October 27th, 2009- Johannesburg, South Africa

“To be free is not merely to cast off one’s chains, but to live in a way that respects and enhances the freedom of others.” –Nelson Mandela

You enter the Apartheid museum through entrances marked “whites only” or “non-whites only”. For the sake of my visit, I was non-white. The rooms take you through the rise of Apartheid, the brutality, the struggle, and the change. There is room after room of interactive exhibits and footage of the leaders who never made it to the day of Sisulu’s release, the un-banning of the ANC or Mandela’s inauguration. It’s kind of like trying to breathe under water, with the weight of something that should never have been.

The Mandela exhibit has quotes inside the walls of a cell made after the one on Robben Island, as well as introducing you to the people around him that I never learned about in school—as though Apartheid had been toppled by just one man. The quotes and the footage show them to be brave, heroic, and also human—and the storytelling that makes them human makes them so much greater than if they were only entirely heroic. The footage makes them people you can relate to. There is a quote by a fellow ANC political prisoner about Mandela that says something about their time on Robben Island, and how it helped Mandela to grow, and to focus on the spiritual in a way that would never have happened if he hadn’t been forced into it.

I keep wondering: How do you make an experience like that work for you?

Nice to have that first day off to explore the history and current Johannesburg/ Soweto, so I can enter the conference with at least a few more nuances understood. I was invited to present our organization’s work to a bunch of U.S. government representatives, including those from the U.S. Department of Defense in about 14 African countries.

It is a fascinating crowd in which to talk about social change and preventing violence against women. Don’t think I’ve ever felt quite so Che Guevara in a room full of Reagan fans in my life . . .a little bit of shifting uncomfortably, but still some cool people. Three different people have pulled me aside and, completely separately from each other, said “You actually believe in what you do, don’t you? You actually seem to think it works. Maybe I should quit my job.” . . .or something akin to that.

I may not be asked back.

Oops. :)

http://www.apartheidmuseum.org