The Apartheid Museum

~Brandon Carta~

Courtesy Photo / Brandon Carta South Africa has one of the most intriguing histories in the world that ranges from colonization, to the discrimination of a race, and then to empowerment. Below is a link to a timeline of South Africa that points out key dates in its nations history. (http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/africa/1069402.stm) This timeline is an accurate demonstration of the material we covered throughout this course. Facts and dates however do not explain the complexity of the apartheid regime. Apartheid was the system of segregation or discrimination on groups of race enforced in South Africa between 1948-1994. White men, who wished to gain racial superiority over other races, ran the apartheid government. They did this by creating laws that would prevent the empowerment of anyone other than a white male. So our classs first stop in South Africa was at the Apartheid Museum in Johannesburg, South Africa. The reason that our class visited this museum was because it allowed us to re-establish our knowledge of apartheid. As I walked around the museum I reflected on the fact that we knew all of the information that was there, and that it was more of a review then learning something for the first time. Here is the link to the apartheid museum website. Please have a first hand view of the museum and learn about its unique features. (http://www.apartheidmuseum.org/index-flash.html) At the beginning of our tour, each member of our group was given a card that said white or non- white. As we entered the museum we were directed to walk along whichever path was designated to us. Each path had pictures and videos that demonstrated what it was like to be a white or non-white during the apartheid era.

Images of oppression, segregation, and white superiority filled each path so that each of us could step into the shoes of a racial group. The two separate paths soon connected to an outdoor section of the museum. Here the museum started us on a path that was a living timeline of the apartheid history. The outside of the museum represented the precolonial apartheid era and it reminded us that we as humans are all originally African. The layout of the museum itself was very interesting, and as we made our way through the halls, each exhibit had its own special significance to the overall history. One of the most interesting parts of the museum made it so every group of people that was affected during apartheid was represented and no exhibit was more important than another. As we each made our individual journeys through the South African past, we were again reminded of the treacherous conditions that existed for all people of color during apartheid. The accompanying video depicts the images that were seen in the museum and why they were important to our study of the South African apartheid history. Although we had put hours and hours into the study of this history, this museum was a method that allowed us to rekindle the information we had forgotten and to remind us of why we were in South Africa. It was an important way to begin our journey to a country that would soon become a home to us all.