A Beginner’s Guide to South Africa’s Cemeteries

In the Global North, cemeteries are generally recognised as important sites not just for burial, but also as community assets for safeguarding and celebrating cultural and historical links across generations. In recognising these values—and commercial potential—cemeteries have also become spaces of entertainment, where a visit can be both instructional and enjoyable. Cemetery tourism now features prominently on recommended itineraries for visiting new places.

This is not the case in a country like South Africa. Across South Africa’s diverse communities, choosing to visit a cemetery without a good reason, like being an attendee for a funeral or having an ancestral link to the cemetery, is generally considered an odd or transgressive act. Amelia Tomašević (VERN University of Applied Sciences, Zagreb) outlines a list of categories that broadly cover the accepted motives for cemetery tourism. Specifically, they are: Ancestral, Cultural, National, Nature, Political, and Religious. While there is no existing guide to cemetery tourism in South Africa (yet!) there are several burial sites and cemeteries that have virtues in these categories.

A Beginner’s Guide to South Africa’s Cemeteries

Kramat of Sheikh Mohamed, Signal Hill, Cape Town. 2022. Image credit: Marie-Louise Rouget

Ancestral Burial Grounds

Tomašević suggests that the ancestral aspect of cemeteries are especially important for diaspora communities. This can also include the ancient burial sites that reveal insights into our development as a species. For example, the Cradle of Humankind is a 47,000-acre paleoanthropological site lying northwest of Johannesburg. Recognised as a UNESCO World Heritage Site, its visitor centre (Maropeng) promotes the premise that Africa is the shared ancestral birthplace of all humans, and that this place in particular is where our “collective umbilical cord lies buried.”

Maropeng visitor centre, Cradle of Humankind, South Africa. 2019. Image via Wikimedia Commons.

Over the last century many early human remains have been uncovered within the site’s surrounding caves. In 2023, researchers announced the discovery of the 200,000-year-old graves of homo naledi, a species falling in between humans and apes on the evolutionary scale. The intentional placement of the dead in dug holes, in the foetal position, overturns previous scientific hypotheses about homo naledi’s capacity for “meaning-making.” This discovery now holds the distinction of being the oldest hominin burial site found to date. While not strictly marketed as a burial site, and certainly not what we would call a cemetery today, the Cradle of Humankind can be considered the first stop on a tour of South Africa’s burial heritage spaces.

Cultural Cemeteries

Cultural cemeteries are noteworthy for famous interments and can function as open air museums. A visitor can expect to find names they recognise from famous actors, writers, and poets, to sports personalities, activists, scientists and more. Westpark Cemetery in Johannesburg is the most notable celebrity cemetery in the country. Famous interments include the jazz musician and composer Hugh Masekela (1939-2018), the human rights lawyer George Bizos (1928-2020), and the struggle photographer Alf Khumalo (1930-2012).

In February 2023, the rapper and record producer Kiernan Forbes, better known as AKA, was buried in Westpark Cemetery’s Heroes Acre. A “Heroes Acre” specifically refers to the section of a public cemetery (those run by local government) where the famous and infamous are buried. Since its unveiling, Forbes’ grave has become a pilgrimage site for grieving fans following his shocking murder.

Tweet by @ThegreatoneZa, 14 March 2023. Image via X.com.

South African responses on X.com (formerly Twitter) to this trend have been divided. For some, visiting and taking photographs at AKA’s grave is a mark of respect and a show of solidarity with his family in their grief, but others have slated this behaviour as “weird” and “distasteful”. The latter opinion is highly typical and coincides with the common perception across communities that cemeteries are not meant for leisure visits. The signage at Westpark and in other public cemeteries support this common perception that cemeteries should not be leisurely enjoyed.

National and Political Cemeteries

In many ways, Avalon Cemetery in Soweto was the geographic epicentre for the political movement to overthrow South Africa’s Apartheid government. Johannesburg City Parks and Zoo (the local government authority) describe the political significance of the space as follows:

During the height of the struggle in the 1970s and 1980s, thousands of mourners congregated at Avalon to sing forbidden songs of freedom and chant banned slogans, until they were driven away by security forces… Some dressed in military fatigues and were armed with wooden rifles, flocking to the cemetery to demonstrate their solidarity for the struggle… Funerals for the victims became one of the most powerful expressions of defiance against the apartheid government.

In Avalon Cemetery you will find struggle stalwarts, like Lillian Ngoyi (first president of the African National Congress (ANC) Women’s League and the Federation of South African Women, 1911-1980) and Helen Joseph (anti-Apartheid activist and fellow founder of the Federation of South African Women, 1905-1992) who are buried in a shared grave covered in prominent ANC political insignia. Also buried in Avalon Cemetery’s Heroes Acre are Hector Pieterson and Hastings Ndlovu, two teenage schoolboys who were shot and killed during the Soweto Uprising on 16 June 1976.

These individuals and their stories are significant parts of South Africa’s post-1994 national identity politics. Unfortunately, Avalon and many other public cemeteries across South Africa have experienced a conspicuous rise in crime and vandalism over the last three decades. This puts their material cultural legacy at risk, and also makes it difficult for families to visit cemeteries safely, not to mention the impossibility of encouraging tourists to take a look around.

Nature and Religious Cemeteries

There are more than thirty Muslim shrines (kramats or mazaars) dotted across Cape Town’s peninsula, often nestled on plots with breathtaking natural views. The kramats mark grave sites of historical Auliyah (‘Beloved of Allah’). These men were brought to South Africa by the Dutch as political exiles from as far away as India, Indonesia, Sri Lanka and Malaysia during the 17th century. During their lifetimes, they achieved a saintly status through their good deeds, faith, piety and spiritual influence, as well as a few miracles that can be attributed to them.

Kramat of Sheikh Mohamed, Signal Hill, Cape Town. 2022. Image credit: Marie-Louise Rouget

It is only over the last century that the shrines have been marked by permanent structures. The saints used to be buried in well secluded spots, marked by paths of stones or tied bits of cloth for pilgrims to follow into the mountains or forests. Wooden shacks were erected at some of the sites as precursors to the brick and mortar buildings of today. An example of one of these shrines is the Kramat of Sheikh Mohamed Hassen Ghaibie Shah al Qadri, perched between Lion’s Head and Signal Hill in the heart of Cape Town.

In December 2021, ten kramats across Cape Town were declared national heritage sites by the South African Heritage Resources Agency (SAHRA). While the kramats are not explicitly promoted for tourism because of their sacred status for the local community, curious non-Muslims are permitted to visit the shrines, under the condition of respectful conduct at all times. The on-site caretakers are welcoming and knowledgeable about the history and contemporary significance of the properties.

Avalon Cemetery in Soweto. The cemetery is the largest in South Africa. Image via Daily Maverick.

Welcome, With Caution

While this is not an exhaustive list of cemetery locations in South Africa, it offers an entry point to some of the differing and shared practices, perceptions, virtues, and challenges that characterise the country’s burial sites generally and cemeteries in particular.