Soweto

I visited Soweto on Sunday, 6 July. Soweto looks a little like an African word, but it actually stands for Southwestern Townships. With about 2 million inhabitants in 26 different townships (though they all blur together), this is where the blacks were forced to live under Apartheid after the few townships in the city limits were filled. I was the only white person I saw here, outside of a tour group at a memorial.

I worshipped in a Presbyterian church, where the sermon was delivered in Zulu and simultaneously translated into Sesothu. An elder sat next to me and gave me one sentence summaries every five minutes. I prayed, in English, and stuck out like a sore thumb, but was warmly received and had a good experience.

I was then driven around Soweto. I saw the Mandela house in Orlando, the memorial to the students massacred in 1976 as they marched for fair education, the hostels where the workers live while their families stay in the rural areas (this is one of the sources of HIV/AIDS spreading as these men find other women because they spend most of the year here rather than at home- but then they bring the disease home), and Regina Mundi (the church famous for supporting anti-Apartheid work while the government was oppressing such efforts). There’s too much to say for a blog, especially since I am writing it so far after the experience. This is the type of area in South Africa where violent crime is prominent. This is where there is the least infrastructure and the highest population density. This is where people have been left behind as the ANC has pushed forward.

It is also, ironically, the only city that I know of that can claim the residences of two Nobel Peace Prize Winners- Mandela and Tutu. Out of adversity arises hope- still.