The Promise and Reality of Museums of Tolerance in South Africa: Constitution Hill and the Apartheid Museum

On July 5th, again in Johannesburg, I had the opportunity to meet with two pioneering museum educators - Solly Sethako, Education Coordinator at Constitution Hill, and Lynn Abrahams, Education Coordinator at the Apartheid Museum. The Apartheid Museum focuses on the segregationist Apartheid policies of the National Party from 1948 to 1993/94, and precedents, specifically in Johannesburg, while Constitution Hill includes remnants of the old Awaiting Trial Blocks, Section 4 - the jail that housed black and South Asian males (including Mohatma Gandhi during the years in which he lived in South Africa), the womens' prison under Apartheid, and the old Constitution Fort which housed white male inmates during this same time. Many of these prisoners, such as those accused during the Treason Trials, were political prisoners and had not committed any crime other than to oppose Apartheid.

On a more promising note, Constitution Hill is also home to South Africa's new Constitutional Court which aims to protect the rights and responsibilities of citizenship guaranteed in the post Apartheid-era South African Constitution. The Apartheid Museum uses video and photography to good effect, while Constitution Hill has an emphasis on artifact collection and, obviously, uses the site itself as an historical monument.

From speaking with both educators, it is clear that both museums keep strong the hope and promise that the memories of those who endured miseries, during the Apartheid era, can be preserved, not to exploit these individuals once again, but to honor them, their legacy, and role in demonstrating to today's youth true the concepts of leadership and a more truly democratic South Africa for youth of all races. Indeed, while both museums occasionally have survivors act as tour guides, there seems to be agreement that the promise of healing is far from over as many victims of Apartheid remain poor and in need of counseling services and, therefore, there is also a need for greater involvement with both museums of those who experienced this important period in South African history. It is, indeed, one of Ms. Abrahams' goals to investigate grant possibilities for this purpose in the hope that survivors can both heal their wounds and tell their stories without fear of retribution and/or the reopening of still recent wounds. Both organizations have also reached out to other tolerance-related museums in South Africa including the South African Holocaust Centre in Cape Town. The Apartheid Museum also has a traveling exhibit on the parallels and divergence of America's Brown versus Board of Education decision and the state of public education in South Africa today.

Both museums also wish to diversify their educational programming to target young learners, middle learners, and secondary level students. Here, the problem remains funding as township schools are often unable to afford busing and the price of admission, eventhough both museums highlight this population's specific heritage. Each centre could also benefit from having more technology, such as distance learning equipment, so that each museum, still in their infancies, can benefit from dialogue with international museums be it through staff interaction and/or the offering of teacher workshops. This will become increasingly important since the South African Department of Education has mandated not only Apartheid and Holocaust curriculum but curriculum that uses both in a comparitive study on human rights issues. We then discussed possible outreach strategies and contacts in the United States whom might be helpful as to strategies/ideas.