Tag: museums

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Apartheid museum

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Gallery of Images taken from Apratheid Museum in Johannesburg.

It is Travel Tuesday. During this time, where we are not allowed out of our homes let alone the country, I want to take this opportunity to share some of my jaunts around the world.

Now you wouldn’t think that it could ever be normal to arrive at a museum, be given a ticket telling you which side of the fight you were on, and then be given a different entrance depending on that ticket.

At the apartheid museum in Johannesburg this is exactly what happens. As you can see from the gallery above.

This museum takes you through life during the apartheid both sides of the story, no holes barred, the full gruesome history that it is. The highs and the lows. Upon entering you walk through an outside area with glass boards (for want of a better word ) With people so you are walking with them up to a view over Johannesburg and the surrounding area. Each of these people have a story that connects them to the fight, whether it be family members for themselves. George Bizos is one of them, a Greek immigrant, who joined Mandela’s legal battle in his fight for freedom.

Inside the museum you walk through the history of the oppression and the apartheid, with interactive galleries available as well as boards and images. Some images have been created such a so many hangmans noose hanging from the ceiling to signify the people who died for the cause. Videos from different massacres all over the country.

The museum itself it quite quiet other than the hub bub of the usual noise of people passing through. There are headphones to hear different testimonies, and in the galleries with videos, the video is hushed.

I do not want to ruin all of the museum for you but I am not going to lie to you, it is a heart wrenching museum, I spent 2.5 hours there looking through. I could not take in even half of the information before I had to leave, and yet I still cam out having learnt so much and yet feeling as through I have not scratched the surface of this great topic.

I would seriously recommend this museum to everyone who visits Johannesburg, it is on the Hop On Hop Off bus route so easy to get there and back from the city. There is a shop and a lovely cafe at the end of it, with outdoor seating if the weather is good. You can even tag it on with a visit to Soweto to see Mandela house and there are plenty of other museums to help you understand this era of history throughout the city.

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Slave Lodge

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Okay….so history nerd is going to come out here so please bear with me.

Location; Corner of Adderly and Wale Street, CBD.

Opening hours: 9-5 every day (except Sundays: closed)

Entry: R30.

So. The title of this blog kind of what this building used to be. It was where the Dutch East India Company used to keep their slaves before deporting them. As with many of these lodges the conditions were next to awful to say the least! After its horrible beginning this building became a court house as well. Ironic I think.

So you walk into an open space with 5 walls with the overarching explanation of slavery in the Cape. It also interestingly goes into the modern day international equivalents.

You start on left side, with a film that goes through the basic history, the room next door discussing the archaeology of the building: what they found and as a result what they were able to deduce from this.

As you move through, you find the drawings and etchings to Brookes Ship and other slave ships, the conditions. Even this mock up (see above) of the ships itself – this is not to scale. Various documents are featured throughout explaining how slaves were treated and what the conditions were on the ships. Ships logs and reports are just one way of explaining the situation that occurred on these ships.

As you walk through you follow the story of these slaves, the different places they went to, and/or came from. The exhibitions are spacious and easily laid out to understand everything. It is a nice place to meander through and read as much or as little as you would like.

The image above was one that was poignant to me, these are the name of those slaves that died that we know the name of. There of course millions more, thrown from boats, never named, disappeared, and many more reasons. To see their names and the diversity of their names jut proves how many countries were involved in this part of history. Named after the months they were sold, or they arrived, surnames of their first masters, who knows where some of the names came from.

The image above is a calendar. They found people with the surnames of each month, and brought them together. Something amazing has happened to these people they are proud of their surname, that their ancestors have been such a large part of history. They see themselves as the reminders of what has been and therefore what shouldn’t be repeated. Such an extraordinary exhibit.

As you move through the different rooms. You get to see cases of other artefacts that have landed in Cape Town, from all of over the world. Demonstrating the reach of this port and the number of people that used to come through this “rest” and refuel station.

This demonstrates the space the Slave loge used to occupy and an old plan of the lodge itself.

After doing the downstairs, you are best moving upstairs where there are temporary exhibition spaces. At the moment, they have one of ancient Egyptians and another for apartheid music alongside their permanent spaces for the collection of silver – most from the colonial period. Surprise surprise.

The music during the Apartheid exhibition caught my eye and therefore I m going to focus on this, rather than do a little on all of them. I hope you don’t mind.

Apartheid… now to me the first thing I think of is not music. Apparently I am wrong in this assumption – who knew.

Music was a massive way of rebellion in South Africa, throughout this exhibition they display songs and the ways that audible media helped to fight Apartheid. The headphones are great way to connecting with the voices of the part. Older generation radios play a playlist of old songs and rebellious songs.

As I turned the corner out of the singing for freedom exhibition, I am faced with this wall of record slips. I follow the flow to the opening and as I walk through to come to a piano. It conjured all sorts of thoughts and feelings at the time. It is quite surprising and yet so well placed.

This museum on the whole is one of my highlights. It goes through history of the Cape from Slavery on 19th century to modern discrimination. The interactivity of this museum helps you to learn on your own terms, how works best for you. Not just reading pages and pages of text which is not to everyone tastes.

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Zeitz Museum (MOCAA)

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Contemporary Modern Art.

Now. Anyone who knows me well, will tell be like Art Gallery really Haz! Not your thing. And they in general would be right. But having heard good things about this place I thought I would check it out. Bonus – on the first Friday of every month it is half price. – No brainer right.

Anyway! After my morning of working, and the starting the afternoon by finishing my book I thought why not spend the evening in the city – do something a bit different. So Uber ordered and I was away!

The 5/6 floors of mixed exhibits are in an old Silo, the winding stair case and glass lift being in cased in some of the old concrete tubes. Upon walking in you are struck with how austere it is and quite cold. But it creates a perfect plain backdrop for the art within the exhibits.


There is every sort of media and topic covered in this place. From the unique to the obscure, photos to paintings to film and sculpture. For example: A piece which seems to contain toy solidiers with a woman in red in the middle holding Red streamers with a heart in the middle of it.

Runaway Bills from slavery times but instead they are all describing the artist. It got me thinking how would you describe your best friend if they ran away? What struck me about this piece was that not many of them mention he is black until the final sentence – they comment on his personality, what he might have been wearing, his style, hair, teeth. Physical attributes but not in the same way as the historic bills would have.

Or A film of a Japanese actress flying through the air , with screens all over the room so you can walk between the different angles.

Even Photos taken in Tunisia of a figure wrapped in a white sheet.

A rooms filled with photos of an artist in masks from around the world. Who knew there were so many different masks…

I have to say some of the introductions to these exhibits or pieces did help to give an interpretation or help explain the artists background; of which some were quite harrowing, surviving attempted murder, living through Zimbabwe during the wars to name two. Others however I felt gave the game away – Beauty is in the eye of the beholder is it not? Interpretation is half the fun of going to Art galleries isn’t it. Compared to last night I would have preferred to have some company to discuss a few pieces with.

This Museum is provocative – it is definitely something to see, I only did 3 of the floors and I was there an hour or so. I could have easily spent longer and revisited some of the videos and images that perplexed me the most. Truly Incredible.

Upon leaving i took a nice stroll through Cape Town City centre to Burger and Lobster for Dinner – sitting at the bar has a nice touch when you are a single traveller. A Coney Island Cocktail and a burger later I was heading back. A catch up in the bar and off the sack.

See you tomorrow Travellers.