The Apartheid Museum

Today we went to the Apartheid Museum in Johannesburg. When we bought our tickets to enter, we were each given a card that either said "Whites Only" or "Non-Whites". We had to use separate entrances based on our cards. We entered the museum and walked down separate hallways (depending on whether we were "white" or "non-white"). We eventually met up together and could walk through the rest of the museum as one group. Right from the start... wow. There are just no words.

The building of the museum feels cold - it is all concrete and filled with razor wire - so you sort of feel like you're in prison, or being interrogated, or just... unsettled. I suppose this echoes that time in history, in which case the museum does an excellent job of setting the mood. It was strange watching television clips of the apartheid government defending their actions, seeing footage of riots, hearing the testimonies of those who lived through those times.

The very last exhibit was current newspaper articles that related somehow to apartheid or equal rights. Today as we left there were articles about Barack Obama being elected President of the United States, and Nelson Mandela's congratulatory letter to him.

I haven't even begun to process my emotions from this experience, so I feel a bit scattered writing about it. Still, if you're ever in the Johannesburg area, you really must visit the Apartheid Museum.