Catching up Part 7-The Apartheid Museum

February 7, Thursday
I started journaling this date with “I have not been able to journal and don’t know where to start.  There have been so many experiences my mind is a little overwhelmed and what I have written is only  1/10 of what I have seen, felt, and done.  So much of what I have written in this blog has had to be filled in from sketchy notes and some emails I briefly wrote to friends and family."

And then today I went to the Apartheid Museum- overwhelm!!  I guess I will start with, it is very well and artfully done.  They have a brochure that tells you how much time it will take if you take the short route or the long route.  They tell you it will take extra time if you see the temporary exhibit.  Did I look/listen/learn?  No.  I just immersed myself.  So I saw about 1/3 of the museum and pretty much only the temporary exhibit.  I love museums and I love to learn.  I had to read and see everything of course.  There is so much to learn.  There are no photos allowed in the museum and I think you have to experience it to really get the flavor, but here is a brief tour.

It begins with very stark and dramatic rockscaping and architecture.  The pillars of the constitution, a quote by Nelson Mandela. "For 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."  (We cannot be free until all are free.)

Then you enter one of the two gates.  One marked for whites/Europeans, one marked for non-whites/coloureds.  Depending upon the ticket you got- issued randomly, you can enter.  Later you learn the randomness of the classification of people, and the insidiousness of a system that tries to classify people, and pidgeon hole them so that some have opportunities and others are limited by the color of their skin, the country of origin, the language, the parents, the neighborhood, the religion, the gender, the age, the sexual orientation, the perceived ability or disability… whether those in power like you or not, and whether they feel fear or greed or selfishness or self-righteousness…

I have now been to the museum twice.  Believe me, although both of the experiences are stark with gates and fences and signs and identifications, one is much, much more so and the former folks get a nice sloping ramp to walk up, the latter climb (the back) stairs. 

Then there are mirrors with the backs of people of different shapes and sizes and colors and one that reflects your image so you get the feeling of joining the flow of people.  Along the side are side cut outs in the walls with pictures of art of the original people and a picture of an ancient skull. 

The sign tells us human life began here and...  We are all African.

At the top is the view of Johannesburg.  The city where so many people came, drawn by gold, drawn by jobs, drawn to life when the drought and depression came.  You can see the top of the old gold shafts and the new gold mines/skyscrapers of capital investment houses. 

Outside the entrance to the inside of the museum

Inside the display starts with a movie on the peoples before the gold rush in the 1880s.  Then there are displays telling you the stories of the figures of the people in the mirror who you walked up the ramp with, people of all origins, ethnicities, languages, people who have passed and people who are living today.  Very powerful.  This is where I ended up in the temporary exhibit of on the life of Nelson Mandela.  I could have seen it twice.  Pictures, and videos and displays and words.  I missed the main part of the museum completely.  So much to see and learn.  I ran out of time.  I will be back.

Later I found there are people here who have never been to the museum- some don’t need to go, they lived it.  And listening to different stories is very interesting.  Some say there are pieces and people and stories missing in the museum.  Some say some other things should also be emphasized.  It is like what I learned before visiting Israel and Palestine.  You cannot ask to learn the two sides to the story, there are as many stories and as many sides as there are people.  Each person has a unique and important perspective and experience of what they know to be true, and we all need to listen and listen well to each other, to hear each other into being, and to hear each other into relationship with us.  Amen. We are God’s children, precious each and every one.