The history tour was
a great success thanks to our well organized teachers and above all I would like to
thank God for his travelling mercies and guidance in everything that we did. We were
able to visit places that mainly dealt with South African history namely Freedom
Park, Lesedi Cultural Village, Apartheid Museum, Sterkfontein Caves and the Union
Buildings. Besides all this we enjoyed experiencing the beauty of our neighboring
country aand sharing our African pride.
For Watershed students, studying
history and wanting to
understand and experience what apartheid South Africa was really
like, this visit to the Apartheid Museum was an eye opener.
Freedom Park
Freedom Park was filled with information about the great leaders that helped to
make the country a better place for example we have Or Thambo, Lilian Ngovi,
Gen Christian De Wet, Julius Nyerere, Che Guevara and Dr Agostinho Neto,
fortunately our dear Nelson Mandela was not there because he is still with us.
They had walls of names which included the women who were killed in concentration
camps and the names of slaves that were used in those years, most of them were
named after the places they came from. We were also shown the places where they
would meet with their ancestors.
Lesedi Cultural Village
This was one of the places I enjoyed visiting the most because it was fun and exciting, the
people there were energetic and very friendly. We were shown how they used to live in the olden
days and their different tribes which were the Zulu’s, Khosa and Pedi. They showed us the
interesting Gumboots dance that they used to do when they were going mining, their dances were
filled with energy and they would leave you wanting to see more, fortunately I was lucky and got
a chance to dance. Basically they were teaching us about the different ways they used to live
and their cultures. Before the Zulus would go for any journey they would take a stone, spit on
it and throw it to the side, this was a way of informing the ancestors the purpose of the
journey, where they were going and asking for protection.
Apartheid Museum
We learnt about how there were places that black people were restricted to enter and that the
whites had different identification cards than blacks. The blacks used to have their meetings and
discuss about how they had had enough of unfair treatment and at times they would walk against
it and the police would be sent to hit them and some would die in the process. The blacks were
treated like savages.
Sterkfontein Caves
This place mainly deals with the evolution of mankind and how "little foot” is the only one
discovered so far in the whole world. Inside the cave you could see structures resembling the
African elephant, Mary holding her baby Jesus and three wise men in front and Joseph kneeling,
praying to God using your imagination.
Union Buildings
This is where the President and the cabinet works but unfortunately we were not able to see the
president. Not only were we able to see the beautiful buildings but also the breathtaking view of
the city of Pretoria.
