Apartheid Museum

The Apartheid Museum stands on Northern Parkway at the corner of Gold Reef Road in Ormonde, Johannesburg, in Gauteng province, South Africa. It is widely regarded as the country's definitive museum on the apartheid era. Visitors are issued entrance tickets that randomly classify them as 'white' or 'non-white', and each group enters through a separate gate, a deliberate device that opens the experience with a small taste of racial classification. Inside, about 22 exhibition spaces lead through the rise of segregation, the pass laws, forced removals, the Sharpeville and Soweto uprisings, the state of emergency, the imprisonment of Nelson Mandela and the negotiated transition to democracy in 1994. The exhibits combine film footage, photographs, original documents, newspaper front pages and large installations, including a display of 121 nooses representing political prisoners executed, and a pillar arrangement echoing the values in South Africa's constitution. A dedicated Mandela exhibition covers his life from rural Eastern Cape to the presidency. The building is a low concrete and steel structure, with a landscaped approach and a memorial garden and a reflecting pool near the exit. Most visitors need three to four hours, and the content is emotionally heavy and text-rich, so an early start helps. Some films contain graphic archive footage, which parents may wish to consider before bringing young children. The museum sits beside the Gold Reef City theme park, so the two are often visited on the same trip, although the museum alone can fill a morning or afternoon. Crowds are lightest on weekday mornings; school groups and weekend visitors make midday busy. Photography is generally allowed in most galleries without flash, though some film areas restrict it. A café and a bookshop selling South African history titles are on site. The museum opens Thursday to Sunday according to recent reports, so confirming hours on the official site before travelling is sensible.