South Africa Day 1, Part 2: Tour of Jo'burg & Apartheid Museum (September 26) - (Second Part, Possibly Previously Unpublished Pictures)

   

This was a picture (which I have since cropped) of the new South Africa flag of the post-apartheid era. I actually took this one at the apartheid museum, as this was the final display, if you will, of the museum, the symbol of the emergence of a "new South Africa."

The flight from London to Johannesburg

So once the guide arrived, I got in the van and we took off, heading towards Johannesburg. He handed me a bottle of water, which was good. Somehow, I was very thirsty. 

Now admittedly, my expectations for the city of Johannesburg were not very high. I had always heard of it described as the "city of gold," because of the historical dominance of gold here. Indeed, Johannesburg was kind of a boom town following the discovery of gold in the late 1800's, similar to some American cities in the western half of the country. 

Since those earliest days, the city had just continued to grow bigger and bigger. Now with a population of eight million, it is the largest city in the country, and one of the biggest cities in Africa. 

However, none of that made it feel especially interesting to me, as far as South Africa was concerned. It lacked the history and natural beauty of Cape Town or Durban. It did not have riveting points of interest that Pretoria or Pietermaritzburg have. Really, it is just a really big city, I figured. 

Still, now that I was here, and it was to be my first real taste of South Africa, I was intrigued and wanted to see it.

As it turns out, Johannesburg proved to be a disappointment. Even while my expectations were not particularly high, it simply did not measure up. There were modern buildings, like any other major modern city has. However, it was unpleasantly chaotic, and felt extremely seedy and decadent. There were numerous people crossing the streets from different points, all at once. Obviously, I had seen jaywalking before, and in fact, been guilty of jaywalking. But this was something different, on a whole other level. Our van hardly slowed down, and there were numerous close calls, as there were with other vehicles and pedestrians. Yet, no one seemed to find it unusual or really even to notice any of this, so that the impression left was that this was pretty much the norm here. 

Also, there was garbage lining the streets. I had been to New York City once when it was like that. If memory serves correctly, it was because of a garbage strike. Again, though, this was on a whole other level. It looked awful, and made things actively unpleasant. The guide said that this was because the city of Johannesburg had run out of money, and garbage pick up could simply not keep up with the demand. In large part, he explained, it was because the people living here were now mostly poor. There had been a mass migration out of the city by whites in recent decades, so the city had been neglected and grown poorer. Now, despite the presence of modern buildings, the city felt like a place where you could see how there had been more prosperous times for this city, but that it now felt like it was deteriorating. 

Now, it did not really occur to me to take a picture, much less video, of the garbage situation. Only after the fact did it occur to me that...well, this was a large part of my experience of Johannesburg. And so I wanted to illustrate it nevertheless, and found this recent (from earlier this year) clip of a news report which shows how bad the situation of uncollected trash has become in Johannesburg (and as it turns out, downtown Pretoria as well). Admittedly, I did not know before this trip.

Uncollected rubbish in Joburg is fast becoming a health hazard

It saddened me. Not for the first time, I was reminded of what I had long felt were the similarities between South Africa and the United States. In this case, apparently, they both seemed unfortunately to allow at least some of their cities to fall into decadence and disrepair. I had always wanted to see Johannesburg. Yet admittedly, I was almost glad once we left the downtown behind, as we approached the Apartheid Museum. 

Now, the Apartheid Museum 

Pictures of Johannesburg:

The Apartheid Museum, Johannesburg

The entrance to the Apartheid Museum has separate entrances, which you are supposed to use depending on what your ticket stub says. My ticket was the one below, so I was supposed to use the entrance for whites (blankes in Afrikaans). 

Stephen Biko

The old flag of South Africa dating back to the apartheid era. It was basically an old style Dutch flag. Netherlands used to have orange, white, and blue like this, before it the orange was replaced by red after Napoleon took over Netherlands, and it was never changed back. Anyway, the three small flags in the center are the Union Jack of Great Britain, and then the two Boer Republics: the Orange Free State and Transvaal. This flag is now illegal to display in South Africa (except in museums like this, or for educational purposes), and is regarded as a symbol of hatred, understandably.