After a rather long day of travel from Victoria Falls to Johannesburg (though only a 2 hour flight it was a long time at the airport and traveling) we arrived at our final hotel in Africa…the Hyde Johannesburg Rosebank and settled in for a room service and a rest.
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| Another place with great do not disturb tags |
We spent the day with Dumisani seeing the city with a particular focus on Soweto and the Apartheid Museum. Before we got started, LuLu learned the local greeting. The 3 different shakes mean: Hello. How are you? I am Good.
Our first stop of the day was Nelson Mandela’s home after he was released from prison. The house was gifted to him by a Jewish business man, Izzy Maisels. Given the Jews had recently experienced the Holocaust when Apartheid began in 1948, they had an understanding and connection with the people of South Africa being placed into townships and the regulations under which they lived. After his death, the house was left to Mandela’s grandchildren and is still in the family today. When he was in the hospital and to this day, people write messages on rocks and leave them in the planters outside of his home.
Next was the Apartheid Museum (not located in Soweto) where we started with getting a ticket that either had us start on the path of a Nie-Blankes (non-whites) or a Blankes (whites). Your ticket determined your entrance to the museum where we could see some of the difference experienced during Apartheid. LuLu had the Blankes ticket and I had the Nie-Blankes ticket. The signs we saw were a different and the way we reached the next level was different. The Blankes had a ramp to walk which was an easier path whereas the Nie-Blankes had about 10 steps to climb. There was a short video that gave the history of the area, the Boer War (English vs Boers which were from Dutch, German or Huguenot decent) and up to when Apartheid began. To be honest, when Apartheid was happening, I do not recall learning a lot about it but do remember studying in London during the Fall of 1987 and seeing the protests outside the South African Embassy. I do remember the news coverage of Nelson Mandela being released from prison in February 1990.
Both our guides in Cape Town and Jo’burg said that the corruption inside the government and the tribal structure of South Africa is what allowed the minority to have such powerful control over the majority. They both said that if the tribes would have not feuded between themselves and gave up some of their pride, they would have realized that together there was strength in numbers and they could have possibly prevented it. Ironically some of the same tribal issues still exist today and is why the government corruption is still very rampant. While I try to avoid politics when traveling, I so appreciate it when I have the opportunity to talk with locals about real issues and not just the superficial things. With both Bo and Dusimani, I felt comfortable to ask them about some things regarding the races that I cannot ask people in the US for fear of being labeled a racist.
Photos are not allowed in the museum but Dumisani said we could sneak a few…
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| The 7 Pillars of the South African Constitution |
At the end of the museum tour, there is the flag of South Africa with a walkway. On one side of the walkway is a pile of rocks and if you are committed to a world free of prejudice and discrimination you move a stone to the other side under the flag.
On our way to Soweto, we saw some goats…actually a lot of goats and cows and chickens. Dumisani told us of the significance and importance of animals in the South African culture. While the vast majority of the blacks of South Africa practice Christianity, they still practice some of their tribal traditions as well. When a person dies, an animal must be sacrificed to help the spirit of the deceased transition into the after life. Before the animal can be sacrificed, it must first spend a night in the home of the deceased so that it can take on their spirit. The animal is then slaughter and the family will go out into the village and wash themselves in a mixture of mostly water and a cup of the animal’s blood.
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| We saw a lot these guys as well throughout Soweto. |
Upon entering Soweto, you see the Soweto Power Park which generated power that was supplied to the white neighborhoods but not any of the townships. The people of Soweto and other townships had to use coal or wood for heat and cooking. Today you can bungee jump off the towers…no thank you! During Apartheid, the non-whites of South Africa were put into township based upon their race. Soweto was one of the townships for blacks. There were townships for colored (interracial) people (it is acceptable and not offensive to call someone colored in South Africa today) and townships for Indians…in Cape Town, they also had townships for Cape Malays (decedents of the slaves brought to Cape Town by the Dutch from the East Indies). The townships were for living only…all shopping and work was done out of the townships and residents had to carry their papers with them giving them permission to leave the township for specific reasons and periods of time.
While Apartheid has ended, people still live in townships today but now it is by choice though they still tend to be by race. Inside the townships today, there are some shops for the little things you may have forgotten at the grocery store but people still have to go outside of the townships for shopping and work. Today there are different levels of housing…everything from shacks to government housing to individually own homes (bonded homes as they call them…which translates to they have a mortgage). Bo lived in a shack when he was younger and not earning enough money to rent an apartment. He said that while the outside of his shack looked like many in this picture, the inside was very different. It was a one room building made of metal walls but he put up what sounded like sheetrock and then stuffed newspapers (or when he could afford insulation) between the sheetrock and metal to provide insulation. He cut out electric outlets for the power he “borrowed” (as there is no power for the shacks the people have to tap into the different power poles) so it looked nice. He wanted the place to look good so when the ladies came over so they were impressed 😁. We asked Dusimani about the safety of the power lines running to the shacks and he said the children are taught very young not to touch them. There is also no running water in the shacks so people have to use the pump station for drinking/cooking water and port-o-potties for the toilet (they are cleaned once a week).
During Nelson Mandela’s presidency, he established government funded housing so people could have a more dignified living environment. The folks living in the shacks today are on a list for government funded housing but due to the number of people requesting housing, they can be on the list for a very long time. When Dumisani told us we would touring the township, I asked him how the residents felt as we did not want them to feel like they were on show for us. He said that it was quite the opposite (Bo said the same thing) as they know we are here to learn about the history and that many of the children in the townships today receive scholarships from the white people of South Africa and the rest of the world. The only thing he said is that if we wanted to take a direct picture of someone, we do need to ask their permission.
Unemployment in South Africa is 32.9% which is due to several factors according to our guides. The education system in the country does not properly educate and train kids for the jobs that are available. Wages are low (minimum wage is the equivalent $255 a month…folks here are paid monthly…oh and that is before taxes) so some folks would rather not work and have the government or their working family members support them. There is also a very big problem in South Africa with illegal immigration which is resulting in employers hiring them under the table for lower wages than they would pay South Africans. As a result of all of this, it is not easy for folks to qualify for a bond to be able to buy a home…but with a lot of work and savings, it is possible.
Outside of South Africa, not many people really knew what was happening in the country with regards to Apartheid. On June 16, 1976, the youth of Soweto and this photo made the whole world aware of what was happening here. The Soweto Uprising was led by the black school children to protest the conditions of Apartheid and was the wake-up call for the world. This photo taken by Sam Nzima shows Hector Pieterson being carried by Mbuyisa Makhubo after being shot made its way out of the country and onto all the news wires. The girl in the photo is Hector’s sister, Antoinette. Unfortunately, Hector did not survive and he became a symbol of the uprising.
Once the police came to break up the Soweto Uprising, many of the students headed to Regina Mundi Catholic Church to escape the bullets. The church is the largest Roman Catholic Church in South Africa and very proud of its history and the role it played under Apartheid as it was the site of many meetings. You can still see some the bullet holes in the church ceiling from when police fired on it from above during the uprising.
After a tasty lunch on Vilakazi Street, we visited the house where Winnie and Nelson lived…Winnie also lived in this house while he was in prison. The house was very small…only a living room, kitchen (really an nook), a small room for their 2 kids, a small bedroom for them, a pantry (another nook) and a shower (a little bigger than a nook but no running water so they had to get water, heat it and then use a basin to stand in). When Nelson was in prison, Winnie had to put up a wall in the living room between the front of the house as the police would shoot at the house. Interesting fact: Vilakazi Street is the only street where 2 Noble Peace Prize winners have lived…Nelson Mandela and Bishop Desmond Tutu.
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| Tree in courtyard of Mandela’s house. In keeping with South African tradition, the umbilical cords of his children are buried under the tree. |
Nelson Mandela was in prison from 1962 to 1990. During this time, he was allowed to write 2 letters of no more than 500 words each in English TWICE a year and ONE visitor for 30 minutes ONCE a year! After learning this during our tour with Devon (a student volunteer in his last year at university studying tourism), we were utterly speechless and amazed that Mandela’s voice was so powerful and able to change a whole nation from behind bars. We know it was the fight of the people of South Africa along with his words but it was so unbelievable to learn this.
Our last day in Jo’burg was a free day so we decided we would take the day to just relax and not do anything. Since our arrival in South Africa on July 8, we have been going non-stop and had to be up before the chickens most days so getting up at our leisure and doing nothing was the perfect ending to our African Adventure. We leave at 6:00pm tomorrow for Boston by way of Paris and will be home Monday afternoon. This has been another wonderful trip and I am so thankful I was able to make new memories with LuLu ❤️
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