Van Riebeeck Festival - Fees (1952)

Van Riebeeck Festival - Fees (1952): Herdenkingsalbum - Pictorial Souvenir, softcover, large format, 65 pages, illustrated. condition: basically as new.

The 1952 Van Riebeeck Festival was a large-scale event in Cape Town, South Africa, commemorating the 300th anniversary of the arrival of Jan van Riebeeck, the first Dutch commander, in 1652. The government-sponsored festival aimed to bolster white South African national identity and celebrate its colonial heritage amidst the establishment of the apartheid system. Organized by the newly elected National Party government and cultural organisations like the Federation of Afrikaans Cultural Organisations (FAK), the festival had a clear political and cultural agenda. The primary goal was to foster a unified, racially exclusive "settler nation" identity among the white populace (both Afrikaans and English speakers). The festival was also met with significant opposition. The African National Congress (ANC) and the Non-European Unity Movement (NEUM) called for Black South Africans to observe the main day, April 6, 1952, as a "National Day of Pledge and Prayer" in protest against segregation and the apartheid regime, launching the Defiance Campaign the same year. 

                           The festival, which ran from March to April 1952, featured various events in Cape Town and across the country