Soweto
Rhiann Marie - Round the World
Stewart Graham
Tue 12 Jul 2011 17:03
Victoria Falls Zimbabwe
Having been fortunate enough to have traveled widely before we started our
circumnavigation of the world I had seen many countries, many peoples and
their cultures and seen many political and economic systems good and bad.
Africa however is a place I had never really traveled to, other than our
brief visit to Morocco in North Africa. As you may have gathered before
now i enjoy observing,discussing and debating the pros and cons of
business and economic environments around the world, not least our own
situation in the UK and Scotland in particular.
Looking from the outside in and reading frequently in the national and
international press of the constant turmoil most of Africa seems to be in
I had perhaps in common with many people who have not really visited or
experienced Africa - not really got under its skin - that Africa was an
unsolvable problem.
So I decided that when visiting this continent I should try to find out
for myself a little more about the situation here. I will reserve my
comments and summary till a later time as I am sure you will agree it is
unlikely that a Tuechter from the Hebrides can after one week deliver "the
solution" to the Enigma that is Africa.
We decided to visit Zimbabwe and the Victoria Falls in particular and to
do so we drove through stunning countryside and excellent but expensive
toll highways, the seven hundred kilometers north from Durban to
Johannesburg.
Though the scenery was stunning the drive was otherwise incident free. The
homes that we saw along the way were different from that in Kwa Zulu
Natal, the homeland of the Zulu nation where individual scattered
populations live in "Kraals" each with its own few buildings but notably
with a traditional round house. The homes were more box like and seemed in
many cases less permanent. The homes however were few and far between and
great tracts of land seemed to be unproductive while other vast areas were
supporting crops or animals.
When arriving in the outskirts of Jo'burg, known now as the murder capital
of the world, late at night we were immediately uneasy at the severe
security precautions taken everywhere. Houses had signs saying armed
guards present, razor wire was the biggest must have in town and even our
basic hotel was enclosed in high security fencing razor wire and security
controlled gate.
As usual I got gabbing to the guy behind the desk. Most of the time in
South Africa when I have initiated a conversation by ploughing in with a
smile and a handshake, the puzzlement on the persons face and their
furrowed brow is soon relaxed and then followed by "where do you come
from?". "Scotland" I say. Open conversation then generally flows and I can
get to know a little about the ordinary black South Africans life.
Anyway this is the way it was with Visu who told me that he was off work
the next day ...... so we arranged to meet him and get him to show us
around Soweto....
Anybody who remembers the news from the 1980's will remember how Soweto
seemed to be the centre of the struggle against the apartheid regime in
South Africa. Soweto to is still apolitical powderkeg and in fact the day
or two before we were there apparently a minister of the ANC's government
was set on fire in protest that the government are not doing enough for
the people of places like Soweto.
The community there established their simple homes on unused land outside
Johannesburg in the 1930's as the city council, who were tasked with
providing them with homes had never provided one single home.
Nelson Mandela's house where he lived with first Evelyn (who's house it
was) and then Winnie is there at 8115 Orlando and we visited there plus
the Hector Pieterson memorial. This is a memorial to a child who was shot
in 1976 when peacefully protesting against having to use Afrikaans as the
learning medium in schools. It was very poignant.
We then spent the rest of the day driving round the back streets of Soweto
with Visu, away from the better known spots. It was a reminder that South
Africa though doing better than some may say, still has a long way to go
.......
I will elaborate further soon.