The enslaved people of the Cape were legally freed on 1 December 1834. Referencing archival records and evoking the historical imagination of what that particular experience of freedom might have been like, the Museum has collaborated closely with the Prestwich Place Project Committee and other organisations over the years, to mark this significant but often forgotten day in the history of Cape Town.

Accounts of jubilation in the streets at the stroke of midnight, signalling the passage from the last day of legal bondage (30 November 1834) to the first day of legal freedom (1 December 1834), have influenced the ways in which this commemoration has been marked. Music, dancing, feasting, fires… all of these come together in the Emancipation Day commemoration which is usually scheduled from the night of 30 November to the early hours of 1 December. Reflections on the lasting legacies of slavery form part of the commemorations.

Visit https://www.sahistory.org.za/article/history-slavery-and-early-colonisation-south-africa for more information about Emancipation Day in South Africa

Please click on the link  below to view various media associated with the Museum’s Emancipation Day programmes over the years