If you are lucky enough to visit Cape Town during a trip to South Africa, there are two places you should not miss to understand the history of apartheid: the District Six Museum and Robben Island.
The District Museum is located right in the center of Cape Town on Buitenkant Street and traces the history of the now disappeared District Six, the neighborhood dismantled in the 60s / 70s because of racial laws. It is a tribute to the history of the 50,000 people who lived here before the forced evictions. The museum is run exclusively by former residents of the neighborhood and tries to reconstruct the interiors of the houses of the time. In the middle, there is a large map where the people who lived there indicated the location of their house. It's a charming place because it allows you to understand what you were forced to because of the harsh South African laws that required blacks to live in neighborhoods outside the city.
At Robben Island, however, you get there only by guided tours that sail from the Waterfront (the coolest area of the city). The ticket gives access to the tour of the island used as a prison until 1996. Today it has been declared a World Heritage Site by UNESCO dedicated to all those who, like Nelson Mandela, have spent long years in prison. During the entire visit, you will be accompanied by a former prisoner. For us, it was strange to think that the person who was telling us about the barbarity to which we were subjected (as if having to spend the winter in damp cells completely naked and equipped with a single blanket) had really experienced them firsthand. The tour includes a visit to the old prison and Mandela's cell and a 45-minute bus tour of the island with comments on places worthy of note such as the lime quarry where the prisoners were employed in forced labor.
We were all there together in front of the cell of a person who made history in South Africa and the emotion was very high. To think that this extraordinary man has spent much of his life there in honor of a very high value that is equality still leaves us speechless.