New plan for 1860 monument

AFTER years of delays and wasted funds, plans to erect an 1860 Commemoration Monument is back on the drawing board.

This week, the 1860 Commemoration Monument Committee called on the public to forward written expressions of concept on ideas that are best suited to the final visualisation and design of the commemorative monument.

Two years ago the city was forced to return R4.4 million allocated for the building of an 1860 Indentured Labourers Monument to the office of the Kwazulu-natal premier. It was because the city did not act fast enough to see the project through.

In 2015 the ethekwini Municipality was allocated over R4.6m for the monument, that was to be built along South Beach.

A committee comprised of religious and community leaders was formed to manage the process of erecting a monument.

The committee worked with the city to get the project started. The ethekwini Municipality, together with an architectural firm, initiated a process whereby selected artists were requested to submit proposals based on a researched brief.

The submission by the recommended artist was rejected by the Committee on the basis that the submission did not adequately reflect the story of indenture in South Africa.

The monument seeks to commemorate the arrival of Indian indentured labourers and also acknowledge the community’s contribution towards the building of the democratic nation.

Selvan Naidoo, curator of the 1860 Heritage Centre and member of the interim committee, said they got the youth involved who expressed the need for wider consultation.

“It’s a peoples monument. After the decision was made to erect a monument some 10 years ago, a lot has changed from the style of monuments and actual monuments. From the Rhodes Must Fall movement to what’s happened in Europe with the previous colonial monuments, the large masses of commemorative monuments are no longer relevant today.

“As a committee with limited resources we hope to start construction by the latter part of the year,” he said.

Naidoo said while they had ideas they wanted to engage with the public more on what concepts people would like to see being finally realised.

“We hope by June we can finally release to the public a visualisation what the monument would look like pending the design process.

“While it’s not going to be an ostentatious reflection, it has to be rooted in indenture and its history from its humble beginnings. You don't want to create a monument that speaks only of the Indian contribution to the economy of Kwazulu-natal. It has to be symbolic, conceptual and meaningful, but also rooted in the ideas of what it means to the people.”

He said it needed to be an interactive monument.

“You also need to think ecologically and environmentally. The position and its locality. You want people to sit there and be able to have a symbolic event.”

Seelan Achary, a committee member, said it was very disappointing as this project was long overdue.

“When we had rejected the artists impressions we said let’s call the public to give us their views. In 2016 at the sod turning ceremony, when the then premier addressed the audience, he committed that the monument would go up, but one of the time frames was getting the local community to comment to give their views. It has taken us this many years to call for that expression of interest,” said Achary.

Ela Gandhi, who also serves on the committee, said people should be free to express their views.

“We want everyone to give constructive suggestions so the committee can look at and see how we can come to a consensus,” she said.

Gandhi said the monument would commemorate the history of indenture and should also create some sort of awareness around slavery.