First trip to Jozi

Mostly guest written by Mma Jossie

Only forty minutes away by car (traffic permitting), the hustle and bustle of Jo'burg has seemed a bit daunting until now. With more than three million residents, it has been rated the most sinful of all South African cities. Amira, a Sudanese architecture professor with an interest in high density social housing, picked us up early and guided us to our first stop: the Apartheid Museum. The museum is adjacent to Gold Reef City, a bizarre combo casino and adventure theme park, but the contrast fades as you enter the museum’s courtyard and are immediately drawn in-- seeing your own reflection in the mirrored images of a diverse collection of people staggered along the gravel walk to the entry fountain. Seven concrete pillars announce the foundations of South Africa’s new constitution: democracy, reconciliation, equality, responsibility, diversity, respect and freedom.

At admission visitors are randomly given “white” or “non-white” passes, and must enter accordingly through a hall of pass cards, enlarged to poster size. These were the identity cards that classified people according to race. Beginning with the premise of segregation, you ascend the hall to a roof top overlook, then back inside as the museum twists through the various phases of the Apartheid era, placing the story in historical context. The rough and simple material palette: concrete, stacked stone, wire mesh, presents the powerful story within a context of human scale details, and refined through often uncomfortable transitions. A film in one of the museum’s theaters traces intercultural relations from South Africa’s earliest people the San, the Khoi San and the Zulus through Dutch settlement, English investment and expansion and industrialization. The Zulu and Anglo Boer Wars set the stage for the violent era of Apartheid.

Multimedia displays including photography, video, memory/collection boxes, newspaper clippings, and sculptural installations, depict the oppression and struggles of the Apartheid through historical phases characterized by cycles of ever more repressive legislation in the face of organized protests, youth uprisings, and the steadfast work of the ANC leaders in the struggle for freedom. A room of 131 nooses represents the fate of those that died in detention. With great emotion, you arrive at a TV displaying de Klerk’s historic pronouncement of the end of the ban on the ANC and other political parties, and the release of Nelson Mandela and other political prisoners.

The next display, of the period following the release of Madiba, and preceding the first fully democratic election, showed how precarious a time this was for ZA, and with the election the rebirth of ZA and acceptance into the world community.

After this emotional encounter with South African history, and a walk through the museum garden, we headed into Fordsburg, Jo’burg’s vibrant Indian district, for what else: lunch. After some tasty Indian delicacies, we got to stroll through the market and explore things that middle easterners like to buy, Bollywood films, fragrant spices, colorful and sparkly materials, skewered meats, Muslim children’s storybooks. Quite a lot for a small market, really.

We finished up our first tour of Jozi with a walk around Newtown, a revitalized industrial neighborhood in the inner city, around the historic Market Theater, Museum of Africa, with view of the downtown beyond. Being Sunday, the district was unusually quiet. But there are lots of cool murals, and street art (see pix) to keep things lively. We finished up our trip with some juice at a hip little café, and back through the traffic to PTA.