Apartheid Museum and Soweto
The last time I journeyed to Pretoria, I decided to finally go on a tour of the Apartheid Museum and Soweto; things that I have wanted to do since I first arrived to South Africa, but as of yet had not had the chance. After Apartheid ended officially in 1994 with the first multi-party elections that brought Nelson Mandela and the ANC to power, the new government decided that remembering Apartheid was just as important as ending it. History has a very nasty habit of repeating itself, and unless certain events, no matter how horrible they may be, are remembered, they run the risk of reoccurring. The government decided to build a remembrance museum, both to tell the history of apartheid and to honor the men and women who struggled to end it.
The moment a visitor enters the museum, he or she is given a card. On the card is written “white,” “black,” “Coloured,” or “Asian.” These were the four official races under Apartheid and everyone living in South Africa was classified to a race. A person’s race determined their status in life. Everything in South Africa under Apartheid revolved around the color of a person’s skin. Once receiving the card, the visitor proceeds to the true entrance of the museum, two doors, one labeled “White” the other labeled “Non-white.” The visitor enters the museum according to the card they were given at the gate. Through the doors are two identical hallways, only one for the “whites” and the other for the “non-whites.” The hallways are separated by a thick metal and mesh fence. This entrance gives the visitor an impression of what apartheid was like for the people living under it. Eventually the hallways end and the museum continue, telling the story of apartheid chronologically, beginning when white settlers first arrived in South Africa and continuing until the 1990s. The museum is pretty intense, and not geared to be taken lightly or for a quick run-through. A visitor could easily spend all day there because there is so much to read and absorb. Unfortunately, that is where the Apartheid Museum has its main flaw. While I did not mind the reading-intensity of the museum, all of the information in the museum was written in English, and none of the other eleven official languages of South Africa. So many people- South Africans even, will not be able to appreciate the museum for what it is or really learn everything that it has to offer only because the information is so in-depth reading and in complicated English. It really is a sad thing.
After visiting the Apartheid Museum, we continued on the other part of our tour, that is, to Soweto. Soweto is a huge black township outside of Johannesburg, home to Nelson Mandela, Winnie Mandela and Desmond Tutu. It is the only place in the entire world that has two Nobel Peace Prize winners living on the same street (Mandela and Tutu). It also has 4.5 million residents, the largest hospital in the world and the largest taxi rank as well. Soweto also made history on June 16, 1976 in the struggle for apartheid. School children in Soweto staged a protest against the use of Afrikaans as a medium of instruction in Secondary Schools. Afrikaans is the language of the descendants of white Dutch settlers to South Africa, and many of the youth viewed Afrikaans as the language of their oppressors as the Apartheid government was largely made of Afrikaans men. The youth decided to stage a peaceful demonstration through the Soweto streets to display their anger and dismay at having to be taught in Afrikaans. Not long after their march started, South African army personnel and police officers called in to stop the protest opened fire on the crowd of children. The first boy to die was twelve-year-old Hector Peterson, and dozens of others followed. The Soweto Uprising was one of the key events that made the world aware of what was happening in South Africa and also further encouraged the ANC to step up their protests against the Apartheid government. I enjoyed visiting Soweto probably more than I did visiting the Apartheid museum. As a history buff I like seeing the places where events occurred as well as reading about them. Walking by the schools where most of the children involved in the Soweto Uprising/Massacre attended and seeing the memorial to Hector Peterson at the place he died was powerful in a way different to the Apartheid Museum.
The moment a visitor enters the museum, he or she is given a card. On the card is written “white,” “black,” “Coloured,” or “Asian.” These were the four official races under Apartheid and everyone living in South Africa was classified to a race. A person’s race determined their status in life. Everything in South Africa under Apartheid revolved around the color of a person’s skin. Once receiving the card, the visitor proceeds to the true entrance of the museum, two doors, one labeled “White” the other labeled “Non-white.” The visitor enters the museum according to the card they were given at the gate. Through the doors are two identical hallways, only one for the “whites” and the other for the “non-whites.” The hallways are separated by a thick metal and mesh fence. This entrance gives the visitor an impression of what apartheid was like for the people living under it. Eventually the hallways end and the museum continue, telling the story of apartheid chronologically, beginning when white settlers first arrived in South Africa and continuing until the 1990s. The museum is pretty intense, and not geared to be taken lightly or for a quick run-through. A visitor could easily spend all day there because there is so much to read and absorb. Unfortunately, that is where the Apartheid Museum has its main flaw. While I did not mind the reading-intensity of the museum, all of the information in the museum was written in English, and none of the other eleven official languages of South Africa. So many people- South Africans even, will not be able to appreciate the museum for what it is or really learn everything that it has to offer only because the information is so in-depth reading and in complicated English. It really is a sad thing.
After visiting the Apartheid Museum, we continued on the other part of our tour, that is, to Soweto. Soweto is a huge black township outside of Johannesburg, home to Nelson Mandela, Winnie Mandela and Desmond Tutu. It is the only place in the entire world that has two Nobel Peace Prize winners living on the same street (Mandela and Tutu). It also has 4.5 million residents, the largest hospital in the world and the largest taxi rank as well. Soweto also made history on June 16, 1976 in the struggle for apartheid. School children in Soweto staged a protest against the use of Afrikaans as a medium of instruction in Secondary Schools. Afrikaans is the language of the descendants of white Dutch settlers to South Africa, and many of the youth viewed Afrikaans as the language of their oppressors as the Apartheid government was largely made of Afrikaans men. The youth decided to stage a peaceful demonstration through the Soweto streets to display their anger and dismay at having to be taught in Afrikaans. Not long after their march started, South African army personnel and police officers called in to stop the protest opened fire on the crowd of children. The first boy to die was twelve-year-old Hector Peterson, and dozens of others followed. The Soweto Uprising was one of the key events that made the world aware of what was happening in South Africa and also further encouraged the ANC to step up their protests against the Apartheid government. I enjoyed visiting Soweto probably more than I did visiting the Apartheid museum. As a history buff I like seeing the places where events occurred as well as reading about them. Walking by the schools where most of the children involved in the Soweto Uprising/Massacre attended and seeing the memorial to Hector Peterson at the place he died was powerful in a way different to the Apartheid Museum.
posted by Brittany at 6:05 AM
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