Ready to go in....
The construction reminded me of the Holocaust museum or other Holocaust memorials I've been to....
Your ticket made you either 'white' or 'non-white', and then this would decide which path you travelled in the museum...
WONDERFUL concept, but it only lasts like 2 minutes and then that is over....wish it would have lasted longer, it would make a greater impact....
San or Bushmen drawings of early white settlers on cave walls....
First, we visited the exhibition about Nelson Mandela....
It was so interesting to learn more about his life....
I was just so touched at how he could have gone through all he did and emerge a loving, kind and generous person....amazing!
Don't know if this is the original (cuz it's signed in 1996 rather 1994), but this could be the original Springboks (SA Rugby team) shirt that Nelson Mandela wore per 'Invictus', etc...
Outside they had differently colored rods and quotes by Mandela which matched certain colors...
You were asked to choose one and then put it in these receptacles...
This is the one I loved, got teary-eyed at and chose....
Just the whole concept of not giving up on someone and how deep-down everyone is good and how forgiveness at times is the key to unleashing that good, etc....just love it, love it...
This was entrance to the part about Apartheid...
So interesting to watch how it....developed...it didn't just happen...you had the Dutch-descended Afrikaaners who tried to run away from the British in the 1830's (they looked like Mormon pioneers in covered wagons, etc.), then the British wanting/invading the Afrikaaner republics; the Afrikaaners fighting back; the Brits creating the first concentration camps for blacks and Afrikaaners....these Afrikaaners and blacks being forced off the land, into the cities, creating tension between black and Afrikaaners....Afrikaaners growing in their hatred of the British....the British passing laws (1910) which made 'reservations' for blacks, they could only own land and live there...and and and and....so sad to watch something develop that did so much damage to both victim and perpetrator...
This is the room where the names of political prisoners who died in prison were found...many of these prisoners would have 'suicide' as the cause of death, when it was found later on they'd been tortured by the South Africa police....(politcal prisoners were black, white, Indian, etc.)
I didn't understand the stones (if you have an idea let me know), but I liked this though...and I will say after travelling through South Africa it's how I feel - it's been a tough, hard road, but I feel SO positive about the future of South Africa! It has such GOOD and wonderful people that the future does not have to be grim....
The world with Jo'burg in the back...
Looking back over the remembrance gardens at the museum....
Thanks for teaching me so much Apartheid museum....and I am glad that Apartheid is over and done with!
