Stories

This year marks the 25th anniversary of South Africa’s freedom, and protecting and promoting human rights is as vital now as it was before 1994.

The Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) is tasked with promoting and encouraging respect for human rights for all without distinction as to race, sex, language, or religion, as stipulated in the United Nations’s 1945 Charter, the intergovernmental organisation’s the foundational treaty.

In the aftermath of the Sharpeville Massacre in 1960, then African National Congress deputy president Oliver Reginald Tambo embarked on a “mission in exile” to garner international support for the South African liberation movement.

Daily, we at Refugee Social Services in Durban come face-to-face with the particular challenges and dangers inherent in a refugee’s journey to the country of refuge (in this case South Africa).

Solange Knowles’s latest album gives voice to Black frustration, pain and aspirations.  A Seat at the Table symbolises what every activist yearns for – to be heard, to be seen and to participate in every sphere of society as a right-carrying citizen. It is therefore fitting that Knowles – known to her fans as Solange – is bringing her transformative music and energy to Constitution Hill, a true example of a decolonised space and where art, justice and activism intersect. Her music and Constitution Hill will make for a magical combination. 

Solange will be performing at the Afropunk festival at Constitution Hill on 30 and 31 December 2017.

Constitution Hill has won a 2017 South African Museums Association Speaker and Publications award for its website.