Long Shadow (Western)

The shadows represent those who were endlessly and unfairly detained on this prison site during apartheid. The shadows at the foot of the Constitutional Court’s entrance steps portray four hopeful prisoners, a young person, a woman and two men standing where the Awaiting Trial Block used to be; it was demolished to make space for the Court. Their slightly erect bodies symbolise a flicker of hope of being freed from prison as their cases have not been heard or finalised. To the far western side, at the foot of the steps leading to the Women’s Jail, three remaining shadows stand with their bodies hunched over as their cases have left them uncertain. One of the shadows has moved on, either to prison or, for the lucky few, to freedom. Visitors may stand at the feet of the almost-forgotten prisoners, imagining that the shadows are their own, to empathise with the torment of multitudes of people who were kept endlessly and unfairly, and to remember the injustices of the past that, in part, prohibited free movement and association. From the new open ground of Constitution Square, we become one with those shadows that had fought for our freedom, and that constantly face the Court in expectation of justice to be done.