What is Apartheid ? (a story from Johannesburg)

noun historical
(in South Africa) a policy or system of segregation or discrimination on grounds of race.

This is the definition that you'll find in Google.

Now, if you want to see it with your eyes, I suggest you to visit Johannesburg, South Africa.
My last trip as a flight attendant took me to Johannesburg where I had the usual 24hours.
I've been there before and I heard many people saying that if I want to learn more about the history of the country I should visit Apartheid Museum.

So early in the morning I left my beautiful hotel, located in one of the nice areas of the city, called Melrose Arch. Uber works just fine and it's the cheaper option compared to the official taxis.

The Apartheid Museum takes you on a long 2-3 hours walk through the history of South Africa. I totally recommend you to see that place and find out why nowadays the city looks like this: a strange mix of white and black people, why so many languages, why such a separation between the nice and expensive areas and the slums where as I've been told "you're not recommended to visit at all".

Your experience starts from the very beginning. When you purchase your ticket (85 South African rands) you will be randomly classified as either "white" or "non white".

My ticket classified me as a "non-white" so I entered the right hand side.

This is what I saw in front of me:

I tried to imagine what's like to being forced to use separate entrances, not to be allowed to enter certain facilities, to live in certain neighborhoods, to be separated from your family ( laws were classifying parents as white while their children could have been in the category of colored), to deny an entire race just because of the color of their skin.

How did the apartheid started?

Apartheid was officially settled in 1948 by the National Party but the roots of the segregation between whites and non-whites were laying in the ground for a long time.
In 1886 gold was discovered in Witwatersrand area which later was called Gauteng ("place of gold").
The discovery of the gold turned Johannesburg into a centre of South Africa but this discovery came with at a price. The price was the need of cheap labour and soon after the black Afrikans found themselves in the mines. That's how the European settlers who were looking for mining opportunities created laws who put whites above blacks. The hunger for land and labour paved the way of the apartheid.

After the National Party gained power in South Africa in 1948, its all-white government immediately began enforcing existing policies of racial segregation under a system of legislation that it called apartheid.
The system of the Apartheid stayed in force up to 1991.
It took over 50 years until the end of the apartheid was established.

Nelson Mandela is the person who took very important part of this process. He was a prisoner for 27 years but he never lost hope. He became the first president of democratic South Africa. Loved and respected by all South Africans he was this charismatic leader which the country needed the most.

The Apartheid museum pays respect to honor Nelson Mandela's great personality with a permanent exhibition. It's an incredible retrospection of his life which is nothing but a dedication to the struggle of the African people.

These couple of hours in the museum were a real brainstorm to me. But my I didn't know my day is hiding more surprises for me.
It was time to go back to my beautiful hotel in Melrose Arch. Since there was no Internet at the museum I couldn't take Uber. The official taxis are usually rip off for the tourists so I asked a lady who works in the museum for help.
She called someone (probably a friend or a relative) and that's how I end up being in the car of a local guy.

My short conversation with this guy felt like a logical end of my visit of the museum. His words made me think about the life in South Africa today. People were free yes, but were they living better than before?

He asked me how was my visit and short after that he started talking.
At first he told me about Nelson Mandela. In the way he was saying the story about him you could see how much Afrikans love and respect him.

When he finished he concluded:
Apartheid was bad yes, but in many ways it was better than now. At least we knew who the enemy was. They came and they said: "We don't want you here". Now the government is so corrupted, you don't know who can you trust.

What about you? Are you living better now?

I don't want money. I'm 44 years old and I never had a job and never had home. I want to have just a small piece of land. I don't want someone to give me the money to buy bread. I want them to let me plant the wheat an earn it myself

So what's the situation now? There's still a few white people with a lot of money who control everything?

That's not the problem. Our people now at the government are even worse because many white people opened business (restaurants, hotels) and create jobs for people like me. The government doesn't do anything. They only think for themselves.

He is telling me that the current percentage of unemployment in the country is 27%.

Before I leave the car he would turn to me and say with a smile:

I know that one day our voices will be heard

Just like Nelson Mandela this ordinary man doesn't lose his hope.