Student spotlight: Minh’s reflections of the Apartheid Museum in Johannesburg

This week we visited the Apartheid Museum in Johannesburg. It was a multi-floor, beautifully designed space full of vintage political posters, videos of activist speeches, and full size tanks. The curators truly made the most of the space for the most educational, interactive experience possible. Visitors could even step inside recreated solitary prison cells to get a sense of the cramped conditions prisoners faced. 

My favorite thing I saw there was the fifteen minute film about apartheid resistance in South Africa. It illustrated the power of community organizing, as well as the tragedy that broke apart families when police  used force to keep people from speaking up. This grievous harm only convinced people to keep gathering and spreading the message of activism. In churches, at school, at work. Wherever people went, they demanded freedom.

Coming away from the museum, I learned a lot about Nelson Mandela’s activism and how I could apply his values in my own life. Outdoors, there was a wall of quotes that showed his personal values. One quote that stood out to me was,  "Running through the struggle like a golden thread was the indomitable human spirit and a capacity for self-sacrifice and discipline." As a person who has always wanted to be courageous, I admired his willingness to sacrifice his life and family so that South Africa might become a more equitable society. His struggle applies to South Africa’s current work towards equality, and the virtues that people strive to attain in their daily lives.

By: Minh