The Big Bad City
Trip Start
Sep 10, 2008
1
15
71
Trip End
Sep 03, 2009
Johannesburg,
Gauteng,
South Africa
Wednesday, November 19, 2008
Deciding to blow my budget I took a good but overpriced tour. Why are things always more expensive in capital cities than anywhere else?! We started in the huge Apartheid museum, which is very moving. Friends entering the museum are divided given a pass declaring them as white or non-white and forced to enter using the corresponding entrance. I was classified as white and had to enter through a different door than Maria, who was now a non-white. Looking at the first exhibits seperated from who you came with, you are eventually reunited outside to learn how toilets, train stations and even staircases were divided by race. The museum gave an excellent insight into Apartied era South Africa, and went some of the way of explaining the tension that still exists today in the country, but the musuem could have done with being more concise, there is only so much reading one person can do in a day!
In the afternoon, we headed into Soweto. One of the most famous (or infamous) townships in the world. Anyone who saw Tsotsi, this is where the story was based. I imagined, perhaps because of the film and from seeing other townships, that this would mail be a shanty town made up of tiny shacks clinging to the ground. In parts, this couldn't be further from the truth. In the ricy area, the houses are like mansions, highly decrative and with swimming pools at the back. Gone are the high walls, barbed wire and electric fences that are present throughmost of South Africa. Nelson Mandela and one of his ex-wives have houses here (although not actually in the richest area!). Large parts of Soweto do remain poor. Minly consisting of cramped and delapidated concrete houses with no amenities there are also small areas of "informal housing".
Touring round we saw many VIP's, that is the portaloo style toilets installed here by the government. I'm afraid I can't actually remeber what this stands for, but its something to do with ventilation. We stopped off at a church where bullet holes and other damage was still visable from when the aparthied government broke up an illegal student meeting. We also were shown areas where students (and when I say students, I mean 9-15 year olds) where fired upon during a peaceful protest when they were fighting for change. It seems that the children actually had a huge influence on creating change.
