SOUTH AFRICA . SOWETO - SOuth WEst TOwns

Mood status: Grumpy

Location: Hostel room, Johannesburg

It’s going to difficult to write this post because I’m in such a grumpy mood although my day (excluding one event) was absolutely amazing. I’m still looking forward to the trip despite the very real possibility that I could be jailed insane by the end of it. May talk about this issue later.

Right. So today’s events. After writing yesterday’s post I fell asleep straight away (in my plane clothes and everything – yuck) and woke up at 2am, thank you jet lag. After rolling around for 3 hours, I hauled myself up and started my day. I met and decided to tag along with a British traveler as he visited the famous precinct of Soweto, which among its many attractions and heavy history, boasts the only street in the world where 2 Nobel Prize winners, Nelson Mandela and Archbishop Desmond Tutu, called home.

This same street, Vilakazi Street, was where the famous 1976 Soweto revolt took place - an uprising against Afrikaans and the apartheid by students and youth which took the lives of nearly 100 people over two days of protest. Despite the tragedies of ’76, the street today is vibrant with tourists and smiling residents, carefully planned landscaping and vivid memorials of those events.

Upon asking our driver to take us to sample local foods, we ended up finding ourselves at the house of one of Soweto’s residents. A very homely meal was cooked and the guarantee that this dish was an “African specialty” was promised. I’m salivating thinking about it now- yum!

The last stop before heading back to the hostel was the Apartheid Museum. Admittedly, I had very limited knowledge on South Africa during the time where the ‘whites’ and ‘blacks’ couldn’t even stand on the same side of the road. The history was absolutely fascinating while being incredibly horrific. Nothing quite prepares you well enough to read and witness the oppression that the black Africans faced in the hands of the Europeans.

Most moving for me was the Nelson Mandela exhibition that documented his unbelievably difficult life and relentless efforts for equality. Walking out the doors touched and inspired, I reflected on humanity today and wondered where our world could be today if only we all had the convictions of Mandela.