Objects
Bongani Mkhonza

Andre Prinsloo and Ruhan Janse van Vuuren, 2013, bronze, 9 metre high, Union Buildings, Pretoria South Africa. © Bongani Mkhonza

Unmasking Coloniality

The process of monumentalisation and image making does not exist outside of the political discourse. It is a known fact that “from time immemorial, apart from oracles, people asserted their origin, meaning, ethnicity, piety, religion and power through images” (Resane 2018:1). Most of what/who we are has already been shaped by how we estimate of ourselves through images and monuments around us. Therefore, images are very crucial in building our understanding of who we are not only as individuals but also how we relate as different nations. Most importantly, in order to obtain a true image of ourselves, we must understand the political discourse around the conceptualisation of symbolic images, statues and monuments.