Johannesburg, Soweto, and Pretoria

We stayed in a hotel in Johannesburg for two nights so that we could tour the surrounding areas. On Saturday we went on a bus tour of Jburg and Pretoria. Our history professor, Quinton, went with us and taught us as we drove around for several hours. We saw the street that both Nelson Mandela and Desmond Tutu lived on; the only street in the world with two people who won the Nobel Peace Prize. We learned about the Apartheid and went to the Hector Pieterson Museum. The museum is named after a thirteen year old boy who was shot in the protests against Afrikans becoming the second language of South Africa. We also went to the Voortrekker Monument in Pretoria and saw the Union building where Nelson Mandela was inaugurated.

Desmond Tutu's home.

Nelson Mandela's home was turned into a museum and is undergoing renovation.

Here is a photo of the Hector Pieterson Museum. This is the infamous photo taken on 6/16/1976.

The next three photos are of the Voortrekker Monument. The middle picture is the view looking down from the top level. If you look closely, you may be able to see my friend Laura Jane. She is wearing red!

The next photo is of the Union building. It is in Pretoria, and is the administrative capitol of South Africa.


We visited a settlement in Soweto that was started in 1993 (part of Apartheid), and we went on a tour inside people’s homes. It is quite astonishing to see some townships with nice homes and others that are literally cardboard and tin right next to each other. The children in the settlement immediately ran to us, and I had a girl either holding my hand or sitting on my shoulders the entire tour.

Women getting water. At the settlement, people live in a community. They depend on each other and look out for one another. The crime rate is very low.

Some people sell their art in the front of the settlement to make a living.

A typical home in the township.

The children blowing kisses at us as we left!

Everyone here is so friendly. It is not insulting or weird to take photos of the settlements and walk into their houses to see how they live. It is not taboo to talk openly about race. In fact, many people refer to anyone who is not white or 100% black as “coloured” and it’s perfectly okay. It will take me some time to get used to referring to people as coloured and black. It was also strange to be a minority in Soweto. We had lunch at the mall, and the 33 of us were the only white people in sight.

What townships look like from the road:

Some look almost like American neighborhoods

and others look more like this.

It is hard to know what to write about, since I am doing and learning so much. Learning the history has really shaped my experiences. For example, I felt ashamed being white in Pretoria. On the ride there, I saw this huge, beautiful monument in the distance. It was this grandiose structure in the middle of green rolling hills. I took a picture of it, thinking I got a “great shot” of a beautiful place. When I learned about what the monument stood for, I deleted the picture. I was so disturbed! It was symbolizing the white Dutch taking over the black and coloured people. It stood as a symbol of the white Christians being God’s “chosen” and being superior to the blacks. It’s hard because the apartheid is still so real, and things are still quite separated by race here. Seeing such a huge monument is a constant reminder of the white dominance over the black population. Quinton told us that black and colored people hate coming to Pretoria, even though the apartheid is “over.”

The walls of the Voortrekker Monument are surrounded in these sculptures depicting the Battle of Blood River.

The View from the top! Pretoria is beautiful, but you can see how this monument stands over the entire city proclaiming white superiority.
Zebras chilling on the side of the road :)

On a lighter note, the food here is tasty, but definitely different than in America. It reminds me a lot of Europe, since there is quite a bit of cheese, bread, and meat served at every meal. I have discovered that South Africans eat a lot of rice and tomatoes, and they put butter on EVERYTHING. LOTS and LOTS of butter! It makes things delicious, but now I know why people gain weight when they come here!

If you can click on the photo, it should enlarge. The menu made me laugh! I ordered fish (feesh) and chips and it was delicious! The food here is much less expensive than in America. I can go to a restaurant, such as this one, get Feesh and Chips, a liter of mineral water, and including tax and tip I can walk out paying a little over $5.

The World Cup is going to be here in 2010, and everyone here is very excited for it. We drove by the stadium where it will be held. Everyone here is also extremely excited about President Obama. Driving around, the ads are mostly for alcohol, the world cup, coca cola, and funeral companies. In the town of Soweto there are 200+ funerals every Saturday, mostly due to AIDS. I also saw a lot of AIDS awareness ads and offers for free testing. This place is so diverse and I know this experience is going to impact me for the rest of my life.

I have just arrived in Pietermaritzburg, where I will be staying for the next couple months. I will post a blog when I get some pictures!


xoxox