The conference doesn't really get going until tomorrow, so today was spent getting my bearings (i.e. doing some sightseeing!). I'm gonna divide this up into 2 posts, so that it's not a GIANT picture dump on you. First I'll talk about the museums I went to today, then I'll post on what I saw on tour (walking and on the city bus - but more on that in a bit).
The first museum I went to today was the District 6 Museum. This one was a pretty intense one. District 6 was one of the municipal districts of the city, going back to the early 1800s. It had always been a crowded, pretty blended community, and in every description I've read, described as "rich and vibrant," even when it became poorer and neglected by the government. In 1966, the apartheid government declared that the district was now a white area, and that everyone else had to move. In relocation, the government gave you no compensation, just moved you from your home, not even with all your belongings, to somewhere (most likely) on the outskirts of the city. More than 60,000 people were relocated from District 6, which was then razed to be rebuilt for white residents. And this was just one of the areas that the government decided to reallocate in the country. There's tons more to read about it online and elsewhere. If I tried to give you the whole history, this post would turn into a doctoral thesis.
And I've heard that the movie District 9, released a few years ago, was heavily influenced by these events. I know it's dealing with aliens, but there's supposed to be a lot of truth to the circumstances (if not the players) in the movie. I'll have to watch that one.
The museum itself is in a restored Methodist church, located on the edge of the original district and one of the buildings not totally destroyed. Along one wall is a timeline of the whole history of the district, going back to the city first being settled. The big map on the floor is the old layout of the district, with notes from residents marking where they used to live. And there are old street signs, and photos and stories from former residents. It's not huge space-wise, but there's plenty to see and read.
And I've heard that the movie District 9, released a few years ago, was heavily influenced by these events. I know it's dealing with aliens, but there's supposed to be a lot of truth to the circumstances (if not the players) in the movie. I'll have to watch that one.
The museum itself is in a restored Methodist church, located on the edge of the original district and one of the buildings not totally destroyed. Along one wall is a timeline of the whole history of the district, going back to the city first being settled. The big map on the floor is the old layout of the district, with notes from residents marking where they used to live. And there are old street signs, and photos and stories from former residents. It's not huge space-wise, but there's plenty to see and read.
One of the most striking pieces is this one. It's 1.5m wide and 7m tall (stretches from floor to ceiling). All of the writing is names and former addresses and maybe a sentence or two from former residents. It was written by the residents and then embroidered. What makes it especially striking is that this is only one portion of the whole Namecloth. The entire thing is over 1km and continues to grow as more residents visit the museum and write.
The other piece I found very striking, once I realized what it was, was the mural upstairs. The coloring is all done in earth pigments, with the images inspired by the stories and memories of the former residents. What got me was at the base are bowls with rocks in them. It's rubble from the areas or roads labeled on the bowls.
Most of the reallocation in District 6 happened in the late 1960s and 1970s. However, with all the protests over this removal, it really didn't end until the early 1980s. Which means, that it was still going on in my lifetime. The tour guides at the museum are all former residents, so they are full of stories about how it used to be, and about being removed (definitely catch a tour if you can!!). Such a perspective shift - You read about these things in books, and it feels like history, but it really was not very long ago.
For some history that really WAS that long ago, I next went to the Castle of Good Hope, only a couple blocks away from the District 6 Museum. This is the oldest building in South Africa, built between 1666 and 1679.
The Castle itself is an old fort, so unless you especially like that sort of thing, it's kinda the same as any other old fort protecting the waterfront. Think Ft Sumter or Ft Pulaski or something similar. There's only so many ways you can build a fort on the water's edge and position your cannons to protect all angles. This one had a wider range to cover, so it's a star instead of a square, but otherwise... But, this one is very yellow! It's plastered over with yellow clay (or something similar), so that is pretty unique. The view looking down from the wall into the first courtyard shows you a lot of the yellow walls :)
A few other little tidbits were mentioned on the tour (free, and offered several times a day, if you get the chance). There is a room in the governor's old section (now a small museum) with the Long Table, a dining table to seat about 100 people. Imagine a stereotypical "isolating millionaire's dinner table" and then make it bigger, and that's this table. It's in sections (obviously it'd have to be) but they are all connected together in one reeeeeally long dining room. It's very impressive! Unfortunately, the museum didn't allow pictures, or I'd have tried to capture that one.
Besides fancy dinner tables, the Castle also has a torture chamber. No, really. They didn't want to execute anyone for a serious crime unless they'd confessed. So if he'd hadn't confessed yet, they'd help to persuade him. What I noticed most about that room wasn't the old manacles or chains still attached to the walls, but the small desk in the corner. All torture proceedings had to be recorded, so a clerk sat at that desk to write down everything. What a horrible job!
Also, all the shutters in the Castle are painted green, except for the end on the inner wall, where the shutters are red. The magazine. It warned the soldiers training in the courtyard to not smoke or fire their weapons too close to that end of the building. Apparently, this has been a standard color-coding for Danger for a couple hundred years now :)
The portion of the Castle where I spent the most time was actually the military history museum (the Castle is supported by the SA Army even today). Military history museums are hit-or-miss for me. They seem to be either really interesting history, or just rooms full of insignia and memorabilia. This was an interesting one. It followed all the military activity in SA, going back to the Dutch and the Dutch East India Company (which supported its own army) in the 1600s. And since the US is woefully lacking in African history education in schools, I really knew very little about any of it. It really put the race relations in the country into perspective. Basically, they've all been fighting each other since at least the 1600s. South Africa is a very strategic spot for shipping. So two colonial powers and a major commercial interest (that was basically its own country), dealing with several local tribes... it lead to a couple hundred years of fighting, ultimately laying the groundwork for the Nationalist Party and the apartheid system. Like I said, it was very interesting seeing the pieces starting fitting together, even just through the lens of the military, like in this museum.
And to prove I really was there, and not just picking photos off a Google search (that big cloudy mass behind me would be Table Mountain, if it was a clear day):
And just to end things off, a slightly artistic shot of the Castle and Table Mountain (clouds) from the flower and herb garden outside the walls.
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