Day 111: Apartheid Museum — Soweto — Braai at Kath and Matthew Rattray’s
Writing this on Saturday morning, April 27. It’s Freedom Day in South Africa. Shout out on the Google home page…
Google also told me that, “Freedom Day is an annual celebration of South Africa’s first non-racial democratic elections of 1994. Peace, unity, the preservation and the restoration of human dignity hallmarks Freedom Day celebrations on the 27th of April of each year.”
This is also our last full day in South Africa after spending the better part of two months here. We will have spent more time here than in any other country this year. And it feels like we’ve learned so much and yet know so little. It’s a really interesting place with a complex history needless to say.
Yesterday was a busy and fulfilling day and we learned more about this complex history.
Margaret and I both worked out at nearby Planet Fitness in the morning. It’s a massive health club complex with a pool, indoor track, studious for classes and various health related retail. Margaret took a spin class and there were only three other women in the class.
After breakfast we were picked up again by our driver Andrew and new bff / tour guide Bongani.
First stop was the Apartheid Museum.
We had two hours allotted and but realistically needed 2x as long to get the full experience. It was educational, stunning, terrifying, infuriating and inspiring all at the same time.
Margaret put it in the same category as the Holocaust Museum in DC and the 911 Museum in NYC. I embarrassingly haven’t been to either. But I’ve been to the Hiroshima Memorial Museum in Japan and it has a similar emotional impact.
The “Permanent Exhibition” link on their website explains the chronological flow of the museum and is an abbreviated history lesson by itself.
It’s hard to pick a highlight but Margaret and I agree the most memorable exhibit featured the photographs and writing from Ernest Cole’s, House of Bondage: A South African Black Man Exposes in His Own Pictures and Words the Bitter Life of His Homeland Today.” Cole was South Africa’s first black freelance photographer. The book was published in 1967 when he was 27 years old. More about Cole here.
We had barely left the museum parking lot and Margaret had already purchased House of Bondage on Amazon, being shipped to DC. Check it out Jim and Llewellyn!
We were worried the kids would be miserable at the Museum but we were pleasantly surprised. We brought the stroller for James and he just chilled, playing a little word game for most of the time. Willa walked along with us, listening to our explanations and watching some of the videos. She was also entertained by these educational comic books that were available for kids.
After the Museum we drove to Soweto — the largest township in South Africa. I was picturing a bigger version of the township we toured in Cape Town. But Soweto has a population of 3 – 4 million (!) and is basically a city all by itself. It’s got a full range of socio-economic levels, from squatters in shacks to middle-upper class in four room homes. They have their own soccer stadium. Apparently the city stops when rivals East and West Orlando battle it out
First top in Soweto was the Hector Pieterson Museum.
Hector was one of the school children shot and killed by police during the Soweto Uprising on June 16, 1976. More on Hector and the Museum here.
We didn’t actually go into the museum. But somehow Bongani managed to get Hector’s sister Antoinette to give us a private 20 minute recap of the student uprising in 1976 from her perspective. It was pretty incredible to hear it from her, especially after two hours in the Apartheid Museum. Emotional and memorable.
Antoinette is on the left in this famous photo of Hector being carried on the fateful day.
We then made our way over to Vilakazi Street, where both Mandela and Desmond Tutu lived at one point. It’s a bit of a tourist trap now, with a bunch of bars and restaurants and guys selling various hats, t-shirts and trinkets. We enjoyed a dance performance from these guys.
We had lunch with Bongani at Restaurant Vilakazi. Margaret and I shared the Boerwors (“Traditional beef sausage chargrilled served with pap, chakalaka and spinach) and the Mleqwa “(chicken) cooked the African way flavoured with minimum spice.” The kids shared a cheese and tomato toastie and chicken wings.
We stopped by a little art studio organized by one of Bongani’s friends. It’s designed to introduce kids the arts but also keep them out of trouble. We walked in and there were about 15 kids working on different projects and no adults in sight. A couple kids showed us their work, including this guy who, after searching for his favorite pieces ran to track us down as we were leaving.
We were home by around 4:15 and said our goodbyes to Bongani.
After our dropoff were were talking about how much we love Bongani, continuing our attempts to convince Willa and James that the historical / city tours can be fun. Referring to Bongani and Boris, our guide at Machu Picchu, Willa said, “Boring talk but sometimes they’re fun.”
We made a quick turnaround and then headed over to Kath and Matthew’s house for a braai. Kath is a close South African friend of Margaret’s from Vanderbilt. Their kids are Annabelle (9) and William (7).
They *just* moved into a fully renovated, gorgeous new house only about five minutes from our hotel.
Annabelle and William are mature, polite and were super nice to Willa and James. They have a big grass yard (plus a pool, tennis court, fire pit, etc) and the kids had a blast playing nerf guns, a baseball / cricket game and throwing the ball for their Golden Retriever, Poppy. Their Jack Russel, Tiger, was more interested in the filet on the grill and biting at Poppy’s ankles.
With the kids occupied we got plenty of time to catch up with Kath and Matt — covering our trip, kids and careers. We also continued our learning about South Africa — people, culture, language, etc.
Few funny things: Kath told us her fave Afrikaans phrase, “Ja well no fine” which they say when asked “How are you?” It means “I’m not bad, but I’m not good, but I’m good.”
More interesting, James fully milestone’d at this dinner party — a little boy who started 2019 super quiet and babyish took the mic in front of a bunch of new people and regaled everyone with the story of how the leopard we saw in Timbavati was born on the property where we stayed and often returns.
We were speechless.
We had to drag the kids away around 9pm. Everyone collapsed in bed when we got home.
It was a memorable day and a really fun night.
