| Statue of Martinus Theunis Steyn | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Subject | Martinus Theunis Steyn |
| Location | University of the Free State, Bloemfontein, South Africa |
A statue of Martinus Theunis Steyn was installed at the University of the Free State, in Bloemfontein, South Africa, until 2020 when it was relocated to the Anglo-Boer War Museum
In honour to the fact that Steyn had worked diligently for an indigenous Free State University during the years before the Anglo-Boer War, and the desire of the Afrikaanse Studentebond to inspire young Afrikaners to take up leadership in South Africa, it was decided to erect a statue at the University of the Free State. [1]
Before the statue was built, a period of 12 years was dedicated to the planning and funding thereof. The statue was erected with funds collected by the Afrikaner Studentebond. The statue was constructed by the praised, Dutch-born sculptor, Anton van Wouw. Steyn is presented as a person of reflection as well as a person that commands respect. The size of the statue is 2:1 and is mounted on a base built from local stone. The statue was unveiled on 28 September 1929. [1]
In April 2015, the University of the Free State, under leadership of UFS Rector and Vice-Chancellor, Prof. Jonathan Jansen, led a three-day discussion session about the role and place of statues, symbols, and signs at the university. Speaking about the statue, Jansen stated that the discourse on transformation was not about only one person's memories, but about everyone's in the country. [2]
In 2018, the university targeted the statue as a priority to be dealt with according to its Integrated Transformation Plan (ITP). In November, the Rector and Vice-Chancellor, Prof Francis Petersen, stated that a large portion of the student body felt unwelcome near the statue and that a “Special Task Team” found that there could be no historical reinterpretation of the statue and that it should therefore be relocated. Although according to the National Museum in Bloemfontein the current location on campus is important because "President Steyn embodies the ideal of the establishment of a Free State university". [3] [4]
The statue was dismantled in June 2020 and reassembled at the Anglo-Boer War Museum (also known as The War Museum of the Boer Republics) under oversight of a heritage architect in August 2020. The statue is situated 200 metre from the National Women's Monument near the graves of Steyn and his wife, Tibbie. [5]
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MartinusTheunis Steyn was a South African lawyer, politician, and statesman. He was the sixth and last president of the independent Orange Free State from 1896 to 1902.
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The University of the Free State is a multi-campus public university in Bloemfontein, the capital of the Free State and the judicial capital of South Africa. It was first established as an institution of higher learning in 1904 as a tertiary section of Grey College. It was declared an independent Afrikaans-language university in 1950 and the name was changed to the University of the Orange Free State. The university has two satellite campuses. Initially a whites-only precinct, the university was fully de-segregated in 1996. The first black university vice-chancellor was appointed in 2010.
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Anton van Wouw was a Dutch-born South African sculptor regarded as the father of South African sculpture.
The National Women's Monument in Bloemfontein, South Africa, is a monument commemorating the roughly 27,000 Boer women and children who died in British concentration camps during the Second Boer War. The Monument is a Provincial Heritage Site in the Free State.
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The Port Elizabeth Concentration Camp was a British run concentration camp in Port Elizabeth, South Africa, at that time part of the Cape Colony, used as part of the Boer War. It was active from December 1900 to around November 1902. Originally sited on Port Elizabeth racecourse, it was moved to higher ground, two miles north-west of the town. It housed 200 children and 86 women behind a 1.5-m high fence, in zinc and iron huts. A separate, fenced camp housed 32 men nearby. Under John Fox Smith, the racetrack had been used earlier to house Uitlander refugees from Boer territory, but the growing Boer population led to relocating such internees to the location described here, a former Prince Alfred's Guard barracks.