Events that changed a country

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Apartheid Museum

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Left for Joburg at 8:30 & picked up some passengers from other backpackers. It seems that the group from Lesedi last night were also booked on this outing, Holly from New York and Wes from Australia along with Gwen from NYC and a lady from Munich who was in SA doing research. Got stuck in rush hour traffic and was delayed for an hour.

Drove through downtown Joburg. It was a stark contrast to Pretoria. You did not see a white face on the street. According to our guide, François, it would be 10 minutes before one of us would be mugged (true or not, still a scary part of town). Too much history to write about apartheid, but the long and short is the codification of the most extreme form of apartheid (Afrikaans word for apartness) occurred in 1948. The museum begins with an outdoor exhibit about the origin of mankind in Southern Africa (San, Khoi Khoi) and the subsequent migration of Bantu speaking African from central Africa. Then the story of Jan van Riebeek and the establishment of the Cape Colony. Then a series of events that created white areas, homelands for the black Africans and eventually, the creating of townships near the major cities for cheap labor. The rise of the ANC and Nelson Mandela, jailing of said leaders, Then the watershed event that led to the repeal of apartheid laws... the 1976 Soweto Massacre (see next entry from Soweto Township tour). Violent uprising met with even more violent repression and then the writing was on the wall. The apartheid gov’t knew that change was inevitable, opposition parties were unbanned, Mandela was released from prison and SA has embarked on a journey towards democratic elections with Mandela becoming first president of post apartheid SA.

Entrance to the Apartheid Museum

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Did not want it to turn into a history lesson, but hard not to when you visit a museum. All in all a very moving experience.

Updated entry. Went on a tour of Soweto (South Western Townships). Quite a contrast from area to area.  It is not just a township be a series of 50 separate townships with a population of 1 million people (40% are unemployed). Visited Nelson Mandela, Winnie Mandela and Bishop Desmond Tutus homes. Townships supplied the cheap labor that big cities needed to run under apartheid. Not safe to be in for the most part. They are building a soccer stadium here for the World Cup matches in 2010. South Africa is really counting on the World Cup to vault them into an economically viable country and create a new image of their country.