Introduction to Africa
Trip Start
Dec 02, 2007
1
47
55
Trip End
Sep 01, 2008
Johannesburg,
Gauteng,
South Africa
Sunday, July 13, 2008
By lunchtime we had staved off the worst of the jet lag and were ready to start a bit of tourism. Johannesburg's Apartheid museum was not built for the noblest of reasons according to our host. It was not a philanthropic gesture on the part of local business to document some of the country's horrific past, but there because the government would only allow the huge Goldreef casino to be built if the museum was to be its neighbour. Regardless of the reasons why the museum exists, within its walls the history of South Africa's apartheid is documented in compelling detail. A brilliant museum, from which, we both learnt how ignorant we really were of this area of history- anyone visiting South Africa should try and make this a port of call. We left, now very jet lagged, with lots of new knowledge, but with hundreds of new questions.
Happily the next day we were took a tour during which we had the opportunity to begin to ask some of them. With our driver and tour guide Zak, we headed into Soweto, the most famous township in the world.
Apartheid Museum
Zak had been born in Soweto, but moved as a child when the township's violence was at its peak. As a teenager he returned, studied at the Soweto campus of the University of Johannesburg, and now runs his own business, proudly showing tourists around his community. I must admit that the stories and stereotypes of Soweto made me quite nervous about taking this trip, and I had almost expected to feel some of the nervous energy that was apparent in parts of Rio when we visited all those months ago, but driving into the township the atmosphere is far from oppressive. We stopped at a 'fast food' joint, an open air butcher-cum-barbecue, where I was the only woman, let alone the only white woman. The people greeted us warmly and offered us grilled liver, which we could hardly refuse and as it turns out were very glad we didn't- delicious! Following our late lunch, we visited the Hector Pieterson memorial and museum, which commemorate all of the children and teenagers killed during the Soweto uprisings, when students protested about the Government policy of all children being taught in Afrikaans, as opposed to Zulu and English which were the desired languages for education. Pieterson himself was the first child to be killed by the Afrikaans police, in riots which are documented in a series of evocative images and witness testimonies at this, a second fantastic museum. Following our museum visit, we took a trip to the only street in the world that has been home to two Nobel Peace Prize Winners and saw the houses of one Nelson Mandela and his neighbour Archbishop Desmond Tutu.
Garden at Mbizi Backpackers
There must be something in the water round there.Before heading back to the hostel we drove through the city of Johannesburg itself. I was struck but how different it seemed from the last time I visited seven years ago. There are people everywhere and very few whites other than in the commercial district of Bloemfontein. Zak explained that the city districts he was showing us had in recent years become home to hundreds of thousands of immingrants from neighbouring African countries. He talked to us about the violence against these newcomers and was open and honest about the fact he understood the concerns of those South Africans who had attacked immingrants they saw taking 'their' jobs, but condemned the actions that they had taken. As well as talking about this aspect of Jo'burg life, he gave us honest accounts of the Aids epidemic in his hometown and possibly, most interestingly, about the racism and prejudice he still experiences as a black man in the business world, where major hotels refuse to use him, favouring white run tours to show people around Soweto. Crazy: neither Piet or I can imagine anybody being able to show the realities of the township with such pride and openness as somebody who had been born there and made it their home...
So, two days in Johannesburg has flown by and we now enter unknown territory. For the first time in seven and a half months we will no longer be travelling independently but with a guide and in a group. We are not sure where exactly the trip will take us, nor when, just that we arrive at our final destsination Cape Town on 20th August. We're not even sure whether there will be somebody to meet us at the airport in Lilongwe. Here's hoping!*
*There was!
