31 May: Two Dates, Two Realities
On 31 May 1902, the Treaty of Vereeniging was signed. After years of bitter war, the Boer republics, the South African Republic and the Orange Free State, were forced to surrender their independence to British imperialism. It marked the end of the freedom for which thousands of citizens had fought and died.
Exactly 59 years later, on 31 May 1961, South Africa once again severed its ties with British rule when the country became a republic. With that, the British Crown’s formal authority over South Africa came to an end, and a new chapter in the country’s history began.
31 May reminds us that history is not only made up of defeats or victories, but of a people’s continuing struggle to determine its own future.