The Apartheid museum is halfway between Johannesburg and Soweto, on the motorway that links the city with its emblematic township. The imposing concrete structure, emblazoned with the words Freedom and Respect, stands in a natural park that looks like the veld. Visitors receive an entry card – white or non-white. Arbitrarily given a non-white pass, I had to follow an arrow down a corridor to the right, between metal grilles, until the two paths merged again, 10 metres on.

After this, there was a short respite in which to reflect on that legal and mental aberration, the doctrine of separate development. A poster evokes the merry-go-round of 1985 in which 700 people of mixed race legally became white, 19 whites became mixed race, one Indian became white, and 11 mixed race were transformed into Chinese. No whites became blacks or vice versa. Then the video monitors started and I was surrounded by symbols of violence: images of segregation, racist speeches, popular resistance, attacks on crowds, torture, prisoners’ testimonies – and eventual victory.

On display at the centre was a Casspir, the terrifying armoured personnel carrier that used to patrol the townships. The feeling of oppression intensified as I entered a prison-like space in which 121 nooses, suspended from the ceiling, represented activists who are said to have killed themselves in police custody. The final emotion was of (...)