Ivor Markman

By Ivor Markman.

 

A few years ago Johannesburg’s award winning Apartheid Museum was opened with displays paying tribute to people such as Nelson Mandela, Govan Mbeki, Ray Mhlaba, Walter Sisulu, Robert Sobukwe, Steve Biko, and many others.

After years of conflict and discrimination an atmosphere conducive to the emergence of strong leaders was created.

From this desperate pit of humiliation men arose who sought ways to improve the lives of their people.

Starting with the confiscation of their land way back in the 1830’s, blacks, coloureds, and people of Asian decent were marginalised and turned into second-class citizens in their land of birth.

Their protests fell on deaf ears and they became more and more desperate, finally resorting to violence. 

The Johannesburg Apartheid Museum was created to document this terrible period of South Africa’s history and has coined the appropriate slogan “Apartheid is where it belongs - in a museum”.

For those old enough to remember the apartheid era, it’s a strange and eerie feeling to be issued with a ticket labeled with one of the old race classifications and to proceed through one of two entrances, marked “Blankes, Whites” and “Nie-Blankes, Non-Whites” into the museum complex.

Seven tall concrete pillars, symbolising democracy, equality, reconciliation, diversity, responsibility, respect and freedom stand silhouetted against the sky outside the main building.

Once past the pillars, the passage leading to the building passes high walls, constructed with rock filled wire cages, symbolic of tall prison walls.

Images of South Africans, from a wide range of backgrounds, are stuck onto mirrors. As you pass, you see your reflection, a symbolic reminder of the part you played.

The many displays inside the museum each illustrate a different aspect of apartheid. For example, the introduction of the infamous “dompas” (stupid pass) and the forced relocations.

A huge picture shows police standing by while residents at Sophiatown load their belongings onto trucks for removal to Soweto, the then new location built by the apartheid government to implement their segregation policies.

The designers of the museum have creatively constructed passages out of wire cages and on the wire walls are photographs showing the adoption of the Freedom Charter, taken on June 26, 1955, at a sports field in Kliptown where the Congress of the People was held. 

The police were there - as expected - seizing documents and photographing people.

The following year 156 members of the Movement were charged with treason.

Tour guide Virginia Thobela related to a group of people how a colleague’s uncle and friend were stopped by the police one day. 

“They were very poor and only one of them was wearing boots.

"They were way too big for him and after their “dompas” was found to be in order the police said they were going to arrest him because his boots were obviously not his and were therefore stolen.

"His friend sighed with relief because he had no boots and he thought he would not be arrested.

"Then the policeman turned to him and said ‘You have no boots.

"That means you are going to steal some so I must arrest you as well!"

At this point Thobela paused and studied the picture of Walter Sisulu burning his dompas and Nelson Mandela preparing to burn his as well.

Elsewhere, hanging from the ceiling are 133 nooses, each one representing a life ended by the State.

One of those executed was Solomon Mahlangu.

A poster with his words “Tell my people that I love them and that they must continue the struggle” hangs on a wall.

He was hanged at Pretoria Central prison on April 6, 1979 after being found guilty of the 1977 Johannesburg murder of two men.

Police attempted to arrest him and two others, Monty Motloung and George "Lucky" Mahlangu, in a Johannesburg street, but the trio split up. 

A gun battle ensued during which two white men were killed and two others wounded. 

George Mahlangu escaped.

Although Motloung fired the fatal shots, Mahlangu was charged with the murders and found guilty.

The shooter received such severe head injuries from the onlookers and police at the scene that he was declared mentally unfit to stand trial.

Mahlangu was later found guilty and sentenced to death.

He was executed after numerous pleas for a stay of his sentence were refused.

In another display, Minister of Justice Jimmy Kruger’s shocking reaction to news of Steve Biko’s death in detention is replayed on video:

“On the night of 12 September, 1977, Mr Biko was found dead in his cell.

"I never at any stage said what Mr Biko died of.

"I don’t know what he died of . . . his death leaves me cold!”

A poster on the wall disclosed how, in 1985, the Minister of Home Affairs, Mr Stoffel Botha disclosed that during 1985: 702 Coloured people turned white, 19 Whites became Coloured, one Indian became White, and three Chinese became White.

Fifty Indians became Coloured, 43 Coloureds became Indians, 21 Indians became Malays, 30 Malays went Indian, 249 Blacks became Coloureds, 20 Coloured became Black, two Blacks became “other Asians,” one Black became Griqua, 11 Coloureds became Chinese, three Coloureds went Malay, one Chinese became Coloured, eight Malays became Coloured, three Blacks were classed as Malay, no Blacks became White and no Whites became Black.

The Star newspaper dubbed these people “chameleons”.

A moving display deals with the negotiation of the new South African Constitution.

A large room is divided into two sections. 

On one side visitors can hear delegates to the negotiations while in the other room, seen through the windows, are three large screens showing the scenes of extreme violence which were occurring at the same time.

There are tons of interesting facts on display at this fascinating museum.

Too many, in fact, to relate them all here, but there is one you should be aware of as you exit the museum.

A special pit was dug into which visitors are invited to cast a stone as a commitment to fight racism and discrimination wherever and whenever it is found. 

 

All Text and Photographs: Copyright Ivor Markman 2013.