January 11th - 12th - Johannesburg, South Africa

Monday, January 11th

This morning we got up and after breakfast we walked to the Gautrain station and went to Park station to catch the tourist bus again.  The ride to the Apartheid Museum took about an hour but seemed longer because we'd already heard all the stories yesterday.  Part way through the trip I started listening to the track for children and that was way more interesting and fun.  They actually do a really good job and the stories and gimmicks would keep most children interested - lots of corny jokes but it wasn't bad for adults either.  I kept laughing and everyone else who was on the serious channels kept looking at me and wondering what I was laughing about.  I did share a few of the jokes later.

The Apartheid Museum doesn't look very big from the outside.  It looks like a rather plain white building of different heights, but nothing huge.  There are high rectangular concrete pillars outside and each has one word written on it:  Democracy, Equality, Reconciliation, Diversity, Responsibility, Respect and Freedom.  These were/are the seven fundamentals of the South African constitution of 1996.  As you walk into the museum and start through it you realize it really is huge and could take you all day to see everything.  We didn't see everything, or at least didn't have time to read and listen to everything in the museum, but we were there for hours and it was all very entertaining.

When you purchase your entrance ticket it comes with a classification card to tell you that you have been classified as white or non-white.  Then you must use the appropriate entrance to get into the facility and view the first exhibition hall.  Two of us were non-white and one was white.  It was an interesting process and certainly had you wondering why you went that way and why and what you were missing on the other side, and that was certainly the intent.  During Apartheid, everyone was classified into one of four groups: white, native, coloured, Asian.  According to their classification they were allowed or restricted from doing certain things including going into some parts of the country or their city and being on the streets after certain hours.  Everyone was issued a pass card that they had to carry with them at all times.  The police could stop you any time and ask to see your card to ensure you were not breaking any of the restriction on your class.   And from those police checks came many of the people who were arrested and imprisoned in the cell blocks and jails on Constitution Hill, which we visited yesterday, and in other places.  The first exhibit, where we were separated due to class, talked about the classification system, some of the restrictions people experienced and showed a lot of the actual ID  cards.  It was shocking to see some of the differences and how segregated things were throughout the country.  

As you walked from that display to the entry of the main building, you passed an exhibit that showed how diverse the country was, particularly around Jo'Burg.  When gold was discovered in 1886, people from all over the world came to the area and the community truly was multi-cultural with a number of different races and cultures.  This was the start of what the government saw as a problem.  Segregation was developed by the government after 1910 when the Union of South Africa became a country and its purpose was to separate the races and it was met by much opposition, most of which was suppressed by violence.  Apartheid started after that and resulted in the removal of people from whole towns and communities to other areas to truly separate the different races.  And with all these movements, the situation for non-whites deteriorated while the whites prospered and controlled everything.  

Protests intensified in the '50's and 60's as groups such as the ANC were formed.  There was more violence and by the end of the 60's most leaders of the protest groups were in prison.  The exhibits in the Segregation and Apartheid sections showed what these periods meant in legal turns and how they affected the non-whites of the country.  The sections on the resulting protests and resistance movements seemed understandable given the situations that non-whites found themselves in, while the violence that met them was totally unbelievable.  Even peaceful demonstrators were beaten or jailed or killed.  It seemed like it would never end but it couldn't possibly get any worse.  Then the young Blacks got involved and somehow seeing all of the children really did make it all so much worse.  And hundreds of prisoners were tortured and executed (or supposedly committed suicide according to the government).  

It was definitely a bleak picture of South Africa as they entered the 70's and 80's.  The exhibits were excellent and told the story through pictures, newspaper stories, radio broadcasts, TV reports, etc.  The music of the decades and the sounds on the street accompanied you throughout the museum.  Quite frequently I'd identify with the song in the background and realize that all of what was in front of me was happening at that time when I was a teenager or an adult.  Some of the pictures I remembered seeing and some of the TV reports also looked familiar - certainly a lot of the players were known.  I certainly remember Mandela from an early age and Tutu was in Hamilton speaking when I was there studying.  His wife came to speak at the YWCA where I was staying and I remember going down to hear her.  It was quite interesting.

The world's response, or lack thereof, during the whole segregation and apartheid era was shown in the exhibits.  And finally, after wandering through years of struggle, you arrived at de Clerk's election as President in 1989, his discussions on apartheid and his freeing of Mandela from prison after 27 years.  It was an amazing although not always easy transition but eventually the situation did change.   Mandela's release in 1990 had a lot of coverage in the museum, as did the next four years when over 14,000 South African died from the protests and counter protests while the power players (including Mandela and de Clerk) negotiated a way to a new constitution.  Mandela's speech when he was released for prison asked the blacks to forgive the injustices of the past and move on, something that would be really hard to do, but his speech and his attitude probably helped to hold the country together during this period.

In 1994, all South Africans voted in the first democratic election within the country and the pictures of blacks lined up for miles, for some after having walked for miles to get to a polling station, were amazing.  We take the right to vote so lightly that most Canadians don't even vote.  Everyone of those who were now eligible in South Africa wanted to make their vote count.  In the end the ANC had 63% of the votes and the other black parties 31%, while the whites only had 6%, and Nelson Mandela became the first black president of South Africa.  Mandela was certainly the public hero of the story but there were a lot of other stories as well and you just couldn't read everything the museum offered.  And the Truth and Reconciliation Commission headed by Desmond Tutu was a big part of trying to bring the sides together with a better understanding of each other and the situation.

And of course the museum didn't gloss over the next decade or two either.  The way was not always easy and even now there are flare ups that make one wonder just how secure the country is from a racial standpoint.  The long weekend in January was when I was in Port Elizabeth.  The beaches were packed but basically with black people and only a few whites.  The picture on the front page of the major papers were of the beaches in Durbin and the situation was the same there, and someone made a very derogatory comment in the paper about getting all the blacks off the beach.  After that the follow-up comments in the media were very telling with people both in agreement and against.  The country seems peaceful but there is definitely still an undercurrent of hostility between the races.  And, from my personal observations only, I'd say the blacks are still more disadvantaged than the whites.  The whites took over the lands the blacks were removed from during apartheid and they developed it and then some sold it later so they all seem very rich.  They make disparaging remarks about the black politicians, including their current president, and how uneducated they are and don't know what they're doing but it was the policies of the whites that kept the blacks out of schools and gave them such an inferior education.  The system in place right now isn't perfect and it will take time to get it right, but in the mean time the "truce" is holding.  Hopefully it will continue to hold and improve in the near future.

After we each finished with the museum we gathered in the courtyard and decided to have a relaxing lunch under the trees before moving on.  Eventually we got back on the bus and rode around the rest of the route, then got back on the Gautrain and wandered home.  My knee was bothering me again after walking and standing around all day so I stopped at the apartment while the others went on to the corner shopping mall for coffee.  Luckily for me, they decided to bring home some dinner and we ate it at the apartment while we were visiting

Tuesday, January 12th

This was a lazy morning as we had some early rain and things were a bit wet.  We had our breakfast at the hotel restaurant  It's a good breakfast and the outside patio is quite nice with the trees and flowers around.  It's beside the pool but we've never found any time to make it there.  We might not have eaten at the restaurant at all but when Randy paid the original bill for the room the guy at the desk charged him more than he should have.  They don't want to refund the money so we get some free meals instead.  I think we had to have two mornings with the three breakfasts and then our account was settled.  That means we must have eaten here yesterday too!

After breakfast we walked down to the Standton Gautrain station and rode to the Rosebank stop to go to the Rosebank Mall.  We aren't big shoppers but they apparently have a large African market there and Fran wanted to buy some stuff.  The mall is large and spread out and the African market is not actually in the mall but just behind it so it took us a long time to find it.  It was large though with two floors of small stalls each crammed with African artwork.  And of course everyone of the individuals at the stalls said it was authentic and from their country.  Each stall was an individual from some African country, mainly in the south.  I could tell that much of it was indeed individual because, having been to several of the countries, they were noted for that particular artwork.   It was really interesting to see so many artisans in the one setting but having so many also made it really hard to say no to anyone.  However, I managed and escaped with no purchases.  Randy escaped much earlier than I did.  I'm not sure he even made it to the lower level.  Fran took a while but she eventually surfaced with no purchases although she was eager to go back.

We took a break and had some lunch a Ninos.  The restaurant was very busy but we got a spot out on the patio so the two smokers could have a cigarette or two.  The food was good and it was interesting watching everyone coming and going.  After lunch we went our separate ways and agreed to meet a few hours later at the Gautrain entrance.   Randy wanted to find some cigarettes and perhaps have a hair cut.  Fran wanted to go back to the African market and actually buy something.  I said I was just going to do some generally shopping but I did have one goal in mind.

I decided this was the time to get my hair cut so off I went in search of a hair salon.  It took a while but after talking to a lady in the elevator at the mall I went to her suggestion of Carlton Hair.  It looked good and the girl at the front was very helpful, although she did say I had to bring my own picture which I had not done.  And they didn't have many magazines with hairstyles so it was tough trying to find something in what general magazines they did have.  In fact, I think we only found four pictures in total with short hair.  Two of them were a bit longer than I wanted for our 30-day tour into the wilds of southern Africa.  Ulsan, the hair stylist, really liked the one shot and asked if she could really cut it that short.  I said yes and away we went.  It was a strange feeling as she cut the long pieces off but it also felt right.  She cut it and then kept cutting/trimming more as she finalized a style she liked.  It turned out really nice and the colour (original since I'd stopped colouring it last year) was quite nice as well.  It was mainly grey but part of it was pretty white and some of it quite dark.  It was a pretty nice mix and looked great the way she cut it which was really short in the back and on the sides, parted on the left and then longer going to the right that can be very neat or messy depending on my mood I guess.  I liked it and the reaction from Fran and Randy when I saw them was very positive, although they could hardly believe that I'd actually done it.  The last time I had short hair was over 45 years ago so I think a lot of people will find it hard to believe.

From there we we caught the Gautrain back to Sandton where we were to meet a friend for dinner.  Yoshi had been on our Spain/Portugal trip and we had a great meal and a great visit at a restaurant right on Mandela Square at the Sandton Mall.  After dinner, Yoshi drove us back to our apartment where we did some packing and went to bed early to prepare for an early flight to Cape Town in the morning.