A Walk in the Night to Mark the End of Slavery

A “Walk in the Night” through Cape Town commemorated the end of slavery in the Cape.

Related: Dates on Which Chattel Slavery Was Abolished

More than 100 people joined a walk through Cape Town’s centre on Monday night to mark Emancipation Day, the day slaves in the Cape were legally freed on 1 December 1834.

The walk started at St. Stephen’s Church in Heritage Square, and went on to the Sendinggestig Museum, Greenmarket Square, and the “Arch for Arch” at the Company’s Garden, ending at the Slave Tree opposite Church Square.

“A Walk in the Night is claiming the unremembered,” said Michael Weeder, priest and one of the organisers.

The Walk started in 2003 after a burial ground was discovered in Prestwich in Greenpoint with the unmarked graves of slaves.

“We don’t know their names, but we know that they exist,” said Weeder. “They live on in our memory, even if we do not know their names.”

People gather outside the Sendinggestig Museum in Long Street, South Africa’s first slave church. The church also provided education to enslaved people.

Weeder said the walk also remembered the women affected by gender-based violence and those in Palestine.

At each location, a small speech was made about the historical importance of the site.

The “Cape Town Street Band” led the way as people walked through the city, many holding lamps and lanterns.

The event is named after a short story by the celebrated South African author Alex La Guma, The Walk in the Night, about life under apartheid.

It was organised by the District Six museum, the Prestwich Place Project Committee and the Institute for Healing. It usually takes place on the last day of November, but because of the switching on of the lights in the city, the day was moved.

Greenmarket Square was once used as a slave market.

The march ended at the Slave Tree in Spin Street, where slaves were sold.

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