Chris explained that after the fall of the Apartheid government, most businesses moved out to the North and the cities fortunes declined.  The Government has turned to the arts to revitalize downtown and a centerpiece of this effort is the Market Theatre complex.  These photographs are from the day's tour and that evening we returned to experience the nightlife. 

APARTHEID MUSEUM OPENS IN SOWETO

At the ticket office, we paid 20 rand, about two dollars and got our first small taste of the system of segregation - we were each issued a card - reading Blanks/Whites or Nie-Blankes/Non-Whites. 

The cards were arbitrarily handed out, meaning a white could receive a "black" persons card and vice versa. After passing through a courtyard, we reached the entrance turnstiles where we were separated according to "race."  This lead us to a long narrow outdoor ramp that runs the length of the museum, symbolizing the migration of peoples to Johannesburg.

Although still outside, the high walls block the surrounding area, only the sky is visible above adding to the feeling of transition. At the top one can turn and view the "city of gold" before descending a curving staircase to the interior galleries, 6,000 sq meters of interrelated spaces with narrative exhibitions.

The exhibitions take you chronologically through the history of apartheid, from the discovery of gold to the post-election period. We were free to absorb the experience at our own pace but at the beginning of each new section we were met by a new guide who detailed what we were about to see. 

Exhibits were entitled "Union/disunion," "The rise of nationalism,"  "Sharpeville, Langa and the Rivonia Trial," "Political executions", the 80's and the elections.

Union/Disunion, for instance, explains how blacks were removed from the land on which they lived into areas such as what was to become Soweto but at the time was barren land.

This happened as the result of the "discovery of gold" in the Witswatersrand area and the rush of immigration that followed. This policy culminated in the land act of 1913 which restricted black "ownership" of land to 8 percent of South Africa's territory. Which led to the formation of the South African Native Congress, forerunner of the African National Congress.

The exhibits are constructed from photographs, text panels, artifacts and film footage. One of the highlights for me was a news interview with Winnie Mandela getting her response to the sentencing of her husband to a life sentence.

The design of the museum's interior spaces is more than metaphoric, making it seem like the viewer is in prison. Exhibits placed inside wire mesh and metal display cases form maze-like aisles. As you move along, other sections of the museum are visible and audible through the mesh, heightening the sense of separation.

People in the 60's/House of Bondage section can be seen through the Bars of the Sharpeville to Rivonia section. When we reached the section describing the deaths of three activists in police custody our guide gleefully closed us in our own solitary confinement cells, which even for a few moments is a terrifying experience. She herself was held in such a cell as a student activist.

It has only been seven years since the historic elections that ended the apartheid regime and inaugurated Nelson Mandela as prophesied by Winnie many years before. I was extremely lucky to be there with Evelyn Dlamini, who shared her experience of voting for the first time, and whose memories of the final years of apartheid were vivid.

Goitsemang on the other hand was more introspective. Being only 21, he was too young to be involved in the struggle, but can imagine him there as he is on the front lines of the current struggle against HIV/AIDS. We all agreed the experience was powerful, not be missed by visitor or local resident.

The final stop is the deposition studio where you are invited to share you experience of apartheid of the museum on videotape or paper. The museum incorporates these testimonies on monitors in the exhibit, giving the viewer input on the content of the museum.