Jax Stumpes: 2024 African Safari Plus: Johannesburg: Soweto Excursion (6/12/2024)

Wednesday, June 12, 2024

After breakfast at the hotel, we were picked up at 9:00, by our guide Siphiwe, who was very accommodating, and showed us so much more than Soweto.

Nelson Mandela Memorial Candle Fountain,
carved with events from his life, and backed
by a wall displaying his quotes (KSS)

The 6 m/20' tall statue (2014, by Kobus Hattingh
and Jacob Maponyane) of Nelson Rolihlahla
Mandela in Nelson Mandela Square, located
in Sandton (northern section of Johannesburg)

Mandela was named Rolihlahla by his parents, which means something about pulling a branch of a tree, but colloquially translates as "troublemaker." He was given the name Nelson when he began attending [a Methodist] school.

Mandela Square: Stream of Consciousness
(2022, by Anton Smit) (KSS)

Mandela Square: Urban Echoes (2023, by sculptor Anton Smit,
and graffiti artist George Mars Kalapov) (KSS)

Fifth Street cityscape (KSS)

Entrance to the Mandela House in the Houghton Estate
section of Johannesburg, where he lived from
1998 until his death in 2013

Since Mandela's death, visitors have been leaving
stone messages in front of the property (KSS)

Close-up of the stones (KSS)

Mandela House seen over the wall (KSS)

Soweto is an acronym of South Western Townships, now a single township comprised of over 32 former townships that were divided by tribe/language group.

After gold was discovered in 1886, fortune seekers and workers arrived, creating a city of Johannesburg. Life was rough in the camps, and the bubonic plague broke out in 1904. This was apparently the excuse for the white government to move all Black and colored (mixed race) people from the city center. Then in 1948, apartheid became official, separating the whites from the others. Housing was built and between 1956 and 1960, all Blacks in Johannesburg were relocated to Soweto.

Johannesburg Youth recruited and trained by police (KSS)

FNB Stadium (1987-1989, renovated and expanded 2007-2009
as the venue for the 2010 FIFA World Cup Final) (KSS)

Vuvuzela sculpture; these yard-long plastic horns were
the signature noisemaker at the 2010 FIFA World Cup
(unfortunately?, they have since been banned at FIFA events)

Much of Soweto is home to the middle class

More middle class housing; the inhabitants are
able to provide jobs to other Soweto residents

There are many B&Bs and guest houses in Soweto

More than lawn art (KSS)

Distant view of the corrugated metal homes (L) and
government housing (R) which largely are empty (KSS)

Government housing is meant for Soweto residents, but many would rather stay in substandard homes for less. Sometimes the government housing is rented to outsiders.

There is plenty of old mine worker housing, meant for single
workers, but now with extended families in residence (KSS)

Many Soweto residents still own goats and sheep (KSS)

Decommissioned cooling towers of a coal-fired power
station that provided electricity to Johannesburg,
but not to Soweto where they were located; now
it is a bungee-jumping venue (KSS)

Famous Vilakazi Street in Soweto is the only street in the world
featuring the former homes of two Nobel Peace Prize winners:
this is the gate to the residence of Archbishop Desmond Tutu

School field trip to the Hector Pieterson Memorial & Museum

The memorial (unveiled by Nelson Mandela in 1992)
honors the students who protested apartheid and is named
for the youngest victim, 13-year old Hector Pieterson (KSS)

The photograph (6/16/1976 by Sam Nzima) shows
Mbuyisa Makhubo carrying Hector, with Hector's
sister, Antoinette Sithole, running alongside them

Both Mbuyisa Makhubo and Sam Nzima had to hide after the incident. Mbuyisa fled from South Africa to Nigeria, then his family lost contact. Sam moved back to his home town, Lillydale, where he was kept under surveillance by security police.

Students of today sing the previously banned liberation
anthem, “Nkosi Sikelel’iAfrika,”or “Lord Bless Africa”
under the direction of an educator, with Hector's
sister, Antoinette, at his right side

The Black student protest, initially planned by the Soweto Students' Representative Council's (SSRC) Action Committee, with support from the wider Black Consciousness Movement, was kept secret from parents. Perhaps up to 20,000 students walked from their schools to Orlando Stadium for a rally to protest having to learn in Afrikaans (the language of their oppressors). They never made it. Police set up barricades, set their dogs on the children, and eventually began shooting. More protests followed, and the Soweto Uprising was a turning point in the fight against apartheid in Sout Africa. It may have also accelerated the release of Nelson Mandela from prison.

The Day of the Uprising sculpture; if you can
make out the shape of the wire sculptures,
there is a police dog confronting the children (KSS)

The corner of Moema and Vilakazi Streets, where
Hector Pieterson was shot

Tamiko and Kent at the Nelson Mandela
National Museum, located in the house
where Mandela lived 1946-1962, then for
11 days after his release from prison in 1990

The property is now surrounded by a fence
meant to resemble prison bars

Mandela had buried the umbilical cords of all his children
and grandchildren underneath this Australian Melaleuca
tree, to tie them to their land, history, and their ancestors

Photograph of the two Nobel Peace Prize winners,
Desmond Tutu and Nelson Mandela

Mandela House bedroom

View across part of Soweto from the Sakhumzi Restaurant

Our guide found a place to enjoy a traditional braai/
barbecue with grilled chicken wings, short ribs, brisket and
boerwors/sausage, accompanied by pap/maize porr, stidge
(like polenta) and chakalaka/spicy vegetable side dish

Regina Mundi Catholic Church (1960-1962, by
Anthony Noel Errol Slaven in Brutalist style) was a center of
anti-apartheid activism since political meetings in most public
places were banned, the church became the main place
where Soweto citizens could gather; during the 1976 Uprising,
students fled to the church, but were followed inside by police
who started shooting, causing much damage (no deaths)

Stained glass windows (1998) were a gift from
Mrs Jolanta Kwasniewska, wife of the
President of the Republic of Poland

The [Black] Madonna and Child of Soweto
(1973, by Larry Scully) below which is
an eye that represents Soweto

Kent stands in the spot where Nelson Mandela
spoke in 1997, to declare November 30th
as Regina Mundi Church Day

The church is large enough to hold up to 5,000 people

Gifts include two small replicas of the Liberty Bell given
to Nelson Mandela and South African president President
Frederik Willem de Klerk as a gesture of goodwill by
Philadelphia mayor, Ed Rendell in 1993