South Africa Guide
The Eastern Cape
Red Location Museum of the People's Struggle
Address: Corner of Olof Palme and Singaphi streets, New Brighton
Opening time: Tues– Fri 10am–4pm, Sat & Sun 9am–3pm
Price: R12
Situated in the suburb of New Brighton, 7km north of central Port Elizabeth, the Red Location Museum of the People's Struggle is dedicated to recalling the experiences of the residents of Red Location, Port Elizabeth's oldest African township, established in 1902. The settlement took its name from the rusted corrugated-iron barracks – around which New Brighton developed – that had housed troops till the end of the Anglo-Boer War. A significant site of anti-apartheid resistance, New Brighton was the stomping ground of a number of significant South Africans, including Govan Mbeki, ANC stalwart and father of South Africa's president, artist George Pemba, and internationally feted actor John Kani. Red Location was the first place in South Africa to stage a passive resistance campaign against the pass laws and was the birthplace of the first cell of MK (the ANC's armed wing).
The museum is housed in a striking building awarded the 2006 Royal Institute of British Architects' Lubetkin Prize for the most outstanding work of architecture outside the European Union. Described by the judges as a tour de force, the building wears an industrial-style saw-toothed roof that evokes the area's strong association with trade unionism. Inside, a dozen twelve-metre monumental rusted "memory boxes" contain exhibits exploring different themes related to the anti-apartheid struggle. The structures are inspired by the containers migrant workers used to carry their most prized possessions. Four permanent exhibitions trace a century of Red Location's history from 1900.