How racing was nearly lost in a country still grappling with its grim past

The Apartheid Museum sits away from the bedlam of Johannesburg's city centre and not only documents a dark chapter in modern history but offers insight into many of the issues still plaguing South Africa.

It features distinctly marked turnstiles for whites and non-whites, although visitors are free to use both, and there is an exhibition of photos portraying the violence of the 1976 Soweto uprising. This is not for the faint-hearted. The protest, led by students, was met with extreme police brutality and hundreds of young people were killed.

The sprawling, densely populated township on the edge of the city was shaped by the policy of apartheid after 60,000 people were forcibly moved to Soweto in the 1950s. A vision for a new, unified nation was later cultivated there, most notably by Nelson Mandela, whose tiny red-brick house is a popular attraction on Vilakazi Street.