Journeys of Hope: Radical Heritage Transformation at South Africa’s Oldest Surviving Colonial Edifice, The Castle of Good Hope, Cape Town

In October 2013, after appointing its first full-time civilian management team, the Castle Control Board, the authority that manages the Castle of Good Hope, an important national heritage site, embarked on an arduous journey to transform and reimage South Africa’s oldest colonial building. In practical terms, it meant a ‘radical’ departure from imaginings and conventions representing the Castle as a place and space of militarisation, exclusiveness, trauma, brutalisation, enslavement, persecution, unfairness, and dispossession into one that is inclusive, healing, reconciliatory, and educational. This chapter seeks answers to the following questions: How did the authorities manage the complex task of transforming this colonial-apartheid citadel’s tangible and intangible realm? What were the pitfalls, challenges, and key achievements? This chapter endeavours to map out this process retrospectively, highlight the key events, and share the lessons with other similar museums and heritage sites on the continent and abroad.