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South Africa Travel + Tourism Guide: Johannesburg's Apartheid Museum

Apartheid Museum

Jenny Hunter Blair

Apartheid is a complex topic. The history, development and demise of Apartheid was scrutinised from all aspects- physically, politically and socially, and this is reflected in The Apartheid Museum in Gold Reef City, Johannesburg.

The design is based on three ideas: the narrative reflecting apartheid as a bad memory, the linear taking the visitor on a historical voyage of discovery - a personal exploration into the past, lastly an emotional experience which lingers long after the visit has ended.

But the museum is more than architecture and design, it involves aspects of the human spirit. "Apartheid was an intellectual, physical and spiritual holocaust, with no respect for individual human life. The Museum exhibits form an essential component of the design and are an integral part of the building," says Sidney Abramowitch, architect and project director.

The exhibition spaces are kept minimal and rely on the concrete floors, the ceiling slabs, the off-shutter supports of rusting steel and the red brick, to provide a stark backdrop for the exhibitions.

Blown-up photographs - the largest is 17 x 5 metres - cover entire walls. Mounted on one wall is a blown-up photograph circa 1900, of about two hundred miners sitting on a mine dump in Johannesburg.

For the visitor to the museum the journey begins with the entrance ticket. An innocuous piece of paper which randomly classifies the visitor as either 'white' or 'non-white.' This creates an awareness of the restrictions enforced on individuals by the apartheid system.

There are two entrances to the museum - one for 'whites' and the other for 'non-whites'. Each ticket decides which entrance the visitor uses, depending on the random racial classification not on the visitor's colour. Apartheid raises its ugly head in a small inhumane way. The visitor moves onto to the Hall of Classification.

Walking through a narrow steel turnstile past large exhibits of white ID books on one side, one can see coloured faces on ID passes in the centre separating the white from the black. A feeling of restriction. Indignity. Anger. Inhumanity.

Back inside the auditorium, the museum narrative begins with a short film on the history of the era, next to more political exhibits.

The Museum's last exhibit is a metre high steel and glass cube which holds pocket sized books of the Constitution, and each visitor receives a free copy.

Finally a reflective space where the visitor can place a stone on a pile of other stones, to represent whatever they wish: bad memories, solidarity, forgiveness or simply peace. Visitors then exit the building via two different routes to the exterior, and this is where the separation ends.

This is one Museum that will have a major impact on all who come, and is well worth a visit. On reflection it makes one leave with the hope that no one will ever repeat this lesson of history.

The Apartheid Museum
Po Box 82283 Southdale 2135
Johannesburg
South Africa
Tel: 011 309 4700

Access

The museum is located on the corner of Gold Reef Road and Northern Parkway.

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