The Bahblog

On Thursday morning we went to Constitution Hill before the Maboneng tour. Constitution Hill is an old prison that was used from 1892 to 1987 to hold both black and white people, though they were treated quite differently.

There were separate men and women's prisons, and the men's prison has more or less been accurately preserved (the women's prison has been mostly remodeled). We started the tour with a quick introductory video and then walked around the men's prison. As you can see below, conditions were terrible in the prison.

Gandhi was actually imprisoned here in 1906 and Mandela was imprisoned here during Apartheid, so there were quite a few panels on both of them.

They also have the isolation cells open and available to step into. It's hard to put into words what it feels like to walk into one of the isolation cells, but I will say it makes you nauseous to simply step inside.

The women's prison has been remodeled, but they still maintained some of the isolation cells and now an exhibit is set up in each one about different prisoners held there. The exhibits were well done and fascinating.

One thing that was repeatedly emphasized throughout all of the exhibits is that the South African constitution states that every citizen, regardless of race or gender, has the right to life, equality, human dignity, and privacy. The Preamble states:

We, the people of South Africa,

Recognise the injustices of our past;

Honour those who suffered for justice and freedom in our land;

Respect those who have worked to build and develop our country; and

Believe that South Africa belongs to all who live in it, united in our diversity.

The next day we took a shuttle to Kruger (about a 6-hour drive). After a bit of an exciting start (the van wouldn't start and two guys had to literally push the van until it started), we settled in and started a conversation with an Afrikaans woman sitting behind us. The conversation started out with basic small talk (what we did in Joburg, how we like South Africa, etc.) and then the woman asked how we like America. As much as we disagree with the current political situation, we have a very good life in America. She mentioned that she wants to go to America. From her perspective, jobs have been stolen from white people now that Apartheid is over and there is no hope in sight. We mentioned how much we enjoyed Johannesburg, but she insisted it was a crime infested cesspool. She told us about how she had to learn Zulu (the language spoken by the majority of black people in SA) and said it was "absolutely terrible." At one point we started talking about food and we mentioned that we love pap and chakalaka and she said that's "African" food and we need to try "South African" food, like pancakes and waffles.

At the next rest stop I turned to Nate and said "did that conversation really occur?". I've seen subtle and passive aggressive forms of racism throughout my life and I would agree that racism still exists in the United States, but I've never encountered someone so blatantly racist before. It was then Nate realized we'd only really spent time with black South Africans thus far on our trip.

We were talking later and are still trying to process that conversation with everything we've seen over the last week. Besides this woman, we've like every South African we've interacted with. But this conversation made us realize that South Africa still has a long way to go to recover from the Apartheid society.