Johannesburg
April 21, 2006
Willy gave us a tour of Jo’burg. It is a city that has seen better days, no question about it. There are some beautiful buildings and tons of people walking down the streets, but I’m not sure I would call it a thriving metropolis.
Willy encouraged us to stay in the van. No shopping on the streets, no window shopping, just drive the van through and shake our heads at the state of affairs in the big city. Once we parked inside a parking garage we could get out. We boarded an elevator and headed up. We came out into a nice mall, but we were bustled along and told that there were no stores worth shopping at. We boarded another elevator and headed up to the fiftieth floor to gaze at the city from above.
We asked about a tour of Soweto. Willy told us that there was nothing to see there, but he would arrange a tour if we really wanted to go. We had to sign up with a separate company, as he is not authorized to give tours there. We had a great tour guide named Ben. He drove us everywhere. He showed us the mansions and the slums.
Soweto is sort of an acronym for South West Township. The people of color in South Africa were treated much as the Chinese were treated in the U.S. They were run out of town and forced to live in their own townships. They had no electricity (although power lines run through many of these townships), toilets and sinks out back. Some of the houses have no running water at all. The residents of these places have to visit a community spigot to get the water they need to live. Tin shanties have sprung up around and throughout these townships.
The thing that makes Soweto unique is the fact that some of its residents have become very successful and have chosen to build homes and continue to live within the township. Several notable examples are; Desmond Tutu, Nelson Mandela, and Winnie Mandela.
We visited a great museum called the Hector Peterson Museum. It recognizes the struggle for an end to Apartheid as represented in one key event of 1976. It seems that the apartheid government created a law that stated that all pupils had to learn in Afrikaans. The students at the Bantu schools were very upset. They coordinated a boycott of classes and a march that was to end in a demonstration at a central location. Students created signs and marched in rows of five, singing songs and chanting their indignity. The police showed up and shot them. They killed many students that day including thirteen-year-old Hector Peterson. The event became a rallying cry for those opposing apartheid. The museum was an overwhelming experience that harkened back to our own history of segregation. We were all very somber upon leaving. It was an exceptional experience and one I would not have missed for the world. Willy had never heard of Hector Peterson…
The following day we took a tour of Pilanesberg Park. This was quite a drive through the countryside. The park was not as populated as Hluhluwe although there were many more people. We drove around all day and spotted; giraffes, blue wildebeests, red hartebeests, bush pigs, rhinoceros, hippos, and elephants, as well as varieties of birds too numerous to mention. We left Willy’s Chateau at six in the morning and returned twelve hours later, exhausted. We had some awesome soup prepared by Willy’s wife, Jessica, and then we fell into to bed.
In the morning Willy helped me patch up the coffin as it had suffered some damage at the hands of the storage facility. We packed our things and prepared for our flight to Cape Town. It was, I reflected, the first time I have ever flown with my mother.
MJR
Willy gave us a tour of Jo’burg. It is a city that has seen better days, no question about it. There are some beautiful buildings and tons of people walking down the streets, but I’m not sure I would call it a thriving metropolis.
Willy encouraged us to stay in the van. No shopping on the streets, no window shopping, just drive the van through and shake our heads at the state of affairs in the big city. Once we parked inside a parking garage we could get out. We boarded an elevator and headed up. We came out into a nice mall, but we were bustled along and told that there were no stores worth shopping at. We boarded another elevator and headed up to the fiftieth floor to gaze at the city from above.
We asked about a tour of Soweto. Willy told us that there was nothing to see there, but he would arrange a tour if we really wanted to go. We had to sign up with a separate company, as he is not authorized to give tours there. We had a great tour guide named Ben. He drove us everywhere. He showed us the mansions and the slums.
Soweto is sort of an acronym for South West Township. The people of color in South Africa were treated much as the Chinese were treated in the U.S. They were run out of town and forced to live in their own townships. They had no electricity (although power lines run through many of these townships), toilets and sinks out back. Some of the houses have no running water at all. The residents of these places have to visit a community spigot to get the water they need to live. Tin shanties have sprung up around and throughout these townships.
The thing that makes Soweto unique is the fact that some of its residents have become very successful and have chosen to build homes and continue to live within the township. Several notable examples are; Desmond Tutu, Nelson Mandela, and Winnie Mandela.
We visited a great museum called the Hector Peterson Museum. It recognizes the struggle for an end to Apartheid as represented in one key event of 1976. It seems that the apartheid government created a law that stated that all pupils had to learn in Afrikaans. The students at the Bantu schools were very upset. They coordinated a boycott of classes and a march that was to end in a demonstration at a central location. Students created signs and marched in rows of five, singing songs and chanting their indignity. The police showed up and shot them. They killed many students that day including thirteen-year-old Hector Peterson. The event became a rallying cry for those opposing apartheid. The museum was an overwhelming experience that harkened back to our own history of segregation. We were all very somber upon leaving. It was an exceptional experience and one I would not have missed for the world. Willy had never heard of Hector Peterson…
The following day we took a tour of Pilanesberg Park. This was quite a drive through the countryside. The park was not as populated as Hluhluwe although there were many more people. We drove around all day and spotted; giraffes, blue wildebeests, red hartebeests, bush pigs, rhinoceros, hippos, and elephants, as well as varieties of birds too numerous to mention. We left Willy’s Chateau at six in the morning and returned twelve hours later, exhausted. We had some awesome soup prepared by Willy’s wife, Jessica, and then we fell into to bed.
In the morning Willy helped me patch up the coffin as it had suffered some damage at the hands of the storage facility. We packed our things and prepared for our flight to Cape Town. It was, I reflected, the first time I have ever flown with my mother.
MJR
posted by Bronx to Timbuktu at 7:28 AM
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