Museum! History! Art! Life!

For those who know me well, it is not a surprise that I made sure to visit as many museums in Cape Town as I could. Here are a few things I learned at various museums we went to!

Iziko Slave Lodge

 The slave lodge museum was an actual old slave lodge in Cape Town that was turned into a museum containing the history of slavery in South Africa and the World. Slaves were first introduced to the Cape in 1658. The lodge was built in 1679. Slaves came to the Cape via sea from various regions in the Indian Ocean.

The slave lodge was the most significant site associated with slavery in South Africa. With a history epitomizing human wrongs, the Iziko Slave Lodge has taken up the challenge to build a culture of human rights in the future. 

"For too long, fear of confronting the shame associated with slavery has played a huge part in the almost collective loss of memory about slavery"  T. Oosterwyk, 2000 

A large part of the museum was dedicated to Oliver Tambo (OR Tambo). Tambo was a South African anti-apartheid politician and a central figure in the ANC (African National Congress--the party that won the 1994 elections [Mandela] and effectively ended apartheid).

"The men & women who founded that ANC (African National Congress) shared a vision of a society whose institutions were open to all. This collided with the colonial order upheld by a racists constitution" Z. Pallo Jordan, ANC Member

In 1958 Tambo became Deputy President of the ANC.

"I had other plans for my life. I wanted to be a minister of the Anglican Church with Bishop Clayton...But God had other plans for me. God's plan was for me to fight for the liberation for my people" OR Tambo

"Tambo was South Africa's gateway to the world"

"The values of unity, selflessness, sacrifice, collective leadership, humility, honesty, discipline, hard work...encapsulate what President Tambo stood for" President Jacob Zuma, 2011. 

As I have mentioned before, Apartheid was a form of legalized racism in South Africa. Because of the apartheid government, South Africa was expelled from the olympics. They were not invited to the 1964 games in Tokoyo, 1968 games in Mexico, and was finally expelled in 1970.

"If the rest of the world decides that apartheid is to be abolished, then apartheid will disappear" Olaf Palme, Swedish Prime Miniester. Palme was a close friend of Tambo and is largely responsible for the close friendship of South Africa and Sweden. Palme engaged in a lifelong crusade against colonialism and apartheid. Palme was assassinated in 1986, and there are few doubts that it was by members of the apartheid regime. 

Tambo & Palme 

At the ANC Conference in 1991, Tambo declined to stand for office, passing the reigns to Mandela. In 1993, Tambo passed away. To this day he still remains an iconic figure in South African history. 

Iziko South African Museum

So this museum threw us for a twist. After hearing the name we were expecting a museum that examined the history of South Africa...wrong. This museum was full of taxedermied animals. So here are a few pictures!

My general feelings on birds.

South African National Art Gallery

This was by far my favorite museum that we visited. 

Unfortunately there were no camera's allowed inside so I can only begin to describe some of the exhibits. Right when you walked in, there was a large rectangular room with black and white photos on the walls. All of the photos had to deal with apartheid. There were photos of blacks being ID'd (they had to carry government identification on them at all times), forced removals, district six demolition, resettlement camps.

There were two incredible pictures. The first was a older woman sitting on a chair holding a sign that said "this is where we want to stay". This picture illustrated the devastation of forced removals. 

The second picture was a man with a sign that said, "the seed is mine, the ploughs are mine, the oxen are mine, everything is mine. The land is his". 

Many of these pictures depicted the utter despair and devastation that people faced in those times. As I was staring at one picture, I noticed my face in the reflection from the glass. Seeing my face next to theirs made me see myself in them. Their stories are stories of human suffering. It is not their story, it is our story; the human story. Just because I was not directly linked to the apartheid government or South Africa during that time does not mean that I am not linked to those people. Ubuntu has come up many times in my posts. Ubuntu is the concept I am because we are. I think this concept applied to what I was feeling when I looked at these pictures. I am because of what they were. I am allowed to live in South Africa and learn about the history because of the trials and tribulations they faced. Their stories and lives have played a role in my story and my life, despite being decades apart. 

In 1994, there was a Restitution of Land Rights Act that allowed for the return of land that was taken away after the 1913 Native's Land Act. Each restitution case had its own local context and politics. However this allowed for a gap to emerge between the promise of land return and its fulfillment. I was able to see pictures of some of these cases being heard. There were some families that were full of joy, and some of sadness upon returning to what was left of what use to be their family homes. 

Another room had pictures of the August 2012 mine workers strike in Rustenburg. This attack prompted the single most lethal use of force by South African authorities against civilians since 1960 and the end of apartheid era. This led to the death of 47 mine workers. This section displayed photos of the strike, the attack, and the crime scenes.

The second to last section was called "dialogues: conversations between old and new". The goal of this section was to show art of both South African & international origin and group them together by themes. This demonstrates the commonality in terms of either formal concerns or in themes & content. One collection which featured a woman sitting on a couch had pieces from France, South Africa, England, and Australia  This gallery was a cool way of linking different pieces that usually aren't viewed together. 

The last, and my personal favorite, gallery was the Community Art Project (CAP). The CAP emerged in 1977 with rise of the Black Consciousness Movement. This gallery, as the name suggests, presented pieces from members of the community. Most pieces were expressions of pain, love, or confusion. They represented what it was like to live in a township or within a certain community. 

The AMAC's (Arts & Media Access Center) goal was to empower people from marginalized communities through training in arts & media. When AMAC closed its doors in 2007, it brought an end to a chapter in South African cultural history characterized by a firm commitment to the idea that the arts were both critical & indispensable for producing the worlds of the oppressed, beyond the forces of power that sought to contain their creativity. 

Here are a few examples of some of the pieces show. This style of art is called linocut.

My favorite piece of this collection was a black and white linocut of a township with a car driving through full of tourists. These tourists are taking pictures and are accompanied by armed guards. This piece was created in 1986 by David Hlongwane. This was the most inspiration piece to me from the entire museum. It provided the insight and point of view of a local. It shows the exploitation of poverty and how we often forget that it is people living in the townships- it is not an exhibit. I know that township tours tend to be quite popular throughout South Africa but this piece provided a strong argument as to why those tours may do more harm than good. It is important to consider how one is coming across to the community they are entering. It is one thing to interact with the community if you are invited in, and it is another to drive through or by from the comfort of your car.