Soweto: the scars of apartheid
[tab:Travel]
For those who wish to know more what was the horrific apartheid regime in South Africa, Soweto is a place of forced passage. They can make a tour, of the dozens on offer in the city, or they can rent a car and private guide (recommended to understand the troubled history) and cross, no problem, the neighborhood rebel. For those who dare to make the second option, Here are some key places to visit.
The first part of the neighborhood, if you access it from the center or football stadium, is the rich. Real luxury villas and hotels and B&B quality. Right on the back of this luxurious residential neighborhood are the first constructions of Soweto. “They are a row of barracks that were built at the beginning of the last century for all the workers hired by the mining companies who lived crowded together like animals”. Thus began the terrible story of a black neighborhood (here there is almost mestizos and whites just three, official number). "Women were not allowed to enter here. There were men who did not see their families for weeks or even months when they came to its closure of coal ", guide explains the. It was the time when Joburg grew on the huge cloud of smoke that rose its mining. About, is little known that apartheid had initially based economic poverty and labor competition of miners Boers with blacks and whites from Europe. They were the owners of underground paradise, its biblical promised land.
After the tour of the township (name that is known ghettos), today dotted with some new colored houses that gives the Government, we head to what can be considered the golden mile of the struggle against apartheid. In a radius of two kilometers, with reference Orlando Street West, find the old house of Nelson Mandela, where he lived until he was arrested in 1961 and now a museum (gives an overview of his life); Orlando School West, from which the student came Hector Pieterson, protagonist of the most famous photograph of racist repression apartehid, a 16 June 1976, in which police shot and ended up killing hundreds of teenage students protesting because they imposed the school Afrikaner and English were forbidden; the impressive Hector Petersen Museum (the visit is required to understand what were those white supremacist hard times. It puts the willies); and existing houses Nobel Peace Prize, Desmond Tutu, and the ex-wife of myth throughout South Africa, Winnie Mandela. Both are quite luxurious.
With democracy plant closed, considered a mockery in the face of the people of Soweto, and the towers were painted with colorful depictions of life in the neighborhood.
Finally, be seen from almost all Soweto, must approach contemplate known as Orlando Cooling Towers. Two towers of the old power plant, which the Government of Pretoria in the heart of the neighborhood and that gave birth to white neighborhoods and loosened its high pollution in the black neighborhood, also lacked light. With democracy plant closed, considered a mockery in the face of the people of Soweto, and the towers were painted with colorful depictions of life in the neighborhood.
The whole visit can be done in a day. There are times when it seems impossible all that there is explained. You see the bullet holes that are in the front of the house of Mandela, riddled with the return of the rebel Winnie, he decided to return from exile forced upon him by the apartheid government, and that "was stitched to death by police ', guide explains the museum house (With the story of Winnie Mandela you have to be careful, since legendary revolutionary figure for the more radical wing of Africanism is mixed with dark passages of murder and fanaticism, surround after a wild sort of praetorian guard that ended the lives of Black people who were considered collaborators).
But if there is a place that symbolizes perfectly the bizarre system of apartheid is the Hector Pieterson Museum. At the entrance is a fountain filled with stones long, symbol of the student protest June 76 against the regime of Pretoria. "Some threw rocks and other bullets", We explain, with the difficulty that pulling with bullet fire unleashed. Behind the fountain you can see the awesome photo of the death of Hector, that went around the world and put on the ropes African supremacist system (international sentencing and then began). It shows a child 13 years, shot dead, that is carried around by another student while his sister crying disconsolately. An image that was used to model and teach the shame of terror. The exciting texts written by the mothers of two young, deceased and hero; the videos where you see kids moving and in the old marches demanding freedom zulues; the dead; the files that hang from the walls which certifies the shame imposed by law that confers superiority skin color… Whole world which shows how stupid you can be the man.
[tab:the way]
Soweto has just released a brand new train station at the World Cup (a new possibility to approach the neighborhood). Yes, then you have to take a taxi. Best: hire the services of a private guide who drives for you.
[tab:a nap]
I do not know any hotel in Soweto, but I went through some B&B, in the best part of the neighborhood, great-looking and safe area. Joburg is great, and hotel for backpackers Mbunzi, in which I stayed, is outside, but the rooms are well, has a swimming pool and a mini bar inside and the price is 20 per head.
[tab:a table set]
The restaurant offers a convincing Sakhumuzi buffet menu 12 EUR. Its best feature is that it is located in the heart of the visit (very close to the house of Nelson Mandela and Desmond Tutu) and has a fun atmosphere terrace. Worst, it is full of tourists and the food stands for quality, but say it is the best of the area. (6980 Vilakazi Street).
[tab:highly recommended]
-Ir a un shebeen, typical bar township, and test the, my taste, the terrible African beer. A drink, that prepare the samosas (healers) and sold up in Tetra Pack (they love)
-Do not be fooled by some organized tours, in which I take to see miserable houses prepared to take money from tourists. If you want to help, badly needed in some areas of the district, seek other forms.
Comments (2)
Xabi Kormenzana
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Very interesting the information supplied from South Africa. The website worth. The recommend, fleeing reports platitudes. Congratulations
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Javier
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Thanks Xabi, we do it all by passion, by the same passion that we hope to have readers like you when traveling. That is what, to push people to fulfill dreams that seem unattainable but are close.
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