Anti-Apartheid Museum

On Wednesday 7/25/07 we visited the Apartheid Museum in Jo'burg. The tone was set from the start of the tour when we were handed cards that let read either Black or White. Our guide let us know we would be considered either "black or "white" for the the remainder of the tour. "blacks" went through a tight entrance and immediately realized they were separated from the "whites" by a crude metal fence which ran from the floor to the ceiling. "Whites" walked comfortably up a ramp while "blacks" climbed steep steps. After a long day of walking and travel the point was driven home with force. Our guide warned us that some of the video clips we would watch would be extremely violent but urged us to endure them if we could so that we would better understand the level of conflict and tension during the anti-apartheid struggle. He had memories himself of running from large military type police trucks in Soweto and seeing a friend run over by one. What we saw in the clips was violent: people (men, women, and children) being beaten bloody with rods, 1 man being thrown from the top of a bus to the pavement below, a weeping woman uncovering bodies left on the side of a road after a peaceful demonstration turned violent, people being attacked by police dogs, hereded by the hundred into police vehicles. The similarity to footage from the U.S. Civil Rights/Black Power movement were immediately recognizable. EXCEL students sat in silence some shaking their heads in disgust, some looking angry, some sad, some expressionless as they processed what they saw and heard, all learning. Our guide talked about the importance of, even after all the violence, the need for reconciliation and ONE South Africa for all the people that Nelson Mandela advocated and the nation strives for today.

Prof. Rubin Patterson, UT professor of Sociology and Director of Africana Studies gave a lecture when we returned to the hotel to expand on what we had experienced that day, plug in a few holes, and compare it to experiences in the U.S. He talked about how many of the leaders of the Anti-Apartheid movement were in fact in contact w/members of the civil rights/black power movement in the U.S. and that they shared experiences and discussed ideas. They were also influenced by each others writings. One of the young lions of the apartheid struggle, Steve Biko, was educated at a U.S. university and studied our movement before going back to S. Africa. He was one of the most pivotal leaders of the movement until he was assainated in prison after long periods of torture. Dr. Patterson's lecture provided students time to process and critically analyze what we had absorbed during the day.