On 14 August a commemoration ceremony was held on High Street to celebrate the centenary of the placement of a memorial stone by former Prime Minister Jan Smuts to celebrate the 100 years of the founding of Grahamstown.
On 14 August a commemoration ceremony was held on High Street to celebrate the centenary of the placement of a memorial stone by former Prime Minister Jan Smuts to celebrate the 100 years of the founding of Grahamstown.
The event was organised by local advocate Jock McConnachie, who saw it as fitting and needing to be done. “It is the first city in South Africa with a proud history of accomplishments,” says McConnachie.
A lover of local history and the town, he believes that, too often, people get stuck in the negative. People get stuck in the era of John Graham and the frontier wars, but he also believes that “we must acknowledge both the good and the bad.”
According to McConnachie, Jan Smuts, a former war major before becoming Prime Minister, came to Grahamstown one hundred years ago as a sign of reconciliation between the Afrikaaner and the English. “People were, at first, afraid of his coming because of his past and built trenches preparing for war, but he came in peace and reconciliation,” says McConnachie.
Present at the ceremony were members of the First City Regiment and decedents of Jan Smuts himself, Izak Smuts. No municipal representative was present, however. “We planned this discreetly and the municipality was only informed later,” says McConnachie.
Dr. Julia Wells, historian and collaborator with the Makana’s Project 200, says that they would have loved to have been part of the ceremony had they been notified on time. “We were not directly approached, it was through word of mouth,” says Wells. Also, the mayor was away when by the time he was told.
“Our approach is celebrating what we have achieved over 200 years,” says Wells. The story of Grahamstown, she believes, should be from bullets to books. Grahamstown once a sight of war to knowledge. Incorporated with the municipality, this too could spread the message.
According to McConnachie, however, this needed to be done immediately. “We couldn’t let the 14th of August go by,” he says.
Wells hopes that there can be other means in which the two could work together. More especially through the various projects that the municipality has in store where they get the greater Grahamstown community to collaborate with one another in telling the history of the town.
