What does it mean to be an African? Who are we? Where do we come from? How did we end up here? What are our beliefs? Forget the Bible because, "When missionaries came to Africa, they had the Bible and we had the land. They said, 'Let's pray'. We closed our eyes. When we opened them, we had the Bible, and they had the land." These powerful words are ascribed to Arch Bishop Desmond Tutu, among others, and are inscribed on the wall of the first part of Freedom Park called //hapo, a Khoi word meaning 'a dream.' Built defiantly on Salvokop Hill in the heart of the once racial capital of South Africa, Pretoria, between the Afrikaners' Voortrekker Monument and overlooking Union Buildings where the architects of apartheid perfected their evil deeds, the 52 hectare Freedom Park is, as Nelson Mandela put it, "the people's shrine where we (South Africans) honour those who endured pain so we should experience the joy of freedom".
But this is not another apartheid museum. Nor is it the Hector Peterson Museum, or the Sharpville or Boipatong Monument. It is not Rhobben Island Museum, or the Kliptown Monument. It is much deeper. It goes back 3.6 billion years in history to tell an African story.//hapo attempts to tell an African story that has been distorted, suppressed and silenced. The story is divided into seven epochs.1.Earth - dealing with the creation of the universe. 2. Ancestors - exploring the concept of ancestors from physical to spiritual perspectives. 3. Peopling - showcasing Africa's pre-conquest societies from Timbuktu to Mapungubwe. 4. Resistance and Colonisation - recounting the major historical forces that gave birth to modern South Africa. 5. Industrialisation and Ubarnisation - dealing with exploration of minerals and its impacts on our lives. 6. Nationalisation and Struggle - stories from the tyrannical rule of colonisation and apartheid to a new South Africa.
