'Woman and Child'

In the Scottish capital is a sculpture that makes a statement against the Apartheid system that plagued South Africa. The sculpture depicts a woman and child along with a piece of a tin roof, a characteristic of the country’s townships and a symbol of discrimination and poverty.

The bronze statue was sculpted by Scottish artist Anne Davidson (spelled as Ann on the plaque) and unveiled in 1986 when Nelson Mandela was still imprisoned. Suganya Chetty, a member of the African National Congress was in attendance for the unveiling. Davidson was born in Glasgow in 1937 and this is just one of her many artworks on public display.

“Woman and Child” was commissioned by the Edinburgh City Council and, after its unveiling, Davidson continued to sculpt and run sculpture workshops for the blind in Aberdeen. She passed away in 2008, leaving this sculpture as likely her best-known work.

This monument joins two others representing the figure of a woman in Edinburgh. The others are Queen Victoria and Helen Crummy, founder of the Craigmillar Festival. The BBC found that in the United Kingdom, there were an estimated 174 out of 828, (one in five) memorials dedicated to women in 2018. Since then, a campaign has been established to see that there be a fairer representation of notable females throughout the country.