June 27
Today we took a tour to Soweto and the Apartheid Museum. Our guide picked us up an hour and a half after he said he’d be there…TIA. I learned about South African history today and am starting to scratch the surface of the intricate and diverse balance of people here. I had read plenty about apartheid before coming to South Africa but visiting the Apartheid museum and learning about the Soweto uprising in 1976 was really eye opening. In 1976 students in Soweto protested the use of Afrikaans (the language brought by the Dutch when they “colonized” South Africa) in schools. What was intended to be a peaceful protest resulted in heavy policy brutality and many deaths, most famously the death of Hector Pieterson. You can see the famous picture of Pieterson’s dead body being carried by a friend below. Really powerful stuff.
The highlight was definitely visiting a squatter camp – a poor part of Soweto where they have no amenities and the government provides housing to families free of charge. No electricity, no running water except for a very few public spouts (for 7,000 – 10,000 people it clearly does not suffice), nothing. We saw the house of a family of 6 and our guide told us they were very fortunate: they had 2 rooms in the house (one for cooking, one for sleeping) instead of one. They also only had one bed. You hear about this type of stuff and it’s so distant that you almost dismiss it, but when you see it in person it’s a totally different ball game. Proximity is powerful shit. Now we’re off to Durban for the night before heading out to Sodwana Bay for SCUBA and Hluhluwe-Imfolozi for safari for the next 6 days. Will report back after.
No comments:
Post a Comment