Anyssa, Emily, and Kirsten here again with hottest Joburg (that’s the shortened version of Johannesburg) tea 🫖
Today we were given differing perspectives on apartheid and the history of South Africa by starting the day at Liliesleaf and ending our day at the Voortrekker Monument. Liliesleaf was the farm estate where Nelson Mandela stayed undercover while evading the police. It became the secret meeting space of antiapartheid leaders including Walter Sisulu (researched by our lovely Lauren), Ahmed Kathrada (shout out to researcher Shane, we miss you!), Denis Goldberg (thank you for your presentation, Olivier), and finally Bram Fischer (researched by me-Emily!).
On July 11th, 1963, police raided Liliesleaf arresting a great number of the people involved in the Rivonia Trial. Mandela was already in prison, but was still charged in this trial, resulting in his time at Robben Island. There was a snitch among the group, however our tour guide would not say the name of the person since Mandela has been outspoken about his forgiveness towards this person. This is something we all found super interesting since originally the blame was placed on a 10 year old boy who lived down the street.
This museum was rich with information but there was many facts that stood out to each to us, and did not come up in any previous research. For instance, Arthur Goldreich and Harold Wolfe escaped their detainment and ended up having one of the craziest escapes, with two planes exploding and a car ride dressed as priests to Swaziland. While these were not the only people who escaped detainment during this time, their story stood out to us because of their resilience and determination to flee to safety to further the movement against apartheid.
We also learned of the covert ways that weapons and explosives were smuggled into South Africa. A safari truck was designed and physically built to carry and hide these kinds of weapons under the seats of unsuspecting tourists. There were suitcases with false bottoms also fashioned, allowing more weapons to get carried into South Africa, the lining was picked so it could create an optical illusion of what was truly in the suitcase.
Emily here!! As the researcher of Bram Fischer I found this exhibit particularly fascinating. Bram was an occupant of the farmhouse, leading several anti-apartheid meetings. Because of his involvement at this estate, he earned the position of lead defense for the men arrested and tried during the Rivonia trials. It should be noted that Bram was born into a prominent Afrikaner family and was given every opportunity to turn a blind eye to the anti-apartheid movement. His work for all members of ANC and the communist party, against apartheid, went against his fellow Afrikaners thoughts and beliefs. To me, his work is especially inspiring because he provides a sense of hope within his activism. He was able to fight against his people for the greater good and take a step back, allowing others to be acknowledged instead of himself.
After Liliesleaf, we got into our lovely van driven by our great driver, Patrick ❤️. Shout out Patrick! We drove over to the Voortrekker Monument, just south of Pretoria, South Africa’s capital. The Voortrekkers were the first white colonists of South Africa and their descendants are known as the Afrikaners. The monument included a garden that featured flora of the original landscape and a heck of a lot of stairs (300 to be exact).
Many of us were conflicted and skeptical during this tour, due to the history of the Voortrekkers and Afrikaners during Apartheid (in case you were wondering… the Afrikaners were the ones who implemented the Apartheid system). Our guide had essence of pride in his heritage and it was a very eye opening experience since we had not interaction with this kind of viewpoint yet. He shared stories about how the Voortrekker’s were treated by the British, being oppressed and sent to a version of concentration camps. After a war and constant fighting, the Voortrekkers decided to travel inland, landing where the monument is located.
Our conflicted thoughts arrived when our guide spoke about the treatment of Zulu’s. The land that the Voortrekkers wanted was occupied by the Zulu’s, however, despite this the Voortrekkers still kept on trekking. The stories and information shared about the interactions with the Zulu people raised many questions, leaving us wondering what exactly was true or false. For example, our guide shared that only three Voortrekkers were injured out of the approximate 464 involved in the Blood River battle, having no casualties. The Zulu people though, despite having an army of over 20,000, had 3,000 casualties. This was something everyone in our group found to be slightly suspect, especially when we learned about the four miracles that the now current Afrikaners believe helped win this battle. We had a very detailed discussion during the ride back, sharing our mixed views and general confusion about this monument. Thulani was very excited to hear our thoughts and we were even more than ecstatic to hear his thoughts as well.
We ended our day with take away and a class reflection session.
That’s all for now! Peace out ✌️
SMCVT South Africa 2024 
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