Where is the apartheid museum?
Where is the Apartheid museum? The Apartheid Museum is a museum next to Gold Reef City on the corner of Northern Park Way and Gold Reef Road, Ormonde, Johannesburg, South Africa.
What is Apartheid?
According to Wikipedia: Apartheid was a system of institutionalised racial segregation that existed in South Africa and South West Africa (now Namibia) from 1948 to the early 1990s –
About the Apartheid Museum
The Apartheid Museum was opened in 2001 and deals with history of 20th century South Africa , at the heart of which is the apartheid story, which is wonderfully told by this museum.
The Apartheid Museum is completely unique and illustrates the rise and fall of apartheid.
With the planning and design of the museum an architectural consortium, comprising several leading architectural firms, conceptualized the design of the museum building on a seven-hectare plot of land. The input from the exceptional talent from these firms created a great example of design, space and landscape as well as offering the international community a unique South African experience.
The museum also tapped the talent of a multi-disciplinary team of curators, film-makers, historians and designers to create the exhibits.
The horrific period of South African history know as Apartheid are illustrated by using provocative film footage, photographs, text panels and artefacts. All of these help to tell the human story of this period.
The museum construction was funded by a process in which the South African Gambling Board granted a casino license by way of a bidding process in which bidders had to demonstrate how they would attract tourism and thereby grow the economy and stimulate job creation.
In 1995 a consortium, called Akani Egoli (Gold Reef City), put in a bid that included the commitment to building a museum. With the success of this bid the Gold Reef City Casino was built and an adjacent piece of land given for the construction of a museum as well as the construction cost of R 80 Million paid by Gold Reef City.
The museum is a non-profit organization and registered as a Public Benefit Company with an independent board of trustees, the chairman of which is Dr John Kani.
The museum is operated independently of Gold Reef City and relies on donations, contributions and sponsorships to sustain its growth.
Mandela Exhibit
The Mandela Exhibit is a permanent exhibit at the museum and tells the amazing story of Nelson Mandela.
The story of Nelson Mandela is really the story of a struggle against the oppressive system of apartheid and Mandela has been central to every stage of this epic struggle.
Mandela was instrumental in formulating a new approach in the 1940’s to leading the masses in the 1950’s, forming the military wing of the ANC, Umkhonto we Sizwe in the early 1960s to his imprisonment for 27 years.
Mandela initiated and led negotiations in the 1990s, and served as the first president of a democratic South Africa. His major achievement is that of building a new and free nation from the fragments of conflict.
A visit to the Apartheid Museum should definitely be on your list should you really wish to understand South Africa and its difficult past as well as the hopes for the future.
Read more here: – https://www.apartheidmuseum.org/