Apartheid Museum takes you down memory lane

MAUREEN ODUBENG
Staff Writer | Friday August 29, 2008 00:00

 

So if you want to take a walk down memory lane, especially in South Africa, then the place to be is the Apartheid Museum, which is located on Northern Parkway and Gold Reef Road, in Ormonde, Johannesburg.

Opened in 2001, the Apartheid Museum documents both in visuals and written summaries, South Africa's apartheid era from 1948 up to the historic release of Nelson Mandela who became the first black South African president after the 1994 all-race elections. Segregation was a very prominent part of the South African apartheid system. And interestingly enough, the museum still has signs for whites and non-whites entrances (something that was the norm in the dark days of apartheid South Africa), and the cards issued arbitrarily actually do emphasise, which entrance one is allowed to use to enter (and can only be permitted to enter through that door). In its own way that is a creative way of documenting that part of South African history. Right inside the museum a number of identification cards that classify the race of the cardholder are displayed. Racial classification has been documented as the foundation of all apartheid laws. On the identification cards individuals are placed under one of four groups, these being 'Native', 'Coloured', 'Asian', and 'White', and these identification documents were the main tool used to implement racial segregation policies. While the museum is rich with the history of South Africa the one that struck me as a first-time visitor, is the display on one of the most celebrated anti-apartheid heroes - Steven Bantu Biko, whose short life touched many lives and made a huge difference in freeing South Africa from the clutches of apartheid. A fairly big space is dedicated to Biko, and his life is shown both in visuals (pictures) and a few words, which describe what was happening at the time. Born on December 18, 1946, in King Williams Town, in the Eastern Cape, Biko showed a devotion to anti-apartheid politics at a very early age, and the exhibit takes you through his life as a student to the time he met his death in a Pretoria prison cell on September 12, 1977.

Still on the same section, the visuals show the founding of the Black Consciousness Movement in South Africa, for which Biko has been credited as the founder and martyr. Black Consciousness Movement gave voice to a philosophy of black psychological emancipation, black pride and black self-assertion, one of the earliest challenges to apartheid. The museum also has a total of 131 nooses, which symbolise 131 government opponents executed under apartheid's notorious anti-terrorism laws. The nooses will give any person chills. There is yet another section that depicts the horrific events of the apartheid era. The racist regime at the time claimed that many of its victims committed suicide in detention. On the same side, there are a number of prison cells, very small even, for one person to occupy. The cells do not have any roofing - and that apparently is the way the cells looked in those days as prisoners were tortured and left in pouring rain, thereby exposing them to diseases such as pneumonia.  Other visuals that the visitor will come across at the museum are the June 16 protests, a day in African history that will never be forgotten for generations to come. The protests led to many young people losing their lives at the hands of the Afrikaner police. It goes on to show the transition from apartheid South Africa, with the roots of compromise, and the actual release of Mandela on February 11, 1994, after 27 years in prison, which is shown on video. On April 27, 1994 South Africans of all races held the first democratic elections, and for black South Africans (including those classified under minority racial groups) it was the first time to vote in a national election. This, too, is well-documented at the museum.