We all love celebrating the Day of Reconciliation on December 16th, but did you know that December is also reconciliation month?
Theme: United in Action Against Racism, Gender-Based Violence and Other Intolerance
Key Call to Action: We challenge South Africans to confront their preconceived ideas about race and racism.
The month of December is a month of great significance in South Africa because of two historical events that took place in this month.
In apartheid South Africa the 16th of December was known as the Day of the Vow, as the Voortrekkers (in preparation for the Battle of Blood River on the 16th of December 1838 against the Zulus) took a vow before God that they would build a church and that they and their descendants would observe the day as a day of thanksgiving should they be granted victory.
The second historical event that took place on 16 December was in 1961, when Umkhonto we Sizwe (MK), the military wing of the African National Congress (ANC), was formed. Prior to its formation, the ANC had largely approached the fight against apartheid through passive resistance, but after the Sharpeville Massacre in 1960, where peaceful protestors were indiscriminately shot by police, passive resistance was no longer seen as an effective approach to bringing apartheid to an end. MK mostly performed acts of sabotage, but its effectiveness was hampered by organizational problems and the arrest of its leaders in 1963.
Despite this, its formation has been commemorated every year since 1961. With the advent of democracy in South Africa, the 16th of December retained its status as a public holiday. South Africa’s first non-racial and democratic government was tasked with promoting reconciliation and national unity. One way in which it aimed to do this symbolically was to acknowledge the significance of the 16th of December in both the Afrikaner and liberation struggle traditions and to rename this day the Day of Reconciliation. On the 16th of December 1995, the Day of Reconciliation was celebrated as a public holiday in South Africa for the first time.
Every year South Africa marks National Reconciliation Day on the 16th of December with a focus on racism and gender-based violence. In South Africa, we commemorate Reconciliation Day and dedicate the entire month of December to reconciliation. This year’s commemoration marks the 27th anniversary of the Day of Reconciliation.
National Reconciliation Day was adopted at the start of our democracy when it was envisioned that reconciliation, peace, and stability would be the defining characteristics of our new democratic dispensation. Each year, we have a chance to reach out to each other, deal with our past, and reconcile in order to build a new nation.
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