Jerard on stronger relations and a wealth of knowlege

It was hailed as the New York of South Africa; a place where the thieves would steal the shoes off your feet if you didn’t pay close enough attention. With descriptions like these from Capetonians, everyone in our group expected Johannesburg to be a bustling metropolis with colorful characters around every corner. For our spring break we took an excursion to what we believed to be an infamous city and found that the stories of Jo’burg were vastly exaggerated. The largest city in South Africa was not quite what we would call bustling and didn’t have the dangerous feel we were anticipating. Despite all of this, Johannesburg managed to live up to its reputation as the “place of gold,” but in a less obvious way. The gold we found did not come in the form of a precious metal, but instead came in the form of stronger relationships and a wealth of knowledge.

Jerard reflecting on the value of education

Throughout the excursion we were exposed to a series of apartheid museums that dealt with various aspects of the struggle. The first one, the Hector Peterson museum, had the most profound effect on many members of our group. This museum gave a glimpse into the pain caused by the Soweto Uprising, which was a series of high school led protests against the mandatory teaching of Afrikaans in all Soweto schools. Soweto was a black area and for most residents Afrikaans was not their first language. This meant that classes that had previously performed admirably suddenly witnessed a dramatic drop off in their performance. The institution of this policy was seen as a way to keep blacks subservient to whites and prevent blacks from getting a quality education. The actual uprising occurred after officers opened fire on some of the children as they fled. This museum had such a strong impact on people because it was remembering the massacre of high school children. All of us are not that far removed from our high school days. We remember what it was like to be a high school student, but we could not even begin to fathom what it would be like to die for your education. These kids were more aware of political and social issues than some adults are today. It made me and others realize everything we take for granted about our lives as relatively care free college students. That museum was something that I believe every high school and college student around the world should experience. I believe that if that happened a higher value would be placed on education in every society and no one would take that privilege for granted.