We both slept pretty soundly and then woke up to the 7:30 alarm clock. Time for a shower, getting things together for the day and then downstairs for a very hearty breakfast. We knew we would want to have lots of food in our stomach for our exploration.
At 9 o’clock, we were picked up by Thabang, the owner of a tour company and our guide for six hours today. He came to our hotel and then Dick inquired how many more people were getting picked up. The answer was, just the two of us so it ended up we had another of our famous private tours. We both are very hesitant about paying high-level costs for private tours, but on a number of occasions as it’s worked out, we’ve had either private or very small tours. We always reassure our guides that we will ask lots of questions and they will be happy to have us on their tour. That proved to be true also today.
Being this was our first day in South Africa, we were hopeful today’s tour would help ground us in understanding the country that we had arrived in.
Our guide is in lifelong native in the Township of Soweto and assured us that he would be giving us a tour, inviting us into the home where he lived his whole life.
After lots of interesting background and facts about South Africa, we arrived at the Apartheid Museum. Apartheid, which is a word that means separateness, was the official law and policy and South Africa suppurating whites and blacks. It was officially in place in 1948 until 1989. However, the practice of blacks being oppressed in South Africa was in place since the very first whites arrived on the 1600s. During the next two hours in the museum, we would learn a lot about the history of South Africa, mining particular gold mining in South Africa and its impact on the country.
The exhibit began with a focus on Nelson Mandela, the first black president of South Africa. Mandela had endured 27 years in prison for his political activism and organizing. There are so many powerful pictures and films and quotes from Mandela. He is obviously such a critical person in South Africa and his legacy continues on through today.
We went from room to room, seeing more photos and learning more about the struggles, including how there were white allies throughout the years of oppression who worked hard to also overthrow Apartheid.
Towards the end of our time there, we watched a very powerful film about the youth student uprising in the township of Soweto, where students from 8 to 18 years old, led the fight for freedom against a heavily militarized army. The bravery of these young people was astounding to watch.
We didn’t have enough time to explore the end of the museum it had to do with when Mandela was finally released from prison and the first fair and free elections which included blacks happened. Then there were also some really powerful stories of the times of truth and reconciliation when the country grappled with the violence that had happened for so many years and all the trauma. Clearly one could’ve stayed for many more hours. But our time in our tour had ended.
The next part of the tour took us to the township of Soweto. We were surprised to learn that Johannesburg has 11 million people, and Soweto, the Township at the very edge of Johannesburg, has 3 million people. Our guide did some really great interactive questions with us asking us what our stereotypes would be in regards to what we would find and Soweto. He noted most people shared a place all full of shacks and garbage and people living in misery. Both of us had had enough information and experience that we predicted that there would be a large range of types of housing and economic status. He confirmed that we were correct and that tourists rarely gave him that as an answer. We try to be the best history majors and cultural explorers that we are able to be. And we’re glad to have this confirmed.
Our tour began with the upper class housing in Soweto, which were very well-kept nice brick homes. He shared that this is where the doctors, the lawyers and other professionals lived. Although they could afford to live in other nicer areas of the city, they chose to remain due to community feeling and support.
We also saw middle class housing. Our guide report reported about 60% of people living in Soweto are in middle class.
And then we saw both government provided what we would call subsidize housing, and also more small self- built homes made out of corrugated metal. Our guide checked if we were feeling safe and if we would like to walk around and one of these streets. We eagerly agreed and spent 15 minutes walking with a childhood friend of his who is known as Wise Man. This guy is studying to be a tour guide. He gave us the opportunity to walk through an area and see the modest homes. There were children running, dancing and playing everywhere. Dick remarked around the world children find things to play with and these kids were jumping through the water that was running along the street as well as climbing to the top of some piles of dirt. We had the chance to ask questions and see some really interesting homes. Each block had an outdoor toilet which the government had emptied on a weekly basis. Wise Man showed us that people are happy to have us come because they know it brings attention, money, and support into their community.
We were surprised to see goats throughout the township. Goats are particularly beloved and sacred animals in South Africa. And many people had goats. They wondered around, but always knew their way home at night.
There also were a lot of areas where recycling was brought and sold, as well as other areas where there was trash.
Our overall impression was that this was an area that was a vibrant community who takes care of one another.
We were dropped by our hotel around 3 o’clock and quickly grabbed a sandwich and salad at our hotel. Then we laid down and napped for a while. The time change of seven hours from US Central Time is a tough one.
We finally got up and took the computer downstairs. We downloaded our photos from the last few days, worked on some copy for the blog. Dick got started on choosing and revising photos.
Although we understood within a quite short distance, there was lots of interesting restaurants, we decided to order a pizza from our hotel. Sometimes fine dining is just too much work.
And we were back to our room doing a few things before headed off to bed. Tomorrow we would meet up with whoever else is on this tour with us and head out to Kruger National Park. But the trip has already gone very well.
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