"Apartheid is exactly where it belongs--in a museum"

We spent our post-celebration downtime by asking our favorite Arrive Alive driver Collen to take us to the Apartheid Museum, a renowned South African attraction in Ormonde. We left the suburbs and headed south, past the huge skyscrapers of greater Johannesburg.
South Africans show national pride in numerous ways, from the flags, jerseys, and car decorations already mentioned, to the windows of the skyscrapers in the photo above and the painted freeways pictured below.

The museum does not allow photography once inside, so what appears in the blog here only represents the beginning of our experience. I will say, however, that the issue of apartheid in South Africa is immensely complex once one moves beyond the principle of segregation. The museum seeks to educate visitors on pre-apartheid conditions, including the history of South Africa's gold boom of the late 19th and early 20th century, its subsequent patterns of immigration, and mandated segregation and forced removal that ensued. It moves through emergent nationalist policies, the secularist regimes, and the political and social injustices, all the while emphasizing the oppression and tyranny embedded in the country's history.

We moved through this cavernous museum feeling both informed and overwhelmed--not due to the manner in which the attractions were designed to educate, but in the amount of information the museum sought to include. The site also boasts a wing dedicated to the life of Nelson Mandela, including the details of his 27-year imprisonment and the impact of his release and eventual peace negotiations on South Africa and the world.

Steph approaching the pillars outside the Apartheid Museum. Each includes a word: Democracy, Equality, Reconciliation, and Diversity.

Also outside, the quote from Nelson Mandela reads: "To be free is not merely to cast off one's chains, but to live in a way that respects and enhances the freedom of others."

A park bench designated "Europeans Only."

You enter by choosing one of two absolutes. Ben contemplates the impossible: Which entrance does a half-Asian, half-European use?

We ended up rushing through some of the later exhibits because of a pre-arranged pickup with Collen at 3:00. It's safe to say that if you find yourself in Jo'burg, dedicate a good portion of the day to the Apartheid Museum. Not only should guests of the nation understand the (recent) history of the country, but the museum allows its visitors an opportunity to contemplate the ways in which humans have tried and failed to justify their ignorance.