The Apartheid Musuem: A Time Machine From the 1800s to Today

Today we visited the Apartheid Museum, which was ironically located across the street from the Gold Reef City Casino and amusement park. These contrasts were also a main theme of the museum. Upon entering, each of us were handed a ticket that read “white” or “non-white” at random. There were two separate entrances to the museum based upon your classification that was assigned to you, much like during apartheid when the government classified people’s race according to nose size, teeth, lips, skin color, and other bizarre, unrelated characteristics. I learned later from the museum that in fact in 1985, 702 colored people turned white, 19 whites became colored, and 1 Indian became white; but, no blacks became white. This demonstrates the power of the government to determine your race and thus your life during apartheid with a stroke of a pen.

Upon entering the segregated entrances, I spotted a quote by Nelson Mandela that set the context for the journey through history to reach the new South Africa. It read, “To be free is to live in a way that respects and enhances the freedom of others.” When I read this quote I did not quite understand what it meant or how the country of South Africa was able to gain its freedom from oppression, colonialism and segregation that was engrained in the country’s history ever since the early 1800s and further perpetrated by the discovery of gold in 1886. However, after spending almost three hours in the museum, which was more like a time machine, I gained a greater insight into the events that affected and led to the current democratic South Africa.

As discussed in class afterwards, many of our reactions to the Apartheid Museum included dense, emotional, and intense. The museum was set up chronologically with different segments and used a wide variety of art, movies, personal anecdotes, and facts to tell the narrative of the competition over land and labor that led to apartheid. It was amazing for me to learn that events occurring in the late 1880s led to other events and oppression of the natives to ultimately give rise to the apartheid regime, whose consequences still linger in South African society today.

I agree with the reactions of my peers that the museum did contain a lot of information and detail; however, it was the first time for me that I began to fully understand the interconnectedness of what we have been studying in our course. The museum helped me pull together the readings, class discussions, places we visited, and experiences from the course thus far. For example, at the end of the second Boer War, the blacks were allocated only about 10 percent of the land. This displaced many blacks as they moved from the white tenant farms to the cities. Alexandra, one of the two black freehold townships right outside of Johannesburg was created. Our class recently visited the adopt-a-student program in this township, and witnessed about a hundred years later the over-crowded areas, informal settlements, and basically still all black population. This is just one example of how the museum helped everything for me to come full circle and understand the lingering effects of the apartheid regime that were founded upon events occurring decades before apartheid even became the official policy of the government in 1948.

Relating back to the Nelson Mandela quote about freedom that marked the entrance to the museum, I do not think that the end of the museum concludes at a point that reaches his definition of freedom. Thus, in a way I think the museum does not end, but demonstrates a continuous struggle for the young democratic country to reach this ideal state of freedom. This continuous struggle theme is evident in the last segment that included newspapers from around the world with today’s date.  There was also a sign that admitted the country is still bearing struggles of apartheid. Throughout the course we have witnessed the remains and have even heard from activist involved such as Zenzile, a senior investigator for the Truth and Reconciliation Commission, that the apartheid policy was demolished in the Constitution, but not in practice. Thus, the purpose of the museum and the continual activism of Zenzile are to grapple with the past and understand the history so that full reconciliation can occur and the country can move forward. As I read this and remembered the discussion with Zenzile, I could not help but ask if reconciliation is enough? Or, is more action needed for South Africa to realize the five pillars of freedom, democracy, reconciliation, equality, and diversity as not just theoretical ideals written in the Constitution, but daily practices of society by the country’s culturally mixed constituents? What is the new South Africa and how does the country get there given its history?