Lanterns made for Emancipation Day walk
IT’S all systems go for the 13th annual Emancipation Day “Walk in the Night”, commemorating the abolition of slavery in the Cape 184 years ago.
This year’s walk, under the theme The Music of Slavery, will highlight the musical influences of the enslaved people, brought to this country from places such as Malaysia, India, and West Africa.
A lantern-making workshop was hosted by the District Six Museum and its elderly Seven Steps members at the museum’s Homecoming Centre. UCT students and youth took part. In making the lanterns, the participants, aged from 6 to 70, focused on the different musical influences of the enslaved people, particularly the origins of goema, a type of hand drum.
This inspired the shapes of the lanterns they created, which symbolise the music and celebration of those finally freed on December 1, 1834.
The walk traditionally starts on the eve of Emancipation Day, on November 30. Celebrations will run to December 1.
Dean of St George’s Cathedral, Michael Weeder said this year’s walk would start at the Strand Street Quarry, where the lanterns would be lit, and would proceed through Bo-Kaap to St George’s Cathedral.
“This year’s walk, coincidentally, traverses through Bo-Kaap at a time when the descendants of the first free slaves are reminded of the bondage of oppression.
“However, it’s important to emphasise that part of the history of Emancipation Day celebrates the freedom of all South Africans,” he said.
Weeder said there were hardly any South Africans without DNA markers from the Khoi, and the narrative of “who was here first” was never an African concept, and that all belonged to the land.
The walk will be led by traditional marching bands, which will stop opposite the Bo-Kaap Museum before the marchers proceed to St George’s Cathedral, where a fire will be lit, commemorating the bonfires lit by the freed slaves.
Music played by DJ Boeta G will usher participants into Emancipation Day, followed by a performance led by theatre practitioner Jason Jacobs together with poet Toni Stuart and performer Deidre Jacobs. Young local talent will also perform.
For more information on Emancipation Day contact the District Six Museum on 021 466 7200.