Soweto

The following blog post was written on the evening of the 25th July.

Today we sent to Soweto, the South West Township. This township was established as a mining town in 1889, but was never intended on being a large city. In 1904 there was a disease outbreak in Johannesburg and the black community was blamed and forced out of the city to form a township in what is now Soweto.

The area is home to more than 3.5 million people, covering a 120 sq/km area. There are currently three distinctive economic classes in the area. The upper class area has incredibly nice, expensive homes but the poor areas consists large areas of shacks piled on top of each other (may of which are illegal areas for people to live, but are not stopped by officials because the people have no place to go)-it was shocking.

While walking through the market area in Soweto I was surprised to see the men selling the meat directly off of cows’ heads (and eyes), which are not sold at a butcher shops and purchased by the men in Soweto. Apparently the meat is sold for cheap and is commonly fried up and eaten by taxi drivers in the area. It is also said to be the best cure for a hangover.

Our tour driver told us about the 4 biggest problems that exist in Soweto today, these include:

• HIV/AIDS (There are over 150 funerals every weekend and 80% of those deaths are
• AIDS related)
• High Unemployment rate
• Crime
• Xenophobia

While in Soweto we had the opportunity to see one of the most famous streets in the world, the home of two Nobel Peace Prize winners on the same block. The Soweto homes of Nelson Mandela and Demond Tutu are walking distance from each other on Vilakazi street.

On our tour we stopped at the Regina Monde Catholic Church. During apartheid it was used as a political meeting place for revolutionaries, since they were not allowed to meet together in community center or other public places the church provided a perfect cover. One Sunday morning there were 7000 people meeting and worshiping in the church when the police (who had been told of the activities by an informant) came and opened fire on the members of the church. The bullet holes in the ceiling and windows continue to be a part of the church’s environment to help people remember what happened at the chuch.

We also had the chance to go to the Hector Peiterson Museum, which was fantastic. Hector Peiterson was a 13 year old boy when he was killed. Students in Soweto met to protest the apartheid government’s decision to require Afrikaans as the language used in schools and the language the exit exams would be written in. Students were against this decision because many teachers and students were not competent enough to use only Afrikaans and testing students in Afrikaans would not effectively prove what students learned. Other students saw it as another way the government was oppressing Black students in the townships. The staged a march on June 16th, 1976 to protest. However, they were met by the police who opened fire on the protesters and killed Hector Peiterson. There is now a museum and monument to remember the boy.

Soweto continues to grow and it is proud to be the site for the opening game of the 2010 World Cup.