The 1820 Settlers National Monument, which honours the contribution to South African society made by the first big influx of English settlers, overlooks Grahamstown in the Eastern Cape. A living monument, it commemorates the English language as much as the Settlers themselves. It is a venue for performances of many types.
The Monument is closely linked with the National Arts Festival, often known simply as the Grahamstown Festival. Ever since the monument's opening on 13 July 1974, the festival has been held there every year, except for in 1975. Virtually all possible venues in Grahamstown are used during the festival, but the Monument is the anchor of the event and the biggest venue too.
The monument was devastated by a fire in 1994 and rebuilt and was officially re-dedicated by Nelson Mandela in May 1996.
Famous quotes containing the words settlers, national and/or monument:
“When old settlers say “One has to understand the country,” what they mean is, “You have to get used to our ideas about the native.” They are saying, in effect, “Learn our ideas, or otherwise get out; we don’t want you.””
—Doris Lessing (b. 1919)
“[D]rilling and arming, when carried on on a national scale, excite whole populations to frenzies which end in war.”
—Franklin D. Roosevelt (1882–1945)
“I hope there will be no effort to put up a shaft or any monument of that sort in memory of me or of the other women who have given themselves to our work. The best kind of a memorial would be a school where girls could be taught everything useful that would help them to earn an honorable livelihood; where they could learn to do anything they were capable of, just as boys can. I would like to have lived to see such a school as that in every great city of the United States.”
—Susan B. Anthony (1820–1906)