South African art – twenty years since the advent of the post-apartheid era

Abstract

Only very recently – i.e. only a few months ago – occurred a truly historic moment in time: South Africa celebrated the 20th anniversary of the abolition of apartheid. The anniversary of that day, April 27, 1994 is now a public holiday and it is called Freedom Day. President Jacob Zuma presided over the official celebrations organised on Sunday April 27th to commemorate the 20th anniversary of post-apartheid democracy in South Africa, insisting that South Africa today is closer to its dream of a multi-racial nation despite problems of stubborn inequality, poverty and corruption. “Our country has done well,” said Zuma at the ceremony which was held exactly two decades after the first democratic all-race elections that decided that Nelson Mandela would become the country’s first black president. “We all have a good story to tell. (…)We have moved closer to our cherished dream of a united nonracial, non-sexist and democratic South Africa,” he said also at the “Freedom Day” ceremony held in the gardens of the Union Buildings, the seat of the South African government in Pretoria. Another important moment of national reconciliation occurred during the burial ceremonies of the first black South African president Nelson Mandela on December 10th, 2013. [...]