Our first experience of Africa was touching down in Johannesburg airport. After a brief heart-in-mouth moment when we were near enough the last people standing at the baggage carousel, all was well. We headed through to arrivals to find a taxi that would take us to Parktown, an area of Joburg where Helen, Fazel and their dog Rusty lived. Helen is an old friend of Ewan’s Aunty and had very kindly volunteered her spare room for us to sleep in for our first few nights on the continent!
Our taxi driver (who incidentally was fluent in 7 of SA’s 11 official languages) dropped at Helen’s beautiful house in one of the suburbs. As is the case with many people living on the outskirts of Joburg, the entire perimeter of the house is surrounded by barbed wire fences, electric gates and elaborate CCTV systems. It is slightly unnerving and seems real shame that half the city feel they have to live behind these huge walls in order to be safe. Anyways, we were greeted by the family with open arms and were instantly made to feel welcome. Fazel, (Helen’s Husband) decided he would give us a grand tour of the main sights of Joburg and as soon as we had dumped our bags off we were straight out the door again and being driven round various points of interest. We stopped at an old prison that was used during the Boer war, the constitutional court of South Africa and a number of other interesting places that Fazel seemed to know everything about! During our grand tour we also visited their son Yousef’s place of work. Yousef in short, helps young South African entrepreneurs get a foothold and helps them start up their own business. We met a lad who was brought up in Soweto township. He was starting a business centred on showing tourists round the main historical parts of the township and also the places where people live today. He very kindly agreed to take us round the following day so we could give him feedback on his new business! That evening we had an incredible home cooked meal by Fazel and Helen of traditional South African food and we chatted about various things going on in the world and about how when Helen and Ewan’s Aunty used to live rent free in an abandoned house in London when they were students (sorry Irene…).
The following day was an early start; we were collected at the house and driven to the South Western Township (Soweto). Soweto is famous for, amongst other things, the Soweto Gospel Choir who (who always play the Edinburgh festival), the poverty experienced by a number of its residents and it’s part in the anti Apartheid protests, in particular the protest by school children against the compulsory use of the Africaans language in Schools. Some parts of the township is good, nice accommodation however it is better known for the shanty towns and slums in which many people live. One of the first places we were taken was an area called Cliptown. Cliptown is one of the most poverty stricken areas and we met some guys who run a youth centre for young children. Although it was clear everyone we met lived in extreme poverty, they were all incredibly positive and friendly and couldn’t wait to tell us about the latest project they had started or how well their football team was doing! Next we visited the house of Nelson Mandela and were shown round by a nice and very informative lady. On the same street as Nelson Mandela lives Desmond Tutu and we were told it is the only street in the world to have house two Nobel Prize winners!
Next stop the Hector Peitersen museum. A brief history lesson: During Apartheid the government made it compulsory for kinds to use the language Africaans in schools. The children in the township hated this as they couldn’t understand it, which would be understandably frustrating… The children organized a peaceful march in protest of this new law and hoped that it would show the government how much they hated it. However, during the March, the police opened fire on the children and a number of them were shot and killed. It was a tragedy and started riots in the rest of the township. On the day of the March an 8 year old boy named Hector Peitersen, who wasn’t part of the protest, was walking home and got caught up the melee. He was shot and killed by the police, and became a symbol for the children and the rest of black South Africa in the struggle against Apartheid. The museum was really interesting and had a load of footage and quotes from the day. We then walked along the very same roads on which it happened. You can still see the bullet marks in some of the walls.
That night Fazel gave us a lift to the backpackers we were staying at that night and we said our goodbyes. The next stage of our journey is on an overland truck and will take us up to the Victoria Falls in Zambia. We met the rest of the guys we were going to be travelling with and found them all to be really friendly. Among them were two Loughborough alumni who graduated the year before us. It’s a small world!
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