A Tour Through Soweto

Yesterday we toured the township of Soweto, a huge city with a population of 2 million officially, but more probably 4 million. We were picked up from our apartment by “Jacques” our Afrikaans tour guide and with his constant and informative chatter descended into Soweto.

Both Marc and I were a little nervous about going to Soweto. We had been advised not to go there unaccompanied, and never to go there at night (actually, never to go anywhere at night). We also had heard so many stories of the poverty of the slums we were not sure how we would handle seeing such miserable living conditions.

What surprised us is that Soweto is a city. It has stoplights, curbs, and street signs just like any city. Major roads are paved and stores and gas stations and schools and hospitals rise up along them. This was not what we expected.

What is strange is that beautiful brick houses and affluent areas exist right across the road from the most awful slums. These slum houses are made completely of corrugated steel, wood, cardboard, blankets, any thing that could be used as a form of shelter. And in these areas you see men, women, teenagers and babies living. Somehow they are living in that filth, and dilapidated conditions. And then you turn a corner and you see beautiful housing complexes. It is shocking.

Some neat things we saw were outdoor barbershops, shebeens, and little stores at the side of the road, something we discovered was typical of Soweto.

Our guide took us to various sights in Soweto. We went to the square in Kliptown where the Freedom Charter was signed. A document signed by blacks, coloureds, and Indians stating clearly what the aims of their resistance were. The square traditionally was a place where people traded goods, sold trinkets and food and gathered socially. And still today it is used for that purpose, but it also holds a huge monument and plaques telling the story of the Freedom charter.

From there we went to the Regina Mundi Catholic Church. This was the meeting place of the ANC during the uprisings. The government had banned the political groups and made it illegal to meet. They had not, however, banned church. So the resistance leaders would meet in the church, have a brief service and then hold their meetings. The police, however, got wind of this and they raided the church during their meetings. Their gunshots are still in the bricks and windows of the church, and a corner of the alter table is broken where a police officer struck it with his rifle butt. In the stain glass windows of the church, the story of the resistance is told. Including stain glass depictions of Nelson Mandela and Hector Peterson who, with other children was shot by police during a peaceful school children’s demonstration.

The balcony of the Regina Mundi church was transformed into an art gallery displaying photographs of the story of Soweto, life under apartheid, the resistance movement, and Sowetan life in general. Throughout the years, visitors have signed their names and other messages all over the walls of the gallery, it was interesting to read what people had written.

We also went to the Hector Peterson Memorial and museum. This was a moving experience as we were presented the story of school children who were demonstrating about having to be educated in Afrikaans instead of their first language. While peacefully walking to present their case to the government, the police told them to disperse and when they refused the police opened fire, killing and injuring many children. Hector Peterson was an 13 year old boy who was killed and then photographed being carried by a man with his sister following. This picture was shared throughout the world and Hector became the face of the anti-apartheid movement. In fact, the boy who was carrying Hector had to go into hiding and eventually had to flee South Africa because he was hunted by the police.

Finally, we visited Nelson and Winnie Mandela’s house in Soweto which has been converted into a museum. It is a very simple house – a living area and kitchen attached, a bedroom, washroom and a den which was converted into the children’s bedroom. It was neat to stand in the room where Nelson and Winnie had lived. The house had been firebombed several times and there were bullet holes in the brickwork from the times that the police had come to arrest them.

After Mandela’s house, we had a quick glimpse at Desmond Tutu’s house (he still lives in Soweto, as does Winnie Mandela), a sneak peak at Soccer City despite its tight security and then we headed back home to our apartment in Sandton.