Were do the kids go now?

I read this article a few days ago and it made me sad:
Sobukwe would not be proud of us.

It is part of a great series the Daily Dispatch are doing, where journos travel the Eastern Cape and speak to people and write their stories. The story I've linked to above describes their meeting Robert Sobukwe's son.

I'm not into big shrines or monuments to the dead. But really, it is sad that this man is buried in an unkempt nondescript grave, forgotten by many (except his family). I've been to Biko's grave too, and it is also not in a great state. Biko's grave is in a (very unimpressive) "garden of remembrance." Which is basically just a wall and a plaque.

Perhaps it would seem less cold to leave graves to be personal matters, to families, if we had other places to remember these people. But we don't.

I remember as a child, going on school field trips to the 1820 settlers monument, to the German settlers monument. Going to historical buildings in Grahamstown, that old fort thing. That old gaol in East London. Where do the kids go now?

I know I am terribly biased, but it seems to me that so much of the history of South Africa is written in the Eastern Cape, in small cities and small towns and rural areas. But we are just not bothering to tell the story.

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