wilberforce table in relation to the abolition campaign.

Purpose of the Iziko Freedom Project

• To honour the experience of enslaved people.
• To mark the abolition of the slave trade in the British Empire in 1807 by paying attention to the role of abolitionists, and of the slaves themselves as agents of change. Iziko will also mark the bicentenary of the first slave revolt at the Cape next year, 2008.
• To reveal the continuities after 1807; the ending of the slave trade in the British Empire did not mean the demise of slavery and slavery, trafficking, forced labour, ignorance and abuse of human rights continued thereafter world-wide and in South Africa, and still today remains widespread around the world. In this regard Iziko is exploring the story of the so-called Prize Negroes or Prize Slaves apprenticed to Cape citizens after 1807 as quasi-slaves, a practice that was developed at the Cape to meet labour demands in the decades after the ending of the slave trade.
• To establish a dialogue/partnership with British and Caribbean museums; and integrate the dynamics of the British adoption of 2007 as a year of bicentennial celebration into Iziko’s ongoing plans for slavery-related education/ public programmes and exhibitions. Reinforcing the idea of our international connectivity and our shared history of links and chains. Thereby drawing into the Trans-Atlantic picture the story of Indian Ocean oceanic slave trade.
• To turn the Iziko Slave Lodge Museum into a site of interest, learning and youthful excitement, with a popular public appeal, by revealing the relevance of the struggle against slavery for today, through the medium of poetry, theatre, dance and art. Further historical parallels in the history of apartheid and related human rights abuses will be drawn upon.

Target Audiences

The project aims to involve learners and educators across the General Education and Training and Further Education and Training bands, subject specialists and the general public, especially people of slave descent.