The Erasure of South African Collective Memory: Building Demolitions and the TRC

This review article seeks to analyze the effects of post apartheid on the preservation of collective memory of the time period in South Africa. This review discusses the key influences on the path to “reconciliation” in the post-apartheid era, taking into consideration the perspectives of South Africans being given their newfound freedom and a sudden need to erase these memories of restriction under the apartheid system, through the demolition of historical architecture related to the apartheid and through government committees like the Truth and Reconciliation Commission (the TRC). The institutionalization of historical erasure and a lack of full justice for the perpetrators of violence, especially in such a short time frame in the aftermath of the apartheid, has lent to the historical censorship of the apartheid. This review analyzes the effects of building demolition and the TRC using past research on the subject of historical erasure and cross-applying these concepts to post-apartheid South Africa. Overall, this review wishes to add to the existing literature on the influence on erasing collective memory in order to perpetuate a narrative that creates a non-existent utopia, far from the reality of the devastation apartheid has left, hindering the ability to go forth into a new future while acknowledging these pains.