dompas

Apartheid laws were designed to segregate South Africa’s population in terms of race. The majority suffered discrimination in terms of education, economic rights, social standing, and eventually even citizenship. Today, the Bill of Rights enshrines many rights denied in the past.

The dusty town of Sharpeville has seen much history, from the massacre of peaceful protesters to the signing of the new Constitution of a democratic country. We look at the timeline of a place written into the history books.

South Africa was built on mining, and its mines were built on migrant workers. Millions of black men across southern Africa were forced by economic circumstance and taxes to travel to the city of gold, leaving their families at home. Here they toiled long hours underground in dangerous conditions. Wits Art Museum lays bare their lives.