As usual, I start of writing a lot and it kind of peters out….. Here’s what we did after Cape Town.
We arrived in Johannesburg and noticed the difference immediately. It was cooler and the population seemed more African and less European. We stopped in an Arts district and I had an excellent lunch of African food. I tried some impala burger (which was tasty) and a had a traditional dish of pap - kind of like polenta or grits, sausage, spicy beans, and eggs. After that there was a wander through the neighborhood. I checked out the amazing graffiti, had some banana bread from a small shop and talked to the proprietor of The Bioscope Independent Cinema. We then went to the Apartheid Museum. Fun was over.
When you first walk through the entrance you get sorted into two categories white and non-white. This is reminiscent of the segregated South in America. As you enter you learn a little history of the first people’s to live in Southern Africa and how they were treated by the early Europeans (Portuguese then Dutch then English). Then there was large temporary exhibit on Nelson Mandela for his 100th birthday. A fascinating man with an incredible story. Then you learn the history of apartheid. It is unfathomable man’s brutality to man. That it happened after WWII and the Holocaust is inconceivable. If you want to see evil perpetrated by the state, apartheid is the poster child. I remember in the 80’s the boycotts and sanctions brought to bear on South Africa to make it change its ways. I never understood what apartheid was. It is racism and segregation on steroids. During our trip we heard personal stories of how apartheid affected people. How it kept a cheap labor force for the mines and fields. How families were torn apart by the system. How the system contributed to the South African AIDS epidemic. A later trip to the notorious Prison Number Four added another element to the story. Black men where jailed for not having their papers and what they suffered in the jail I won’t describe. But to think they suffered these cruelties, were released and then, knowingly, defied the authorities and were sent back to jail. To fight the injustice, knowing the hell you would return to took a bravery I am not sure I could muster. People’s dignity taken, their lives destroyed and yet, at the end, forgiveness and the forging of a new nation.
Between the gut wrenching trips to the Museum and the prison we toured Lilesleaf, the hideout for the ANC during the early 60’s. We learned a bit of Mandela’s time there and then about Umkhonto we Sizwe (MK), the arm of the ANC that was ready to commit acts of violence. The ANC realized that non violent measures would not work agains the Apartheid government and decided to add armed conflict to the struggle. The farm was raided and the entire leadership was arrested. Notes from Nelson Mandela were found and he was arrested later. The leaders were tried for treason in 1964 in what is known as the Rivonia trial. The planned armed insurrection did not occur (although violence was part of the struggle). Mandela gave his famous Speech from the Dock were he said that he was prepared to die for the cause of freedom. He and seven others were found guilty and sentenced to life in prison. The trial started to bring the world’s attention to South Africa. This was to be ramped up after the Soweto Student Uprising of June 16 1976 and the subsequent killing of school children including Hector Pieterson. We were lucky enough to hear from Hector’s sister as she described the events of that June day. Again, the story of the events is horrendous and the forgiveness that she shows remarkable.
This trip has been amazing. What I have learned is astonishing. The correlations to our country (past and present) is concerning. Ordinary people, fed up with an unjust society took a stand. Ordinary people (with some extraordinary leaders) took down that unjust society. South Africa has had and continues to have its problems but maybe, just maybe, they can figure it out and have a true rainbow country.
After the heaviness of the Apartheid Museum and the prison we went to a school in Johannesburg, but I’ll write about that another day.
As always, thanks for reading (and look up The Apartheid Museum, Lilesleaf, the Rivonia Trial and the Soweto Student Uprising).