Of Europe’s curiosity

who was an artist-in-residence at the Deep Memory Exhibition at the Kalmar Art Museum in 2017, says:

“When I first heard that there was a South African black woman in Kalmar in the 1900s, my immediate reaction was fascination. But when I went to see the grave, everything shifted. Seeing that her grave still had that word ‘kaffer’ was the biggest shock ever,” says Mlangeni.

She and other artists at the Deep Memory Exhibition were so upset about the text on Makatemele’s tombstone that they appealed to the church responsible for administrating Makatemele’s tombstone to rethink the wording and the narrative about her life.

“I think that the gravestone has got to go,” says Mlangeni. “But the feedback we got was that, in Sweden, the word doesn’t mean anything and that people do not understand what it means.

“That response to me is similar to Swedish people not understanding that putting a H&M sweater that says ‘monkey’ on a black child is not going to cause problems. Come on, do your research,” says Mlangeni.

The k-word is not generally known in Sweden; instead the n-word is used as a derogatory term.

When I met Mlangeni at Makatemele’s grave on a freezing winter day earlier this year, she spoke about the reverence that South Africans feel towards their ancestors. She reiterated the significance that Makatemele, as a lost South African daughter, should somehow be brought back home, either through her story or her remains be taken for reburial. Mlangeni believes that Makatemele’s misplaced soul should be reunited with her people.

Thanks to Mlangeni and fellow artist Breeze Yoko, museum director Joanna Sandell, myself and others, the authorities decided in May to erect a plaque next to Makatemele’s grave.

The text describes who Makatemele was, how she came to live in Kalmar and gives context to the word “kaffer”.

In Sweden, in contrast to South Africa, the debate about racist or problematic monuments is young. According to the Swedish Heritage Act, it is illegal to alter or remove the formulation of a tombstone erected before 1939.

Although the text on Makatemele’s gravestone remains, I hope that bringing her soul’s story home will give Makatemele some form of reparation.

Life’s twists: Sara Makatemele (above right and centre) was captured and sold as a slave. She ended up working for the Forssman family, and in 1862, the pregnant Sara went with Alarik Forssman (far right) to Sweden where she gave birth to Millan (far left)