It is under grey skies that remind us of Ethiopia that we leave Wilco and Necita’s house in Pretoria. In fact, we had to wait a few minutes for a quite hard spell of rain to stop! Wilco and his wife have been very hospitable and especially the fact that Wilco followed our progress very closely on this blog (we could hear from his questions that he read almost everything!) was very heart-warming!
And so we are heading back to Johannesburg again. Today we are going to bypass the city centre again on the way out to Soweto, but will turn off at the Gold Reef City amusement park. Now, before you think it is a day of leisure, this is where the Apartheid Museum is located and obviously this is our ultimate destination!
Apartheid is an Afrikaans word meaning “separateness” and is obviously the word used to describe the political policy of separating the white and black population of South Africa. It was conceived by the white National Party that came into power in 1948 and since then the black majority was ruled with an iron fist by the small white minority (not that the black majority had much rights even before 1948!). The Apartheid Museum is fairly new and through pictures, video clips and short explanations clearly illustrates this part of South Africa’s history.
Before the entrance to the museum you are faced with seven high concrete pillars. These pillars depict the seven pillars of the constitution namely democracy, equality, reconciliation, diversity, responsibility, respect and freedom. This, according to the museum, ensures equality within the New South Africa more so than any other constitution of any other country in the world!
The journey of how South Africa reached this constitution starts at the reception where we are handed a ticket each, one reading “whites only” and the other “non-whites only”. This ticket determines which entrance with the same label you are allowed to use as you enter the museum and is a real simulation of how it happened in Apartheid South Africa. Under this system the colour of your skin (clearly stated on your ID card) determined which bench you could sit on, which school you could attend and generally how much chance of success you could expect in life.
The first part of the museum shows the gradual process as one law (e.g. Land Act 1913, illegal for blacks to own land) after the other was passed to eventually arrive at the structured system of abuse and injustice against the black majority. Another example was the 1923 Urban Areas Act under which non-whites were only allowed to live in towns and cities if they were needed for labour. It is almost laughable when Dr.Verwoerd (the so-called architect of Apartheid) is shown in a video clipped explaining that Apartheid is misunderstood and that in reality it is nothing more than a concept of “good neighbourliness”!
Naturally, a big part of the museum is dedicated to the opposing of Apartheid. The major players are obviously the African National Congress (ANC) and its more radical branch the Pan African Congress (PAC) that formed the foundations of opposition as early as the 1920’s. They were of course banned (along with all black political movements) after the Sharpeville massacre and interestingly an interview with a very young Nelson Mandela in London is shown.
It is clear to see that the black population had an extremely tough time under Apartheid as they were basically forced to work for a pittance in the mines and live in appalling conditions in the townships. Also shown is the international condemnation of Apartheid and the support that the opposition movement got from the international community such as anti-Apartheid rallies in Trafalgar Square, London. Movingly, a section is also dedicated to the martyrs of the struggle. One such man was the 22 year old student, Steve Biko, the leader of the Black Consciousness Movement who were tortured and killed by the security police.
The last part shows the final years between 1990, when Mandela was released, to 1994 when the first fully democratic elections took place. This was a period of intense violence in the townships throughout the country and more than 14 000 people died in this period, many more than in the previous 4 decades of Apartheid! All this violence seriously threatened the good work of Codessa (Convention for a Democratic South Africa) of Nelson Mandela and the then president, F.W. de Klerk.
Despite this South Africa completed the long walk to freedom and pictures show the unbelievably long queues of people lining up to vote, most for the first time in their lives! The ANC won this election with a landslide 63% against the 20 % of the National Party. In the “Miracle and Beyond” section the whole process of the transition of power without the all-out civil war that was widely expected, is shown, making it a really unique case in Africa, if not the world!
To call what happened in this country a miracle is an understatement! It was commonly predicted that the white population will take up arms to defend what they see as their God-given right while everybody expected the black people to take revenge for the injustice inflicted upon them for so long. None of this happened and a lot of credit is due especially to the almost saintly Nelson Mandela who came out of prison after 27 years without a shred of hatred and with only the goodwill of his nation on his mind. In an incredibly balanced way he led the nation through this turbulent time, guiding them away from violence to the relatively stable environment today. Also, FW de Klerk (both him and Mandela won the Nobel Peace Prize) must get some of the credit as he, in a very far sighted way, knew that the time of minority rule was over and that it was time for sanity to prevail.
In today’s South Africa political complacency is the enemy. It is a very young democracy still with only the second fully democratic president at the helm. It will be very easy to break down everything that was so hard fought for in a very short time, the way it happened in Zimbabwe. It is here that places like the Apartheid Museum and Hector Pieterson Memorial have a big role to play in making sure that we never forget the past and use history to build a successful, peaceful future for all!
