This was one museum that I wish I had more time in; there
was so much to look at. I loved how they had whole rooms set up in specific
ways. The museum had many things that were used during the apartheid. For
example, there were many signs that said either “whites only” or “blacks only”
and photos showing the separation between the races. The best part about the
museum was that they had someone there to give us the history behind the
museum. The person who explained what district six was about was Joe Schaffers who was born and grew up in District 6. He
actually experienced the separation from apartheid. During apartheid many towns
including district six were told they had to move out and it was now for whites
only. Thousands of families had to pack whatever they could and leave their
homes. If they fought to stay the families were forced out; the government gave
them no choice. What surprised me was that even though apartheid is not he
happening right now it is as if it is. You can still see the separation, in the
cities you see more diversity but when you go into the townships I did not see
any other race besides blacks.
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| Joe Schaffers at the District 6 Museum explaining the history from personal experience. |
My favorite part was the little book store they had inside
the museum. They had many books from South African authors. Even though it was
a specific museum for district six the bookstore had many books surrounding
many types of oppression. I ended up picking up a book that compared the
Holocaust and Apartheid. I think I was mostly interested in this book
because in high school I had studied both of these. It was a good way
to visually see how much these two tragedies had in common.
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