If I’m honest I can’t say that I was looking forward to going to the Apartheid Museum, when Bishop Steve said it would be a possibility. The effects and legacy of the apartheid era are all around South Africa – and a day looking long and hard into it was always going to be difficult.
We were not allowed to take photos and without giving a room by room, photo by photo account of the museum it is difficult to portray the day… but I will have a go.
Your ticket has printed on it (randomly) either “white” or “ non white” and you enter the museum, segregated into different routes. Sam and I were non white, Rose, Bishop Steve and Andrew were all “white.” Of course its not fair… but this is the very point.
The museum is filled with photos, video and information points about the set up, development, maintenance and opposition to the policy of apartheid. All within a concrete and caged setting which seemed to reflect the separation and oppression which were so much a part of apartheid.
Your ticket has printed on it (randomly) either “white” or “ non white” and you enter the museum, segregated into different routes. Sam and I were non white, Rose, Bishop Steve and Andrew were all “white.” Of course its not fair… but this is the very point.
The museum is filled with photos, video and information points about the set up, development, maintenance and opposition to the policy of apartheid. All within a concrete and caged setting which seemed to reflect the separation and oppression which were so much a part of apartheid.
A key impression for me was the role that Britain and its empire and economic dominance had in some of the early days of white settlement in South Africa. The rush for gold and diamonds by British prospectors and the aim big profits The Anglo Boer war established in many in white South African- a mind set which was one of defiance and embattlement – a kind of siege mentality, which carried on into the 1930s when the rising numbers of black citizens began to be mistreated on a more systematic basis.
It is easy to travel through the museum and mock the ridiculous laws which the apartheid governments came up with- almost as if to say… “we would never do that!” But the seeds of apartheid are things which are common to all cultures, the lust for power and keeping it – and the greed for money and more of it. When privileges we have enjoyed become threatened in order to bring about a fair and just life for all… many of us respond in a similar tone to the way that the successive apartheid governments did.
Similar sort of arguments and reasoning are often used to prevent fair trade initiatives, or to defend the arms trade, or of land claims for oil, or for world trade tarifs… even down to the sort of tax systems that we think are fair, or…. or… or … we can fill in the gaps with our own experience.
Similar sort of arguments and reasoning are often used to prevent fair trade initiatives, or to defend the arms trade, or of land claims for oil, or for world trade tarifs… even down to the sort of tax systems that we think are fair, or…. or… or … we can fill in the gaps with our own experience.
In saying this I am not saying that all these issues are the same as apartheid… It’s just that, having been to the Apartheid Museum, you cannot help but make the connections between the recent history of humans in South Africa and the ongoing decisions which our governments and multi-national companies make - So what we vote for and support with our trade has a significance.
There is a hidden warning to us all here, to watch out for the deceitfulness of wealth and greed and to beware of the addictiveness of power and influence… in our private as well as community lives.
The museum also catalogues the resistance movements against apartheid, both in South Africa and elsewhere in the world. There are moving sections, including a room with hangman’s nooses in listing the names of the many people who died in custody or were executed in the course of their opposition to apartheid… The official causes of death recorded include entries like “fell against chair during interview and died from head injuries”
The museum journey also leads though the painful journey between 1990 with the release of Nelson Mandela and the end of apartheid and the 1994 elections when South Africa teetered on the brink of civil war. More people died in this period than in all of the previous era of apartheid.
The museum journey also leads though the painful journey between 1990 with the release of Nelson Mandela and the end of apartheid and the 1994 elections when South Africa teetered on the brink of civil war. More people died in this period than in all of the previous era of apartheid.
Yet one comes out of the museum with a sense of hope. This is because the script of the previous decades has dramatically changed, and since 1994 South Africa has defied the forecasts of doom and, against all the odds found a path of peace. The truth and reconciliation commission and the role of Archbishop Desmond Tutu is also highlighted.
For me all this speaks of God’s mercy on a whole nation. Many people worked and prayed for a peaceful way through the troubled times and, whilst the museum makes it clear that there is a long way still to go… a different and good future is possible for South Africa.
We also had time to visit Soweto and see the former homes of Nelson Mandela and Archbishop Desmond Tutu, as well as the Hector Petersen Memorial (a young school boy killed by police gunfire in 1976 as he returned from school – caught up in school pupil demonstrations against the education reforms which would make Afrikaans the language used for teaching them)
It was a long and tiring day, and Andrew and Sam toggled between shock at the information and being overwhelmed by the volume of it. But they did well.
If you ever have the chance to go to the apartheid museum… take it. www.apartheidmuseum.org It gives a sobering and important insight into South African history and into the pitfalls into which all humans and societies can fall.
Richard
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