Another Good Day Today.....

Today was another good day—this class is a good one. In the afternoon we drove down around the Johannesburg Zoo and over into the Soweto Township. Soweto gained infamy in the 1970s when the apartheid government unleashed dogs and guns on students protesting racial segregation. The place is now a memorial and roughly equivalent to the events in America at Selma, Alabama. Driving into Soweto is a strange experience in itself—most of South Africa reminds me very much of Europe—the architecture, culture, and driving on the left side of the road. South Africa is also far and away the most advanced country in Africa in terms of technology and quality of life but Soweto—which isn’t an African word (it is an abbreviation for South West Township) was created in the early 1900s as a place to relocate black Africans during the separatist period. Most of the people here worked in the gold mines and it immediately became a hotbed of political unrest—especially in the 1940s during World War II. The Apartheid Government really clamped down on the township and by the 1970s it had become the center of anti-Apartheid opposition with leaders like Nelson Mandela and Bishop Desmond Tutu both coming out of Soweto. In 1976 the police opened fire on a student protest here and killed several people but started the uprising that eventually overthrew the Apartheid government. Today it is heavy on tourism and even has a tourist-oriented nightlife. Driving into Soweto is strange because you immediately feel the difference from European culture to African culture in the restaurants and shops. It was an interesting experience and I’m glad we went there today.