The Apartheid Museum in Johannesburg educates visitors on South Africa's history beyond apartheid, amid concerns over young people's ignorance. Curator Emilia Potenza highlights its emotional impact during Human Rights Day commemorations. Entry is free for South Africans this weekend.
The Apartheid Museum, located in Ormonde south of Johannesburg, opened in 2001 and attracts an average of 800 visitors daily. Curator Emilia Potenza notes that many younger South Africans remain unaware of apartheid history, often shocked by the museum's graphic displays of 1980s uprisings led by youth. 'When they see that they could have been one of those kids on the street, protesting and fighting against the apartheid system, it becomes very real,' she told Our City News. The exhibition covers a century of history, starting from the 1886 gold discovery in Johannesburg, which relied on cheap black labour and evolved into apartheid's segregation system. Potenza explains: 'It depended entirely on cheap black labour... This system evolved into apartheid, a rigid structure of segregation that controlled where people could live, work, travel, and even who they could love.' The museum details apartheid's implementation, brutality, denial of rights, repression, resistance, and violence including detentions and killings, leading to democracy in 1990. Privately run by the Apartheid Museum Trust without government funding, it primarily serves schoolchildren and students, followed by international tourists. Visitors experience varied emotions: anger and pain for black South Africans, shame for white ones, fostering commitment against inequality. Spaces like Ernest Cole Hall show segregated life. Potenza stresses its present relevance: 'Human Rights Day is not only about remembering what happened in 1960. It is about recognising the responsibility that comes with freedom.' Free entry for South Africans coincides with Human Rights Day.