Greetings from Soweto

Day 1: some of the girls and I woke up early and walked around the area to get a feel for our surroundings, we are very close to a secondary school as well as a main road with lots of shops and food stores. After the walk we came back and had breakfast and then met with a man named Molefi, who spoke to us about the Black South African Liberation struggle.

Molefi was part of the liberation struggle in the mid-80s during a period of extreme disorder. In the early 1900's there was a struggle between the British and the Afrikaaners, the Afrikaaners (mainly Dutch) felt that they were mistreated under British rule, so they formed a treaty with the British which, by leaving out the Black South Africans in the treaty, deepened a huge racial divide and was the true beginning of the Apartheid. Later on the British rule pulled out and handed control of South Africa to the Afrikaaners, who started instating rules, to make life better for Afrikaans people (white south Africans), these rules became the cruel harsh standards of the Apartheid. 

Molefi then explained about the important events of 1976- the Soweto Uprisings and how the youth of SA really became the front runners of the liberation struggle. He finished by discussing some of the problems that still face SA today. It is an extremely complex country, and while race plays a huge role in it, many in the Liberation movement are quick to assert that the liberation struggle was not as much about race against race but about fighting back against the oppressive regime that Black South Africans lived under. He expressed that the future of the country is in the hands of youth, because many older S. Africans are still dealing with the traumas of the apartheid or many older white South Africans still hold opinions and ideals that are discriminatory. In the end he expressed that the government is all about reconciliation, but there wasn't ever a united South Africa so this isn't a reconciliation it is a new union, and that is how it must be dealt with.

Molefi was very interesting and fun to talk to and he also acted as our guide through Soweto later in the day.

SIDENOTE: in South Africa a township refers to a predominately black area and a suburb refers to a predominately white area.

After Molefi spoke, we left for Soweto. Soweto stands for South West Townships of Johannesburg, there are many townships in Soweto, the largest having 200,000. The estimated population of Soweto is 3 million people. 

We first visited one of the wealthier townships of Soweto, Molefi explained it is practice of some prominent black south africans to stay living in Soweto even when they are wealthy. I was surprised by this, the houses in the first area were nothing like what I had heard, read or expected them to look like.There is a park on the outskirts of this area with a small ravine dividing this area with a much poorer area of Soweto called the hostels, but this is just another small part of Soweto, which is quite large. It was so strange to see two incredibly disparate areas right across the ravine from each other.

After discussing how each of these different parts of the community developed we drove by the Chris Hani hospital and the University of Johannesburg in Soweto.

Then we visited the Regina Mundi church. The man who took us around the church was very friendly and really funny...he kept asking questions like "do you know Madonna is? and don't tell me she is a pop star" or "do you know who that man is...don't tell me morgan freeman" 

The church is actually very important to the Soweto community. It is the largest Catholic Church in Soweto and everyone from Mandela to Bill Clinton have been there. 

It is important because during apartheid regime all black organizations were banned and the church became a place of refuge. During the Soweto uprisings students fled to the church and police fired bullets and tear gas into the church and entered the church shooting. A lot of the bullet holes are still visible, as well as damage to the alter from the butt of a rifle.

After we left the church we went to a B&B in Soweto called Robbie's Place. The food was delicious and I tried a traditional dish called "pap" which is sort of corn meal and other things. It was very interesting.

After lunch we went and visited the site of the student marches, we walked the route the students took all the way to the Hector Pieterson Museum.

Hector Pieterson was a 13 year old boy who is considered one of the first to be killed in the school uprisings. The students were peacefully marching and singing to protest the use of Afrikaans in Black S. African schools, which was the language of their oppressor.

The South African police opened fire and in the uprisings in other areas of the country that followed it is estimated that more than 1000 students and protestors were killed.Some of the people killed weren't even protesting, they were caught in crossfire when the students started running. 

The museum was extremely moving and very sad, they showed videos from the Soweto uprisings and the Alexandra protests and Joburg and Capetown protests.

Before exploring the museum, we spoke with Hector Pieterson's older sister Antoinette, she was marching during the protests, and Hector was curious so he followed her, but he was only 13, so he wasnt really involved. She expressed how scared she felt when she saw her brother join the marches, because she saw the police waiting for them and like any big sister, she was concerned about the safety of her brother. After the shooting started, she realized they had gotten separated and soon found out what happened as a man ran by her carrying her brother. There is a famous picture of the young man carrying Hector with Antoinette by his side. 

One thing that really struck with both Molefi and Antoinette was the way they talked about the apartheid. They were both very clear that vengeance was not their goal, change was. The disorder that was created after the violence against students was to make the country "ungovernable" so that the regime had to change.

Antoinette was very forward when she spoke about her brother and the uprisings, and she was very clear that even after all of those events she knew that her enemy was apartheid regime and all those involved with it, but not all whites or all white south africans. I was amazed and humbled by both her and Molefi's ability to not develop opinions about a race based on the actions of a group within that race, even though the reverse and worse was done to them.

That ability takes a lot of courage, but Molefi also expressed that the trauma of apartheid is still present in many Black South Africans and that it is hard for the country to move forward when people cannot deal with those experiences properly and there are not enough resources with which they can do so. 

The last place we visited was the house of Nelson and Winnie Mandela. Winnie still lives in Soweto, but Nelson only lived in his house in Soweto for 8 days after he was released from prison, although he lived there for 8 years before he went to prison. In 2008 the government bought back his house and restored it to the way it was originally when Mandela lived there. On the walk from the museum to Mandela's house (about 4 blocks) two little boys came up and started hugging us and then started walking hand in hand singing the South African national anthem, it was pretty cute, they wanted sweets in return for their performance and luckily someone in the group had some candy to give them.

Mandela's house was originally Mandela's first wife's family home, which they moved into and had four kids in. Three of the children died and the couple divorced and he married Winnie. Winnie lived in the house until Mandela was released from Robben Island, and they both moved. 
 here are me and two other girls in my group in Mandela's courtyard.

The house is a very small three room house, but it is larger than many of the houses in the rest of the township. There are fire marks around the outside of the brick and bullet marks from where police would shoot at the house to terrorize Winnie and their children. Also on the street is the house of Desmond Tutu. After the Mandela house, we left for St. Peter's Place again. We stopped only to take pictures in front of the World Cup Stadium.

According to Molefi, while the World Cup cost a significant amount of money, it did result in the reconstruction of many damaged roads and the placement of a better public transportation system. We ended the day watching Sarafina- a movie about the Soweto uprisings, and having a nice meal at the house.

Day 2: It rains in very strange patterns here, rainstorms will last for five to ten minutes in the afternoon and it will stay about 80 degrees and then turn sunny again, this goes into the night and clears again in the morning. 

This morning we started the day with a quick run around the area again, and then went to breakfast and left early to go to visit a secondary school in Soweto. The school, St. Martin's is a semi-private school and it is one of the highest performing schools in the townships. We had students who took each of us in small groups to visit different classes. This was by far my favorite part of the trip. My group's tour guide was so fun and really interesting, when I asked her what she was the one thing she wanted in school, she said resources. The buildings of the school were relatively old and they used to have a computer center, but all of the computers were stolen. 

She was very interested in forensic science. A lot of the girls were very interested in science and several of them wanted to be chemical or mechanical engineering. I was really struck by the drive of these kids and their grounded sense of direction. Molefi, explained that education in South Africa, has always been seen as a way to change your position and achieve your goals and so for kids, school is very important and they start planning life goals at a very young age. 

This may be my experience, but I don't believe that the students I have encountered in the US valued school as such an option in the same manner of importance. I was also struck at the school by the number of girls who were interested in science and math subjects. Most of the young women wanted to be involved in economics or science and some of them were interested in law. The boys had similar aspirations in math and many were interested in debate. All of the kids were really welcoming and interesting to talk to. One of the groups I talked with spent a lot of the time swapping stereotypes about our countries, they would tell me different stereotypes about the US (everyone is a celebrity, or everyone knows celebrities) and I would tell them different stereotypes about South Africa. They were really interested in race relations in the US, and whether there was still racism or not. 

They then explained about their race relations and the biggest issues they thought they faced. Even though some of the conversation was heavy, we also talked about favorite sports and music and swapped Facebook information too. 

One thing they thought was very interesting, is that they couldn't understand why most of us only spoke one or maybe two languages, most of them speak four or five. This is because in the townships, they grow up with friends, whose home language might be Tsonga, Zulu or Xhosa or any other home language and to communicate with each other, they each learn these languages. Then they learn english and sometimes Afrikaans. In Soweto, to pass each grade, a student must get passing grades in their home language (schools instituted this policy to make sure students stayed in touch with their heritage and understood parts of their history). 

I loved being at the school. Everyone was so friendly and it was really great to talk to the students, because they were so engaging and interesting. After the school, we went to Kliptown, one of the poorest, if not the poorest area of Soweto. We drove by Molefi's childhood home on our way to Kliptown in Sofiatown, he explained that as soon as he became politically active he had to move, because his house was across from the Sofiatown Police Station. 

He also explained that gangs are not a problem in Soweto, because the community is so centered and cohesive that any time one tries to form, they go to the police and tell them to shut it down, or they will handle it violently. It's amazing that through sheer community force, they have managed to keep gangs almost completely out of Soweto. The gangs are concentrated in areas where immigrants from Zimbabwe, Nigeria and other African countries, live. The Zimbabwean violence has become a real problem because they form gangs and attack other South Africans, but the Nigerians fight mainly within the gangs they form themselves. Drugs are another problem however. There is a huge problem with young men in Soweto using crack, crystal meth and heroin. 

When we got to Kliptown, we first visited Freedom Square, which hold a monument dedicated to the Freedom Charter. The Freedom Charter is a set of ideals put forth by the people of Soweto, for the government and people to abide by. It is essentially a set of human rights. Kliptown, however, is a perfect example of a group of people who have been denied basic human rights. The South African government keeps promising to invest money to build up its infrastructure and they have created many jobs in the area, but are now promising those jobs to others and actively trying to exclude the members of Kliptown. The residents of Kliptown don't have flush toilets, they have a bucket, that is shared by three to four families and is collected once a week. Kliptown was a very overwhelming experience, which I find hard to describe because it really is like nothing I have ever experienced. Everyone in Kliptown was so friendly and genuine  and they all stopped to say hello and good morning and they live in such extreme poverty. The woman who took us around Kliptown was part of a community empowerment organization, which regularly meets with the government to discuss different improvement strategies, and has continually met resistance.

After lunch, we went back to the guest house and met with Dale McKinley, a political economist. He spent about an hour discussing South African political economy, which was so interesting, but I have already written a novel about the first two days.

Ill post pictures from day two when the internet works better and will upload the pictures :)