Touch Down South Africa - Soweto Rising

Touch Down South Africa

Sheri & Curtis flew out of Portland Airport at 6:45 am. After a 1 hour flight to Seattle, a 5 hour flight to Washington DC, a 7 hour flight to Dakar, and a final 8 hour leg, we arrived at Johannesburg, South Africa. Unfortunately Sheri’s backpack did not. We picked up our car (a Volkswagen Polo) and cruised tentatively to our accommodation (Moafrica Lodge).  Sheri loved the room but the whole place was unheated and quite frigid.

Sheri in Heaven at Moafra Lodge

Andrew at Moafria Lodge Johanesburg

Thomas - Our Guide in Soweto

About 10 of us cruised around severalAfter recovering for a day we cruised into Johannesburg on June 16, a national holiday, Youth Day, which commemorates the beginning of the Soweto uprising that was the beginning of the end for apartheid in South Africa. We drove to Soweto, an apartheid era township, and met up at Soweto Backpackers Lodge for an afternoon a bicycle tour. of the neighborhoods in Soweto, including Oswald West, the Hostels, Meadowlands and Vilakazi Street (home to Nelson Mandela and Desmond Tutu). Soweto is a purpose built slum; home to 3 to 5 million blacks and “coloreds”.  During the apartheid era, blacks who worked in Johannesburg where forced to live in Soweto. Subsequent to the era of Mandela and political freedom for blacks, some areas in Soweto have improved but some are the same. The Hostels appeared to be the most rough with open sewers and small rough metal shacks. We stopped by a shebeen (a shack for drinking) and had some homemade beer, drunk from a huge pot; and an eatery shack where we had some roasted beef cheeks presented on an old board with salt and chili. There were all kinds of people drinking and sitting around on the dirt. Folks where betting on dice with the world’s smallest sets of dice.

Memory Circle with participants of the Soweto Uprising

Beer seller in a Shebeen (Drinking Shack)

Sheri having a "Home Brew"

Peddle Power in Soweto

Soweto by Bike

 We rolled on through raw sewage and free range chickens and pretty much everywhere people where listening to music and standing around talking story in one of nine tribal languages. Folks where quite lively and friendly. Some areas were nearly suburban like, with homes that have small lawns and statuary. We stopped by a museum dedicated to a 12 year old boy who was one of the 600 shot dead (mostly school children) by police on June 16, 1976 in an operation of overt state terrorism. Images from this day galvanized the world against apartheid. To round things out we stopped by an eatery and had a Soweto Burger which consisted of ¼ loaf of white bread hollowed out and filled with French fries, a fried egg, a couple slices of bologna, a slice of American cheese, and a little ketchup for flavor. The hollowed out part was placed on top so we could squeeze the whole thing down and get it in our mouth.

 

We wrapped up back at Soweto Backpackers where they were having a day of Soweto Art Rising which was mainly a number of hip hop artists doing their thing. The small crowd was pretty low key although they were downing a lot of beer and firing up a bunch of BBQ’s and passing around the chillum. Sheri and Curtis where pretty much the only white people, but we cut out early before things really got rolling. Soweto is improving and there are some signs of entouership, but the problems are mind boggling.

Soweto Art Rising Hip Hop

To retrieve Sheri’s luggage we (with no help from United or South African Airlines) had to go all over Johannesburg airport and track down and harass people so someone would unlock a door and give Sheri her luggage. Sheri had given up but Curtis got some kid and paid him 5 rand to deliver us to someone who cared.