Premier’s Westfield History Scholarship
South Africa: Apartheid, Resistance and
Democracy
Troy Neale
Eagle Vale High School
Sponsored by
The first new flag of South Africa Apartheid Museum, Johannesburg
The Apartheid Museum
My study tour to South Africa began with a guided tour of the Apartheid Museum in
Johannesburg. On entry to the Museum all visitors are issued with a racial identification
card and enter a gate according to their racial classification. Passbooks and identify cards
hang from the ceiling. This is a powerful way to convey the strict racial classification
process which was imposed on all non-white South Africans during Apartheid.
The museum follows a chronological and thematic approach telling the complex story of
Apartheid. The exhibits were highly effective in creating an unsettling atmosphere. One
of the highlights of the exhibition was a security force armed vehicle and a memorial to
the people killed fighting against apartheid. The exhibition ends with the NEW South
Africa and its ‘rainbow’ flag. The museum guide implores visitors to understand the
history of apartheid so that South Africa may heal its many wounds. On the out way is
the Veldt Garden where you are asked to pause and reflect on what you have seen, and
to then leave in freedom. This was not just an afterthought; it was a very moving part of
the exhibition.
I certainly deeply reflected on what I had seen in the Apartheid Museum. What struck
me most is that this land was able to recover from apartheid at all. The clarion message
of the Apartheid Museum is that the rainbow nation of South Africa honours its painful
and turbulent history and is committed to building a new South Africa devoid of the
racism of the past.
University of South Africa
From Johannesburg I travelled to the University of South Africa (UNISA) in Pretoria. I
met with Professor Japie Brits, South Africa’s leading academic on Apartheid and South
African History. I had been communicating with Professor Brits via email for some time
and it was very exciting to finally meet with him and the other lecturers in the History
Faculty.
Billboard at the University of South Africa
On arrival I stopped to take a picture of a billboard on which was displayed a powerful
and inspirational message from Nelson Mandela. The University was abuzz with students
enrolling to study. Professor Brits spent many hours with me discussing Apartheid
history and the current political and economic climate in South Africa. Professor Brits
introduced me to the Library staff and the History and Archives collections. I spent a
number of days in the library at the University of South Africa reading primary sources
on Apartheid, Resistance and Democracy. The University of South Africa was
overflowing with students and most of the time I had to do my research on the library
floor. The lecturers in the History Faculty took me to dinner and I was fascinated by
their personal accounts of life under the apartheid regime.
The Voortrekker Monument
While researching at UNISA I toured the Voortrekker Monument, which is a colossal
temple, designed and constructed in 1938 to signify the strength and power of the
Afrikaners or (Boers). The Voortrekker Monument is encircled by wagons in a laager.
Inside the Voortrekker Monument the walls are carved with panels telling the story of
Piet Retief and the trek Boers (1835-1838). The Voortrekker Monument honours the socalled ‘vow’ or ‘convent’ made between god and the trek Boers who journeyed in wagons
away from the British Authority in the Cape Colony and formed their own Boer
Republics in the interior, north of the Transvaal. To understand apartheid one must
understand the mentality of the Afrikaners or Boers and there is no better example than
the Voortrekker Monument.
Pretoria is the old Capital of ‘Afrikanerdom’, and I was able to visit many historic houses
including Melrose House where, in 1902, the Treaty of Vereeniging was signed ending
the Anglo-Boer war. I also toured Paul Kruger House, the Pass House and the Union
Building which was the seat of all power in South Africa.
By pure chance, on one of my tours, I met Professor D F S Fourie, a Brigadier General
and retired Professor of History at the University of South Africa. I could not believe my
luck. Professor Fourie spent some time talking with me about South African History in
particular the Boer War. I had been keen to find the grave of Breaker Morant and
Hancock. Professor Fourie directed me to Heroes Acre Cemetery in Pretoria West; there
we found the grave of Harry ‘the Breaker’ Morant and Hancock. The Australian High
Commission had recently placed a new headstone on the grave. Of course, the Professor
did not think it warranted such a tribute and we discussed the latest historiography of
Breaker Morant and the Boer War. While at Heroes Acre Cemetery I also located the
graves of Hendrik Verwoerd, the South African Prime Minster and architect of
Apartheid. I also came across a number of graves of soldiers in the Queensland and NZ
Mounted regiments who died fighting in the Boer War. Meeting Professor Fourie on a
tour was totally serendipitous and most rewarding.
Meeting other history teachers
Ms Henriette Lubbe, a senior lecturer in education, was another academic I had been
communicating with via email prior to the trip. Henriette made it possible for me to visit
schools in Johannesburg and to meet with other history teachers and to sit in on lessons
about apartheid. I jumped at the chance of being taken to Soweto to see other history
teachers in action. Ms Lubbe put me in contact with a history teacher at East Rand Girl’s
High School, Mrs Rika Orendall, who invited me to her home to have a traditional
Afrikaner braai (barbeque) with her family and then arranged for the History Inspector to
take us to several High Schools in Soweto.
Soweto
It took less than ten minutes to drive from a wealthy white suburb in Johannesburg to
reach Soweto. Our first stop was the Nelson Mandela Rainbow Foundation, a hospice
centre for young children and their families with HIV. On the way into Soweto I was
taken aback by the poverty, the shanty houses flimsily constructed from corrugated iron
and housing whole families. Before going to the schools my guides took me to the
Soweto museum, which is a shrine to Hector Pietersen, the young student killed in the
1976 Soweto uprising. The ANC has erected a Pool of Remembrance at the site of the
shooting. From here, I was taken to Nelson and Winnie Mandela’s house on Vilizaki
Street, a small and humble home in the heart of Soweto.
One of the schools in Soweto I visited was Meadowlands High School. I was able to
observe an African teacher teaching apartheid and sat with a class of forty-five Year Ten
students discussing the origins of apartheid and formation of D F Malan’s National
government. The teacher had nothing more than a chalkboard with a hole in it, no
overhead projector and no textbooks. At lunch I was introduced to all the staff and we
discussed teaching and learning and exchanged ideas and methods of classroom practice.
This was a significant professional learning experience for me as a teacher.
Education in Soweto has become a high priority for the government in post- apartheid
South Africa. Sadly, the great need for teachers and resources cannot yet be met. The
teachers in Soweto are teaching in circumstances beyond comprehension to an Australian
teacher. All the teachers I observed were dedicated and passionate and they made me feel
proud to be part of the teaching profession. At the end of the day the teachers beseeched
me to send any spare teaching material to their school. Visiting Soweto was a stirring
experience. I stood in all the places I had read and taught my Year 12 students about. I
could feel the spirit of resistance, the determination of the ANC Youth League and the
haunting memory of people like Stephen Biko who was brutally killed fighting the
apartheid regime.
University of the Western Cape/Mayibuye Archives
After Soweto I made my way to Cape Town. I headed for the University of the Western
Cape which houses the Mayibuye Archives. I spent a considerable amount of time at the
Archives researching primary source documents, including photos, audio material and
visual material. The Mayibuye Archives are still in the process of creating a database of all
their documents. For me, it was like hitting a gold mine. I was working with two other
graduate students in the archives and they were of great assistance in helping me find
differences sources. The collection was catalogued into different themes of apartheid,
including ‘Political Prisoners’, ANC, ‘Terrorism Trials’, and the ‘AWB, a Right Wing
Movement’. The archival material at the Mayibuye Centre specialises in ANC literature.
The archives also contain communication written by Nelson Mandela during his time as
prisoner 46664 on Robben Island. The research notes and the resources I have collected
while at the archives I plan to collate into a booklet for Modern History students. I will
also add these resources to HSC Online for students across Australia.
Robben Island/Prsioner 46664
Robben Island was the highlight of my study tour. To explore the infamous Island
Prison which held political prisoners such as Robert Sowbuke and Nelson Mandela was
nothing short of exhilarating. I boarded the Lady Kruger in Cape Town and crossed the
Bay to Robben Island. The sight of Table Mountain in the background gave me a feeling
of what it must have been like for the hundreds of political prisoners who made this
same journey over the years, leaving their families and lives behind to live and labour on
Robben Island, some for as long as three decades.
Upon landing on Robben Island our group was greeted by a young black tour guide who
was a history student at the University of South Africa. He led us around the Island and
gave a detailed history of the island and its role as a prison. First stop was the prison cell
of Robert Sobukwe on the outer edge of the Island. Sobukwe was isolated from other
prisoners and placed on a silence order and forbidden to communicate with another soul
for many years of his prison term. After this we were taken to the quarry where political
prisoners were forced to dig lime and repetitively move it from one side of the Island to
the other. Dug into the inside of the quarry wall is large cave where the prisoners took
breaks and escaped the scorching sun; this cave was known the ‘university’ where
political prisoners would conduct tutorials on the politics of resistance. The tour guide
took us the main courtyard and left us in the hands of our next guide who had been a
political prisoner on Robben Island and occupied the cell next to Nelson Mandela. He
gave our group a complete overview of the island as institution for housing political
prisoners. He also spoke of his role in the African National Congress and MK, the armed
wing of the African National Congress.
The guide spoke openly about his activities as a ‘terrorist’ and his subsequent arrest and
imprisonment on Robben Island. Our guide revealed how members of the African
National Congress and the Pan African Congress conducted resistance politics from
behind the walls of their cells and how information was leaked in and out of the prison
to allow the resistance movement to continue their struggle against the apartheid
government. I was able to video the ex-political prisoner talking about his experience and
I interviewed him at the end of the tour. Finally we were led to the cell of Nelson
Mandela. I stood in awe in Mandela’s cell and contemplated his courage and relentless
fight to end racial discrimination in the South Africa which he loved.
Nelson Mandela’s Prison cell
Robben Island, Cape Town, South Africa
My Scholarship and study tour of South Africa has given me the opportunity to have
face-to-face contact with the world leading academics in Apartheid History. It has
enabled me to gather primary and secondary material from a number of Universities and
Archives. I have been able to take many pictures and visit a variety of museums. As a
classroom teacher, my visit to History Classes in Soweto and Johannesburg are memories
I will have forever. My scholarship has furthered my passion for teaching History and
for academic research.