With the advent of the postapartheid democratic era, the transformation and democratisation of the South African heritage sector came into being. Key to these processes was the fostering of new goals, values, visions and themes such as freedom, peace, justice, humanity, reconciliation, social cohesion and nation-building. Due to these processes of redress, alternative monuments and memorials emerged in the postapartheid period. The Legacy Project, for example, led to the creation of a host of alternative monuments, museums, memorials, statues, plaques and commemorative sites, of which Freedom Park is one.

Nelson Mandela, during his tenure as the first president of the Republic of South Africa, thought that the construction of Freedom Park was necessary to begin the process of reconciling, reconstructing and healing the wounds inflicted by past conflicts. As the country underwent a democratic transition, the need for a monument that would offer symbolic recognition and reparation of past conflicts in South Africa was echoed by different sectors of the nation. In particular, the proceedings of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC) revealed the vast recognition that thousands of South Africans, black and white, carried or continue to carry deep-seated wounds from the pain inflicted on them by the utter cruelty of the apartheid system.

Freedom Park was launched in 2000, amongst various new forms of memorialisation that emerged post-1994, which included the renaming of streets, roads, bridges, towns, cities, schools, hospitals, stadiums and institutions of higher learning, to honour figures associated with the hitherto neglected history, heritage and culture of resistance and the liberation struggle. The establishment of the park as a distinct national and international monument was mandated by a cabinet decision and an act of parliament, to create a national symbol that commemorates all South Africans who sacrificed their lives so that we could experience freedom.

Unlike other conventional monuments that celebrate the victories of the past from a colonial perspective, the position adopted by Freedom Park in representing our history, culture and heritage, is premised on the principle of the emancipation of African voices —a perspective that takes into account the fact that the history of the African continent was suppressed, distorted and silenced for more than 600 years.