South Africa’s diverse and often fractious history holds different significance for different people, but the end game for Freedom Park is about unity through celebrating our diversity
“Our outreach programs play a key role in helping us take South Africa’s story to schools in particular. We also present our programs to create awareness and especially to encourage learners and students to visit Freedom Park,” says Jane Mufamadi, CEO of the Freedom Park Heritage Site and Museum in Pretoria.
The Park honours and pays tribute to South Africa’s social, geographic and political history and its heroes. From the story of creation and our ancestors to the history of slavery and its impact on South Africa, a gallery of our leaders, the story of our miraculous reconciliation in the 1990s, and a copy of the world-honoured Constitution of South Africa.
Outside exhibits, an interactive museum and an amphitheatre are just a part of what this astonishing memorial and museum has to offer.
“As a space that seeks to preserve our heritage and especially our liberation heritage, we commemorate specific days and events that contributed to the South Africa that we have today. We also commemorate events like battles and conflicts, but we need to inspire unity in South Africa, which is why we have a focus on celebratory events like Reconciliation Day, Freedom Day and Heritage Day, where we inspire South Africans, and we encourage them to come together to celebrate who we are in our diversity. So, these are some of the platforms that we use to reach out to the larger audience.”
Plans have been conceptualised for further infrastructure development at the Park, such as a conference centre to host events, conferences, workshops, team-building exercises and other such initiatives. Working towards that goal they recently launched a restaurant and a gift shop to draw a larger numbers of people coming to visit the museum.
“We want people to come to Freedom Pack for lunch, a meeting and so forth, but most importantly, we’re looking at broadening the scope of our exhibition to include contemporary exhibitions, and contemporary issues through exhibitions so that we don’t just look at the past. We want to look at current issues and stimulate dialogue with the nation, but we also want to offer a more inclusive and permanent exhibition that looks at sporting legends as well as a permanent exhibition that looks at the role of sports and different sporting codes or nation-building and reconciliation,” adds Mufamadi.
Freedom Park also honours our social, cultural and artistic heroes such as Miriam Makeba, who through her music was able to engage the United Nations and made presentations on international platforms, creating awareness about the plight of South Africans and their challenges. Makeba is honoured alongside an incredible array of female heroes such as Lillian Ngoyi, Winnie Mandela, Ruth First, Helen Joseph and Fatima Meer.
August is a major period for the Park as they will be hosting a national dialogue of women from different sectors on 27 August to discuss South Africa’s current challenges and how we can take advantage of the new government to look at the plight of women and women inclusivity, especially within the corporate arena but also within a wider spectrum of society.
“There are still challenges where some women in various sectors are still paid less than their male counterparts. We also see the lack of support for women in leadership in general. What we are hoping to do in this women’s month is to have a critical dialogue and reflection and derive key recommendations, which we will submit to the Department of Women, in the hope that the government and the department will take some of these recommendations and integrate them into policies and government programs aimed at supporting women in order to ensure further and more inclusivity of women in various aspects and sectors.”
Mufamadi believes it is essential to encourage young women to believe in themselves and their abilities because often the biggest challenge blocking women from attaining leadership positions is the lack of self-confidence in the individual.
“Believe in yourself, believe in your goals and focus on attaining them and then you can start working on your career path and goals from a young age. You don’t have to wait until you graduate, and you don’t have to wait until you get a job. You can always start focusing and planning your goals in terms of how you’re going to achieve them… and to find a female role model to guide you will be a huge help to you in your personal journey,” adds Mufamadi.
“But most importantly, own your career path. Don’t wait for someone to tap you on the shoulder and present an opportunity. Go out and seek opportunities yourself and believe in yourself and never give up. It’s not always easy, but with perseverance and confidence, you can achieve what you want, and you stand for what you believe in.”
Her own journey was incredibly tough, even for someone with plenty of ambitions and who wanted to achieve more for herself and her family, who always offered her tremendous support. Despite all the support she had, she was greeted with constant challenges when she entered the workplace, from being called too young to attain certain positions to being undermined by her male counterparts for leadership positions. She drew solace from a strong family support structure, but also by engaging with other female leaders and female counterparts to compare notes and share experiences.
“That’s when you realise that you are not alone, because one thing I can tell you is that it’s very lonely when you’re a leader. It’s cold up there, but the rewards are great and endless. The challenges can really affect your confidence and make you doubt yourself, but when you talk to someone who understands your struggles it can be an incredible help to boost your confidence to continue on your journey as a leader.
“There are great women out there who have overcome a lot, who are confident and who are inspirational that they can form the basis of the support structure that each young female leader needs to keep fuelling her on her journey. That is what helped me to be where I am today, to give me the strength not to give up, to be deaf to the noise and to focus on the goal, and to aspire for more greatness.”
Mufamadi concluded by making a call to South Africans to understand that Freedom Park is their home away from home. It is a space where South Africa’s unique heritage and cultures can be remembered, cherished and celebrated, but it is also the centre for reconciliation, the centre for nation-building, and it provides a clarion call for every South African to understand where we come from, but also to celebrate the role of the liberation struggle in the freedom that we enjoy today. She also highlighted the need for individual and collective responsibility when it comes to issues such as gender-based violence, rather than believing that it’s just a government responsibility.
“It is our individual and collective responsibility to make a call for all sorts of Africans wherever they are, to play a role to become our brother’s keeper or our sister’s keeper. Wherever a sister is in need, we must all stand up for what is right and protect women and children in particular around issues of violence.
“I believe all South Africans should visit this monument at least once in their lifetime. A visit to Freedom Park is a journey of self-discovery. It doesn’t matter who you are and where you come from. You find yourself reflected one way or the other. It narrates the journey of where we come from. But it also reflects on the present in order to chart a better future for all South Africans. I believe this is a very critical space to visit to celebrate who we are.”
