We enjoyed a later start to the morning today with an 8.30am pick-up time for our day tour covering the Soweto township, the Apartheid Museum and Johannesburg/Joburg. The mini-van was full with many newcomers to our travel group joining us. We had a long drive from our campsite in towards Joburg. We saw where they were mining for gold, which when it was discovered in 1886 Joburg suddenly became a very popular place, especially with the British. We stopped in front of the 2010 World Cup Stadium, where the Spanish team defeated the Dutch in the final. The African Cup of Nations final is being played there tonight (10thFeb) between Nigeria and Burkino Faso. We will be watching this with our Kenyan bus driver Josh who loves his football.
Our next stop was the Soweto township, where the famous 1976 uprisings occurred. Young African school kids were protesting on the way they were being made to sit their school exams in Afrikaans, which was not their first language. When this was introduced only 30% passed their exams. This was just one example of apartheid rule in South Africa during this time. During the protests a 13 year old boy, Hector Pieterson, was shot dead by the police in a peaceful student demonstration and there is a famous picture of another young boy carrying him running down the road with Hector’s sister alongside. We were fortunate enough to meet his sister who works at the Hector Pieterson Museum. We drove to the street where this shooting happened in the Soweto township. We drove down the street where Nelson Mandela lived for part of his early adult life, when he was married to Winnie Mandela. This street was also the home to Desmond Tutu, making it the only street in the world to house two Nobel Peace Prize winners. We were unfortunately not able to spend a lot of time on this street (Vilagase) as we were on a strict schedule, but this particular area had a strong cultural feel to it. The township had a population of about 4.5 million people, made up of 61 suburbs, 19 hostels and one upper class area. We were taken on a very short walk in a shanty town, where we saw how more than 40% of the black South African people live (on less than a £1 per day). They had no mains power electricity, and they had communal running water. Their houses were very basic and small, made out of corrugated iron and often only one bedroom. We were constantly being asked for tips from people. Our driver was also spotted by one of our group taking a sneaky commission from owners of small souvenir stalls that were selling us stuff. We were all, I think a little bit disappointed after this part of the tour as we had expected to see and learn more about the shanty town from our guides and see first hand their day to day life.
Read more at http://www.travelblog.org/
No comments:
Post a Comment