Peace Monuments in Africa

Click here for monuments about slavery, including other sites in Africa.

Benin

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Date? - Gateway of No Return, Ouidah (Benin). "A massive, arched gateway, some 50 feet high, stands alone on the edge of one of the loveliest beaches in West Africa. It is a striking - and in many ways a beautiful - structure, facing out across the Atlantic Ocean towards South America. Yet it is also bleak beyond words. Etched across the top of the arch are two long lines of naked, chained men disappearing into the sea."

2007? - "Reconciliation Triangle," Cotonou? (Benin). Expresses remorse for the slave trade. One of three identical monuments by Stephen Broadbent. The other two are in Liverpool (England) and Richmond, Virginia (USA).

Burundi

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Date? - Pierre de Livingstone et Stanley / Livingstone-Stanley Monument, Mugere (Burundi). "12 km south of the capital Bujumbura, overlooking Lake Tanganyika. Marks location where explorer and missionary Dr. David Livingstone [1813-1973] and journalist and explorer Henry Morton Stanley [1841-1904] visited and spent two nights on 25-27 November 1871."

Egypt

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Ethiopia

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July 3, 2007 - Headquarters building, African Union (AU), Addis Ababa (Ethiopia). On site of an infamous prison where former dictator Mengistu Haile Mariam executed 60 top officials of the late Emperor Haile Selassie. Fully financed by the Chinese government for around $150 million. "We wish everyone will like it," said Chinese architect Ren Lizhi at the opening of the 9th AU Summit.

The Gambia

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N/A - Village of Juffureh, James Island (The Gambia). The village to which Alex Haley traced his ancestor Kunta Kinte. Note Freed Slave Statue at left.

Date? - Freed Slave Statue, Juffureh, James Island (The Gambia). "James Island still holds the ruins of slave fort 'James,' outside Juffureh."

Ghana

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Date? - St. George's Castle, Elmina (Ghana). Slave fort erected by the Portuguese in 1482. Captured by the Dutch in 1637 and by the British in the early 1870's. Now a popular historical site. Extensively restored by the Ghanaian government in the 1990's.

1920's - Cape Coast Castle Museum, Victoria Road, Cape Coast, (Ghana). "Built for the trade in timber and gold and later used in the trans-Atlantic slave trade." Swedish in 1653, then Danish, then British in 1664. Became the seat of the colonial Government of the British Gold Coast in 1844. First restored in the 1920's by the British Public Works Department." The Ghanaian government restored it again in 1957. Until 1993, part was used as a prison.

September 21, 2007 - Peace Pole, Kwame Nkrumah University of Science & Technology (KNUST), Kumasi (Ghana). "Erected on the International Day of Peace. Creates & preserves a monumental legacy for peace on the University campus, in Ghana and Africa as a whole. Made of a 105 years old Sapele tree which used to stand in the University's botanical garden. The pole is 16.7 m (55 feet) tall, currently the tallest [peace pole] in the world. Various indigenous symbols have been carved on the pole. Five languages (Twi--a local language in Ghana, Hindi, Chinese, Swahili, and Arabic) have been used to express the peace prayer on the pole: 'MAY PEACE BE ON EARTH.'"

Kenya

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Date? - Peace Monument, Uhuru Gardens (Freedom Garden), Nairobi (Kenya). "Nairobi's most famous park, used for national celebrations and many other meetings in particular religious meetings. One of the things that brought Professor Wangari Maathai to fame leading to a Nobel peace award [in 2004] was her fight to protect the park when the government attempted to construct office buildings at the park."

March 13, 1999 - Garden for Peace (GFP) #6, Pastoral Institute, Nairobi (Kenya). One of many gardens in different countries named by Gardens for Peace, Atlanta, Georgia (USA).

2000 - Abasuba Community Peace Museum, Mfangano Island, Lake Victoria (Kenya). "A community initiative to promote and protect the cultural and natural heritage of the Abasuba." One of several "community peace museums" in Kenya, Sultan Somjee, ethnographer & founder.

Liberia

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1999? – Red Cross Monument, Monrovia? (Liberia). Inscribed "50th Anniversary of the Geneva Conventions, Jun. 12, 1949-1999."

Libya

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1806-1860 - Tripoli Monument or Peace Monument, Navy Yard, Washington, DC (USA). Made in Italy by Charles Micali. Damaged by fire during the War of 1812. Moved to West Grounds of the US Capitol in 1831. Moved to US Naval Academy (USNA), Annapolis, Maryland (USA) in 1861 (qv). Plaque: "The oldest military monument in the United States honors heroes of the War against the Barbary Coast Pirates [1801-1805], the new republic's first war..." Renovated in June 2000.

Mali

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1992 - Monument de la Paix / Peace Monument, Central City, Bamako (Mali). Arch is two arms supporting a sphere (the earth?) topped with a dove of peace. Photographed by Lowell & Marge Owens.

2000 - Monument de la Paix / Peace Monument, Timbuktu (Mali). Steps to the monument are covered with welded small arms laid down by warring factions. Also called Flamme de la Paix.

Mozambique

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Date? - Gong Perdamaian Dunia / World Peace Gong (WPG) (Mozambique). From World Peace Committee, Jakarta (Indonesia).

Future - Great Limpopo Transfrontier Park (Mozambique, South Africa & Zimbabwe). The three Ministers for the Environment signed a memorandum of understanding (MOU) to initiate the park on November 10, 2000. This is one of several projects of the Peace Parks Foundation (PPF) of Stellenbosch (South Africa).

Nigeria

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January 13, 1970 - Home of chief Benjamin Obijiofor Atuchukwu [1917-2009], Amichi town, Nnewi South Local Government Area, Anambra State (Nigeria). Site of the peace accord which ended the Nigerian Civil War. Signed by Col. Olusegun Obasanjo for Nigeria & Col. Philip Effiong for Biafra. "The policy of 'no victor no vanquished' announced by the then Head of State Gen.Yakubu Gowan has been a matter of contention ever since." When President Olusegun Obasanjo visited Amichi in 2006, he announced that the home would be converted to a Museum of National Peace.

Rwanda

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April 2004 - Kigali Memorial Centre, Kigali (Rwanda). "A reminder of the horrors of genocide in an attempt to stop history from repeating itself. The first floor retraces the events leading up to the 1994 genocide and details the heinous event itself. On the second floor is an area devoted to children who were killed in the genocide. Outside are the graves of over 250,000 people, and more are still being created as remains continue to be found."

Tanzania

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1874 - "Former Slave Market Site," Anglican Christ Church Cathedral, Stone Town, Zanzibar (Tanzania). The sign reads: "You are now standing at the former slave market site. The world's last open slave market and notorious place, where slaves from East and Central Africa regions were bought and sold. // The trade in man [sic], women and children was stopped by decree from the Sultan of Zanziber One June 1873, following the appeal made by Dr. David Livingston in 1857 to the men of the great English universities of Oxford and Cambridge to liberate Africa from slavery. // The Cathedral Church of Christ was built by Bishop Edward Steere in 1874. The cathedral stands exactly on the site of the former slave market and the high altar marks the location of the old whipping post ! // Please purchase your ticket at the front gate to enable you to explore more about slavery and its abolition. // Enjoy your tour."

1925 - Beit el-Amani / Peace Memorial Museum, Mnazi Moja, Stone Town,Zanzibar (Tanzania). Built in memory of those who died in World War I. " the British extended their ideas of ‘indirect rule’ even to the architecture of the early colonial monumental buildings. The museum was therefore designed [by British architect J.H. Sinclair] as an oriental Islamic structure, reminiscent of the Aya Sophia Mosque in Istanbul, a hexagonal building with a huge central dome and smaller domes at the corners." Now [contains] traditional crafts and household items from residents of Zanzibar, sultans, slave traders, European explorers and missionaries. Displays feature David Livingstone's medical chest, information about the harvesting of cloves, and the story of the German battleship Konigsberg which sunk during World War I.

Date? - Uhura / Peace Monument, Arusha (Tanzania).

Senegal

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Date? - Maison des Esclaves / House of Slaves, Île de Gorée (Senegal). Frequently visited UNESCO World Heritage Site.

Date? - Slavery Freedom Monument, Île de Gorée (Senegal).

Sierra Leone

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C A S T L E

N/A - Bunce Island Slave Castle, Sierra Leone River (Sierra Leone). "Where Sierra Leonean slaves skilled in rice cultivation destined for North America were held. Today little more than an abandoned set of ruins, crumbling stones clutched by ivy roots and overgrown weeds on a 500-metre strip of land in the muddy waters of the river. Opala has worked for 30 years on the links between descendants of slaves and their West African origins. 'Sierra Leone is the most frequent result for DNA tests in the U.S.,' he said."

B R I D G E

2003 - Peace Bridge, Freetown (Sierra Leone). The Truth & Reconciliation Commission renamed the Congo Cross Bridge to mark the place where the invasion of Freetown on 6 January1999 was stopped. The Peace Bridge reminds the people of Sierra Leone that the war was overcome. And it gives hope that peace will become the bridge to the future.

South Africa

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1913 - Nasionale Vrouemonument / National Women’s Monument, Bloemfontein (South Africa). "Dedicated to more than 27,000 martyr women who died in British concentration camps during the Second Boer War [1899-1902]. A 115 foot obelisk and a central bronze group of two sorrowing women and a dying child in the Springfontein camp (based on sketches by English social activist Emily Hobhouse [1860-1926] and depicting her own experience of 15 May 1901). Hobhouse's ashes were distributed here. "For 80 years the only monument in the world dedicated solely to women and children." (I wonder what monument the author of this sentence thinks came along in 1993, the Vietnam Women's Memorial in Washington, DC?)

October 10, 1961 - Peace Monument, Melrose House, Pretoria (South Africa). Unveiled by former Prime Minister, DR H.F Verwoerd. "Commemorates of the Peace Negotiations that ultimately ended the Anglo-Boer War of 1899-1902. Vereeniging played host to the negotiations from 15-30 May 1902, and peace was signed at Melrose House, Pretoria on 31 May 1902. Coert Steynberg, famed SA artist, was commissioned to design a monument honoring all who fought and all who lost their lives for peace during the Anglo-Boer War. The motto "Gewond maar nie onoorwonne" (wounded but not defeated) enbodies the fighting spirit of the Boer Nation after surrendering to the British. This motto is still significant today as it represents the character, courage and spirit of reconciliation of the New South African Nation."

1966 - South African Cultural History Museum, Adderley Street (the old Heerengracht), Cape Town (South Africa). Occupies former Slave Lodge completed in 1679 by the Dutch East India Company (Vereenigde Oost-Indische Compagnie or VOC in Dutch). Housed as many as 1,000 slaves. Converted to government offices in 1806 by the British. Now part of Iziko Museums of Cape Town.

June 6, 1993 - Statue of Mahatma Gandhi, Church Street, Pietermaritzburg (South Africa). Unveiled by Archbishop Desmond Tutu. Pietermaritburg is where Gandhi was thrown off a train in 1893.

Date? - Plaque marking place of the 1893 railway incident, Platform No-1, Railway Station, Pietermaritzburg (South Africa).

1993 - Robben Island Museum, Robben Island (South Africa). "The notorious prison on the Island was also used to exile political prisoners of the apartheid era between the 1960s and 1991. Today it is a World Heritage Site and museum, a poignant reminder to the newly democratic South Africa of the price some paid for freedom."

February 27, 2000 - Sarvodaya, Phoenix Settlement, Bambayi, Inanda, about 25 km from central Durban (South Africa). "Gandhi's original house." Razed to the ground by apartheid violence in 1985. Restored & dedicated February 27, 2000, by South African president Thabo Mbeki.

2000 - Peace Monument, at the Waterfront in front of the Information Office, Limpopo & Bela-Bela CTA, Bela-Bela (Warmbaths) , Limpopo Provinc (South Africa). "The monument is one of only a few in the Limpopo."

December 7, 2000 - South African Peace Pagoda, The Manger, Barrydale, Western Cape Province (South Africa). Only peace pagoda in Africa. Consecrated by Sayadaw U Thila Wunta, eminent 90-year-old Burmese monk. "A gift he had long wanted to bestow on Africa, thus completing his dream and mission to promote peace and harmony in every continent of the world.... The building of this seven-meter tall gold structure, crowned with a spherical crystal and copper umbrella, was achieved in three weeks by Sayadaw, three Burmese Monks, 20 Canadians, and several local people."

Date? - Statue of Mahatma Gandhi, Pietermaritzburg (South Africa). This is where Gandhi was thrown off a train.

Date? - Bust of Mahatma Gandhi, Phoenix Settlement, Inanda, about 25 km from central Durban (South Africa). Photo shows Indian Prime Minister Dr. Manmohan Singh and the President of South Africa, Mr. Thabo Mbeki, jointly garlanding the bust of Mahatma Gandhi on October 1, 2006.

June 2003 - World Wall for Peace (WWFP), Ennerdale High School, near Johannesburg (South Africa). One of many walls in different countries named by World Walls for Peace, Berkeley, California (USA).

October 2, 2003 - Statue of Mahatma Gandhi, Johannesburg (South Africa). 2.5 meter statue by Tinka Christopher depicts Gandhi practicing law in South Africa. Dedicated on Gandhi"s birthday. (Gandhi lived in South Africa from 1893 until 1911.)

August 29, 2007 - Bust of Nelson Mandela, Parliament Square, London (England). Stands alongside images of Winston Churchill, Benjamin Disraeli and Abraham Lincoln. At unveiling, Mayor of London Ken Livingstone said, "Long after we are forgotten, you will be remembered for having taught the world one amazing truth: That you can achieve justice without vengeance."

2010 - Desmond Tutu Peace Centre & Museum, Roggebaai, Cape Town (South Africa). Will include one of four World Peace Tables by George Nakashima [1905-1990] of New Hope, Pennsylvania (USA).

Future - Tolstoy Farm, 35 kilometres southwest of Johannesburg (South Africa). Communal farm where Gandhi lived. To be recreated as a community centre and museum.

Future - Great Limpopo Transfrontier Park (Mozambique, South Africa & Zimbabwe). The three Ministers for the Environment signed a memorandum of understanding (MOU) to initiate the park on November 10, 2000. This is one of several projects of the Peace Parks Foundation (PPF) of Stellenbosch (South Africa).

Future - Great Limpopo & 13 Other Transfrontier Parks in Southern Africa (Angola, Botswana, Lesotho, Malawi, Mozambique, Namibia, Tanzania, South Africa, Swaziland, Zambia & Zimbabwe). As envisioned by the Peace Parks Foundation (PPF) of Stellenbosch (South Africa).

Sudan

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1898 - Gunboat Melik, Nile riverbank, Khartoum (Sudan). "An unlikely symbol of Anglo-Sudanese co-operation, the Melik was a Victorian weapon of high technology and fearsome power, intended to terrorise the Sudanese rebels and to kill as many as possible. It was built in Chiswick (England) in 1896, then shipped in pieces to Egypt, taken by rail across the Nubian Desert, and reassembled at Abadieh on the Nile. From there it led a flotilla of heavily armed gunboats, a vital element in Kitchener's reconquest of Khartoum in 1898... Today the gunboat sits in a bed of dried mud and sand in a grove of mahogany trees, its decks tipped at an angle, the roof collapsing."

Togo

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Date? - La Columbe de la Paix / Peace Dove, Lomé (Togo).

Uganda

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Before 1999 - Statue of Mahatma Gandhi, Memorial Garden, Jinga (Uganda). At or near place where Gandhi's ashes were spread in the Nile River in August 1948.

Date? - Bust of Mahatma Gandhi, Hindu Temple, Jinga (Uganda).

July 15, 2009 - Peace Monument, Kampala & Juba Road, Gulu (Uganda). To commemorate education’s importance in ensuring peace, The Dutch Embassy commissioned a sculpture conisting of three destroyed guns at the feet of a girl and boy reading a pile of text books. After speaking at length about education’s role in a post-conflict environment, the Dutch Ambassador, Jeroen Verheul, celebrated the sculpture’s unveiling by hosting a lunch for local community leaders. The books, Verheul noted, portrayed education as a pillar of knowledge, an instrument of reconciliation and a basis for moral building.

Zimbabwe

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Future - Great Limpopo Transfrontier Park (Mozambique, South Africa & Zimbabwe). The three Ministers for the Environment signed a memorandum of understanding (MOU) to initiate the park on November 10, 2000. This is one of several projects of the Peace Parks Foundation (PPF) of Stellenbosch (South Africa).