The Northern Cape Government has acknowledged the University of Cape Town’s name change suggestions to some of
its associate institutions as a means to atone for its role in the unauthorised exhumation and subsequent scientific scrutiny of the remains of several San-Khoikhoi descendants whose remains were last week repatriated and reburied on their ancestral lands in Sutherland.
Desery Fienies the MEC for Sport, Arts and Culture addressed the assembled San-Khoikhoi dignitaries and members of the public on the occasion of the repatriation of the remains of the Sutherland 9 in Cape Town last week. During her speech Fienies acknowledged the name changes effected by the University of Cape Town on some outfits associated institutions as part of atoning for its role in the dire circumstances of the Sutherland 9. This Is an extract of her speech.
“It is with a profound sense of honour, humility and privilege that I am afforded the opportunity to represent the Northern Cape Provincial Administration to address the family and friends of the Sutherland 9.
We are here today as part of our ongoing work to deal with the most wicked and sad chapter in our country’s history of colonial subjugation, racism, and oppression.
The repatriation and reburial of the remains of those who suffered from the injustices of research institutions remains part of the Government’s programme to restore the human dignity and historic injustice of our people who suffered for the purposes of scientific research. We are also here to undertake a crucial step towards the restoration of the San and Khoikhoi people’s dignity.
These are our fellow South Africans who endured unspeakable humiliation from people who thought they weren’t deserving of compassionate and respectable treatment, both in life and in death. To right the wrongs done to these communities in the past, we are acting bravely. We are bolstering social cohesion, nation-building and national healing.
We are emphasising once again on this significant occasion that despite our diversity, South Africans are one people and one nation. The repatriation and wrapping ceremony of the Sutherland 9 is part of healing and closing the sad chapter (in the history) of our people.
We are happy that the University of Cape Town agreed to return the Stuurman and Abrahams remains to Sutherland after conversations with the national and provincial governments and the University of Cape Town’s subsequent removal of the remains from the university’s science collection.
Name change
We must realize that name changes are important for us as South Africans to reclaim our heritage and cultural identity as well as to honour those who were subjected to inhumanity and injustices such as the Sutherland 9.
As South Africans we must be reminded of the fact that geographical name changes are a form of symbolic compensation for human rights abuses. In a fractured society changing names can also be considered as a mechanism of transitional justice. As a form of symbolic reparation, renaming the lecture rooms and gardens of remembrance can assist in restoring dignity and public recognition to victims.
It is also strange that as South Africans we are forgetting that the Truth and Reconciliation Commission recommended the renaming of geographical features as a form of symbolic reparations to address South Africa’s unjust past. It is based on this that the provincial Government of the Northern Cape would like to express its gratitude to the University of Cape Town for doing the honourable thing by renaming the Drennan Museum and the Drennan Lecture Theatre in the Anatomy building after the Abrahams and Stuurman families or Sutherland 9 as part of redress.
I have also noted that the Garden of Remembrance will also be renamed the Sutherland 9 Gardens of Remembrance. The renaming is done in commemoration of the ancestral legacy of the Sutherland 9 and for this we are extremely honoured. We are transforming the horrific circumstances that befell the Sutherland 9 into a chance for healing in collaboration with the University of Cape Town.
Additionally, it’s a chance to deepen the relationship and support that exists between our universities and all three levels of government.
As a result, we wholeheartedly accept the University of Cape Town’s apologies for the conduct of a former student and those who accepted the human remains. The Sutherland 9 are no longer dehumanised study subjects for anthropology and racial research.
We are now one step closer to shutting down the book on the cruelty of racism and its legacy in scientific practices and museum collections thanks to this reburial.
Since doing so affirms the humanity of all of our people, the democratic government is steadfast in its commitment to restoring the right to human dignity.
Finally, we would like to express our gratitude to the people of the Northern Cape’s communities and their families, particularly the Stuurman and Abrahams families, for their cooperation and communication with the university and the government in order to ensure that the repatriation and return would be accorded the dignity and importance that these procedures merit.
For now, the Sutherland 9 will be embarking on their journey to their ancestral lands where their humanity will be re-confirmed and their dignity irrevocably restored after this ceremony.
May their souls assist our nation’s citizens in putting the past behind them and cooperating to create a brighter future.
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