Soweto

Soweto Sqwatters Camp

Okay.. this is by word of mouth.. So I'll do my best.

Auntie Gloria, Danielle, Auntie Ann Marie, Shatar and Auntie Germaine went on a tour of Soweto today. (I stayed in Bots with the parents)

30 years ago on June 1976 the Soweto Riots or Soweto Uprising occured in Soweto, South Africa between black youths and the South African authorities. The riots grow out of protests against the policies of the National Party government and its apartheid regime.



Black students in Soweto protested against the Afrikaans Medium Decree of 1974 which forced all black students to learn the Afrikaans language and to be taught secondary school mathematics, social sciences, geography and history in the language.

The decree was resented deeply by blacks as Afrikaans was widely viewed, in the words of Desmond Tutu, then Dean of Johannesburg as "the language of the oppressor". The resentment grew until April 30, 1976, when children at Orlando West Junior School in Soweto went on strike, refusing to go to school. Their rebellion then spread to many other schools in Soweto. The students organised a mass rally for June 16, 1976 to hopefully make themselves heard by the Bantu Education System.

A massacre which followed caused the deaths of 200 to 600 students. The number of wounded was estimated to be over a thousand people.




I suggest doing some research on your own...
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Soweto_Riots

While on tour they got to visit the place where Madiba Nelson Mandela was held prisoner, they visited his homes (from when he was younger and present as well as the home of Desmond Tutu..

Little known fact: This is the only place in the world where 2 Nobel Peace Prize winners actually lived on the same street.

They visited the Apartheid Museum. They saw downtown Jo'burg which interestingly enough is kept out of view of the main Jo'burg area, behind the football stadium, behind a huge gold man made mountain.. (and I mean.. or they mean.. HUGE).

In many places, there were still signs that read, non-whites only or whites only.

There wereyet a variety of classes, Upper class, (yes they do have upper class), middle class, who had homes that they could purchase in sections to accomodate growing families.. but no plumbing and lower class who live in small rooms as I showed earlier. There are actually people living in a class below this.. and they share rooms maybe 7 to 9 in a share.

Now.. Southern (not only south) Africa is FAR from poor, What the world has done and perhaps the mistake I've made here as well, is focus on the 'primative'.. and by that I mean., the landscapes, the animals, the Africa we know from the Discovery channel.

Well Africa is much, much more than that.. They are technologically advanced and rich in many areas, While there are industries lacking in certain areas, there are industries growing in others.. DIAMONDS.. This is the major exporter of diamonds in the WORLD. De Beers LIVES here.. I've passed Land Rover and Volvo dealers.. I've seen mansions on mountain sides (we question where ownership of the land came from. Tall buildings.. etc, etc.. But yet people still live like this.. uneducated and hungry.. like many democracies no? What.. Should they just go get a job? Forget this places history? Sweep it under a rock.. OR BEHIND A GIANT MAN MADE ONE??????

Now, to their credit.. South Africa has come FAR in a short time.. much farther than many other countries who had similar racist systems in place.. but they also started to correct them very late.. I’m empty on this.