APARTHEID:

An Afrikaans word meaning "the state of being apart," literally "apart-hood." 

 

South Africa, like most of the rest of the continent, has a rich history when it comes to repression of the native population by white Europeans.  In very recent times, starting in 1968, this racism was codified and institutionalized by the enactment of Apartheid laws.

Last Saturday we had the opportunity to visit the Apartheid Museum here in Johannesburg.  It was really an eye opening experience and in many ways a very sad one.  Africa has a sad history of colonialism, repression, slave trading, discrimination etc. perpetuated on the native black population by those of the white race.  The ruling whites suggested Apartheid was for the benefit of everyone, so all races could live and enjoy life without getting in each others way.  But it was really just a way of getting everything good to the whites while the blacks got virtually nothing.

I'm sure we'll talk more about Apartheid in other posts, but tonight I just wanted to post some photos taken in our own apartment building here.  Apartheid has only been discontinued since about 1990, but our building is older than that.

When we first moved into our flat (apartment), we wondered why there was a bolt lock on the outside of the kitchen door.  It could only be used to lock someone in the kitchen.

 

We soon discovered the reason.  The above photo shows the two doorways inside our security gate.  One, is the door we use, and the other one has been sealed shut.

 

Not all doorways are like ours, however.  There are many doors in the building like the one in the photo above.  If you look closely, you will see a small sign near the top that says SERVICE.  These doorways were to allow the "service people" (blacks), access to the kitchens to do the cooking, while the bolt lock would prevent them from getting into the rest of the flat. 

Even one of the three elevators (the one on the left) is marked service.  We don't know if the "service" elevator even works now (we've never noticed anyone using it), but we do see black cleaning ladies who enter apartments through the separate "service" doors.