Apartheid is exactly where it belongs - in a museum

On Saturday we went to the Apartheid museum in Joburg. It was a trip that came with a good deal of apprehension, as we all expected it to come with rather a large amount of white guilt.

Strangely, the apartheid museum is actually very clinical. For the most part I didn't feel particularly emotionally involved, it was like going to an ancient history museum, where it is quite acceptable to be completely detached from the subject matter.

During the beginning of my gap year, my family went to see Auschwitz in Poland. Visiting Auschwitz is something I would highly recommend, while it is a deeply saddening trip to take, it brings home the realities of Nazi death camps in a way that history books simply cannot. Whether it is the room of human hair, and goods manufactured from it, the little red shoes that you can picture a happy carefree girl wearing one day - only for her to be forced into a labour camp and probably killed, or the sheer scale and efficiency of the place - I do not believe anyone can go to Auschwitz and not feel chilled by the experience.

Museum Entrance

Comparatively, the Apartheid museum left me cold. There were certain elements which struck a cord, particularly the exhibition on how schools were made to teach in Afrikaans and learners were physically unable to gain anything from school, despite their attempts to educate themselves. Thinking about how some of my children were growing up in the final throws of Apartheid left me wanting to go back and take care of them more than ever, the background that they come from is horrific in many ways and I find myself feeling a strong desire to try and protect them, despite the fact that I know this is completely unfeasible.

On an interesting note, I met Colin Sparrow (Head of Maths at Warwick) at the museum. He is currently visiting us in South Africa, since he has been involved with Wawick in Africa since the start of the programme. We had a really interesting conversation about what it has been like to teach here so far, and what kind of training might be useful for people coming out next year. Something that I would particularly like to see an improvement in is help on how to deal with the problems children face outside of school, drugs, underage pregnancy and AIDS are all key features of the kids' lives out here and we need to know how to deal with this. To me, the most chilling statistic is still that a good number of the boys that I teach are likely to be rapists. It's a thought I have to actively surpress when I go into school; I need to continue to see my kids as innocent, or I cannot continue to work with them. There are also issues which do not concern the kids as individuals, such as the aftermath of apartheid, as well as how to deal with some of the sensitive personal questions kids will invariably ask.

I am however extremely surprised, and rather flattered, that the Head of Maths is reading my blog, not to mention the Head of Undergraduate Maths and quite a few members of the Warwick in Africa team. Thank you :).