To be honest, I didn't find too many excuses to really pursue touristy activities during this time. I was wrapped up in finding my footing during the first few weeks... then I was traveling to and from Lesotho and Mozambique... then I played host to my friend SP... and then just a long period of work, which entails doing qualitative research and writing up case studies and contextual country profiles. I'll save details on that for another post.
In late August, I had a museum day. My first stop was the District Six Museum, named for one of the inner-city residential areas where inhabitants were forcibly removed by the apartheid government. I thought it would be valuable to gain more perspective on this aspect of South African history.
It's a small museum. This is essentially the whole of it, aside from the walls behind me and the gift shop to the right and out of view:
It's essentially a collection of stories from the district, with an emphasis on the formative years of the apartheid government and the struggle that ensued during its harshest period, when inhabitants were removed. I won't pretend to be an expert on the apartheid period -- far from it -- so I'll avoid giving many details. For now, here are just a few photos that I found particularly striking:
Jazz from... South Africa?
Definition of race
A dedication and call to humanity
Jan Smuts was an Afrikaner leader during the Second Boer War (someday, I'll have more to share on the history of this country)
Like the District Six Museum, the South African National Gallery is quite small: a couple of hallways and a space for a special exhibit, all on a single floor. Very cheap to enter, but something I could only stretch for up to an hour max. I did think the portraits of people of Cape Malay descent (being exhibited at the time) were rather interesting:
An odd group here (it's actually one of the first things you see when you enter):
And this was the special exhibit... I didn't fully understand it... really strange:
I moved on to the South African Museum. This one was a little bit pricier, but offered a whole lot more. It starts with a long history of the whole of Southern Africa, from the precolonial era onwards.
Prehistoric stone carving
Okay so it turns out I failed to take any photos of the other exhibits I saw before the modern era, including showcases of the Sotho people, the Zulus under Shaka, a bit about the geological formations of the region, etc. etc. My bad.
But here's to Madiba:
A prelude
I'll write a post on Mandela later, when I'm more educated on the issues and have more time.
After traveling through the social history of Southern Africa, I spent some time staring at good ol' dinosaur bones. Makes me recall DC:
There were life-size statues of other animals as well (lions, elephants, rhinos, etc.), but, hey, dinosaurs.
Big life changes up ahead! Will try to power through a few more updates when I can to let any readers know what choices I'm about to make!
