My View
Picture Foreground: The Donkin /Picture Background: Grey’s Institute
Quote: “In 1820 the town was laid out by order of the acting Governor of the Cape, Sir Rufane Donkin, who named the settlement in honour of his deceased wife, Lady Elizabeth. As a tribute to her memory he erected a stone pyramid, seen on the hill near the lighthouse.”
Quote: “The pyramid bears a plaque with the inscription "One of the most perfect of human beings who has given her name to the town below"”
See http://www.flickr.com/photos/hilton-t/5610772818/
Sir Rufane and Elizabeth Donkin Algoa Bay Port Elizabeth
The Donkin has always been an open Park, bought and set aside by Sir Rufane Donkin for the people of Port Elizabeth to enjoy en perpetuity. On this site Sir Rufane Donkin built a Memorial to his deceased wife Elizabeth (nee Markham) whom he dearly loved. Sir Rufane Donkin and his wife Elizabeth were Christians and absolutely no political statement is made by the memorial except one of enduring love.
The memorial was erected on a hill overlooking the city below and gave all Port Elizabethans that spacial feeling so typical of Africa, especially those whose homes were built in close proximity to it. Since 1994 the ANC had other ideas about the Park, and like so many unwelcome decisions they have made over other people’s lives and property the changes made to the Donkin come as no surprise.
The Donkin originally consisted of the memorial, and later a lighthouse was added in the mid 1800’s through necessity. Originally paths were laid to traverse each of the corners of the park for people to use when walking to work or for strolling along in leisure hours, and the rest of the Donkin Memorial was laid out with well manicured lawns with a few trees and a sprinkling of lamp posts for lighting at night.
However judging by all the changes already made to the Donkin and obvious to anyone who has seen them, the ANC clearly wanted to make an iconic statement to its existence, one which we do not care for. The memory of the Donkin family is clearly being squeezed out and cunningly engineered so by changing the focus of the park. Would Sir Rufane Donkin have been happy with the changes? I think not. For all the absurd thinkers of those supporting the changes, how did Mandela or the ANC do anything meaningful for this city since 1820?
The park is now categorized thematically:
On the north western side an oasis has been planted, what appears to be the ANC’s most cherished tree, the Palm. Just beyond the Palms facing the 1820 Settler homes across the road, welded scrap metal pipes, probably collected from Central's decaying suburbs has been piled together to form a hideous African sculpture. Certainly not my cup of tea.
A tourist kiosk has also been erected next to the Elizabeth Donkin memorial with Mandela’s name scribbled permanently on one of the facades. Now is this surprising? This historical revisionist programme is also being duplicated elsewhere eg. The so called peace park placed opposite an Afrikaner monument in Pretoria, and laying South African War inscriptions on the walk way near the entrance to a Second World War Monument dedicated to our heroes of the previous World War. None of these changes are accidental in my opinion and none of the new reflect like the old, the GOD of Glory.
On the western edge of the Park near the King Edwards Hotel the designers have placed a solid metal statue clearly designed in such a way as to subtly evoke a picture of “great Xhosan stature”, but which to me looks more like Darth Vader from the movie “Star Wars” holding a chair for an absent induna.
There is also an Aloe rockery placed on the western side of the Donkin Memorial midway between the King Edward Hotel and the Elizabeth Donkin Memorial, and if anything, this is the most sensible addition to the Park in my view.
There are other bits and pieces such as plastic seats molded in the form of sails to emulate Algoa Bay’s marine sports. There is also a lot of mosaic work around the lighthouse with an inordinate use of red in the design. On the Eastern edge of the Donkin the area is being designed for recreational sport, possibly volley ball or something else which I assume will make the park very busy once it has been completed. Judging by the type of person who will hang out at the park when all the work is complete it’s not exactly the kind of place where one would take the grand kids for a stroll. The entire area around the Donkin is completely run down and I hear is full of Nigerian drug lords and opportunistic criminals.
Picture Source Left: http://www.revisionisthistory.org/communist.html
Picture Source Right: http://gawker.com/5693375/harry-potter-and-the-deathly-hallows-part-1-is-mostly-fantastic
The final, and probably the ANC’s most bletcherous addition to the Donkin is a lazer cut metal sculptor of Mandela, with his so called followers pressing onward behind him. As if we care! The depiction is one of a “valiant” Mandela reaching the zenith of the Donkin Memorial after a nasty struggle. He carries neither a Cross nor a Sickle, but if he carried the former I would certainly pay attention. The Elizabeth Donkin Memorial has now lost the reason for its original existence and is simply converted as another ANC shrine, designed to remove any previous memory of our Christian Heritage.
Copyright 2011
