The University of Johannesburg (UJ) in partnership with the Nelson Mandela Museum (NMM) hosted the third annual African Liberation Heritage Indaba. Held at the William Kgosietsile theatre on UJ’s Auckland Park Kingsway campus, the two-day indaba critically explored themes of heritage, repatriation and preservation of heritage and its artefacts.

Organised by UJ’s Department of Politics and International Relations, the indaba was a continuation of the year long 30 Years of Democracy commemorations. It carried the theme; ‘30 Years of Freedom: What has become of Heritage Assets and Repatriation in South Africa?’

The Indaba attracted people from all walks of life who share the passion for South Africa, and preserving its heritage. These included academics, policy makers, veterans of the liberation struggle, industry practitioners, activist and students to name just a few.

UJ Council deputy chair Dr Yondela Ndema in her welcome remarks shared the importance of this indaba being a reflective tool.

“All these questions [the themes discussed over the two days] are important, and there is no better time than the present to discuss them. Our democracy is 30 years old. We continue to battle numerous challenges as we seek to become a caring and responsible society. At times, these appear daunting. We need to pause and reflect on how far we have travelled, the strides we have made and the future that lies ahead of us. This Indaba will allow us the opportunity to not only reflect on our journey, but also to remind ourselves of who we are and where we come from. ”

NMM CEO Dr Vuyani Booi shared that the indaba is an opportunity for the museum to collaborate with institutions of higher education.

“We want to work closely with institutions of higher education to promote research, we want to work closely with various departments to ensure that we solidify that we are not an institution that is keeper of objects, but rather to be part of knowledge production. At the end of the day, we hope that the Nelson Mandela Museum will also be a producer of knowledge. That we will use our collections, improve them and use them to produce knowledge.”

The themes that were discussed over the two days included:

• The Role of Liberation Archives in Deepening Democracy in South Africa
• Repatriation of artefacts and human remains: Whose agenda does it serve?
• National Tourism Strategy and its link to heritage in the country
• International Status on Stolen Artefacts & Heritage Assets
• Monuments- Impact of Apartheid Monuments on the transformation of South African heritage landscape

Watch proceedings of day 1 and day 2