A South-African journey: The apartheid museum and Newtown

Between Soweto and Jo'burg, an interesting and puzzling place is called Gold Reef. It is a theme park "a la Disneyland", with trains and so on, but the theme is here the age of gold mines (on which Johannesburg has built its wealth - and inequalities). I have not entered this park, but right next is the Apartheid museum.

Note : this post is kind of a "spoiler" ... If you plan to visit the museum one day, I would suggest not to read it. I think it's better to visit this museum not knowing what other visitors may have felt, and feel it for yourself.

Already at the entrance, you understand that it will not be a joyful visit.

The entrance of the museum : Whites enter on the left, Non-Whites on the right.

I was given a "non-white" ticket.

You enter from the gate corresponding to your ticket. The choice here is random - and so is life, isn't it ? The place you are born, the color of your skin, you don't choose this. The apartheid chooses for you what you can and cannot do. It seems nothing, in the context of the entrance of a museum, but when you enter, you take in the face all these signs that existed, as incredible as it may seem, until a few decades ago. I was born when apartheid was there.

Entrance of the museum.

At the end of the corridor, a large photograph of people, supposedly from some administration, or maybe doctors, and you understand that by passing by this gate, you would be controlled all the time. Do the white have the same ? Going on in this corridor, you see on the other side the white entrance. Does it have the same things inside ? You don't know, because you can't access it. A few meters further, both paths join and the visit is the same. But I felt frustrated to not see what is in the other side. A person entered at the same time as me in the non-white entrance, she was part of a small group. The two other ladies with her, and their (black) guide had been given a "white" pass and thus took the other entrance. I saw she also felt uncomfortable, and frustrated. I am sure we were both thinking "what is on the other side ? how can I go and check ?". In the museum, it would have been easy. In the real life of apartheid, back in those times, it would have been impossible. Trying to extrapolate my frustration and disgust to the people who lived and suffered from this, gives me a taste of what those times may have been. But I'm sure it was even worse that I can imagine.

The visit goes on.

Apartheid museum.

All people ultimately are African. A reminder that the "cradle of mankind" is close to Jo'burg.

The museum then contains a nice (but temporary) exhibition dedicated the the local icon Nelson Mandela, and many testimonies of these times. You finish the visit with a strange taste in the mouth.

The Mandela exhibition.

List of suicides ...

"Architects of segregation : Jan Smuts and J.B.M. Hertzog". Both have avenues with their name.

Unfortunately, photos are forbidden inside the museum. I managed to take a picture of the famous and disturbing room with the 131 ropes, symbolizing the political executions during apartheid.

131 ropes. 131 executions. 131 dead.

After the museum, you need fresh air and you can walk in the small park close-by. If you have the strength to enjoy anything, then you can enjoy the view on the city. In the foreground, you can see the theme park. All along the visit, you hear the sound of people having fun there. Disturbing.

View of Johannesburg from the apartheid museum.

After this, I went to the city center to visit the Museum Africa, located in Newtown. Newtown is a recently renovated part of the city. The people who were squatting there have been moved. Of course, the law forbids now to simply tell people to leave : an epidemy of cholera gave the authorities a (good, somehow) pretext to move these people, destroy the area, and take it over. The area is now nice, but the museum much less interesting that the apartheid museum.