Soweto

The township of Soweto is home to more than 3 million people, almost all of whom are Black.  It was the major labor supply for Apartheid-era Johannesburg and lies just outside the city.  Soweto is huge, filled with great poverty and also with wealth.  There small neat houses, most of which have walls around them, some of which have been rebuilt in great style. Other houses are the original small two-room homes from the Apartheid government decades ago.  And there are a number of what they call 'informal settlements,' but which some people might call shanty-towns or slums.  Here are some photos around Soweto.  

We also visited the street where both Nelson Mandela and Archbishop Desmond Tutu both lived in Soweto.  They were neighbors, on a street that is now filled with homes turned into shops and restaurants.  We were not the only foreigners in this area.  We had lunch at a buffet and sat outside watching the street.  The food was traditional South African, with bap and hominy and spinach, and spice chakalaka sauce, with stewed meats of various sorts.  They served ice cream, trifle, and malva pudding for dessert.  We had a few brave students who tried pretty much everything, including the tripe!

We then visited the Mandela  home, which was a small brick house still scarred with bullets from police raids long ago.  The house was surrounded by a high brick wall that Winnie Mandela built after she was released from prison and was there alone with her young children.  The yard has a small garden with a gnarled melaleuca tree, which has a significance for the Mandela family.  Both Nelson and Winnie were at times pass-restricted to this house and could not leave, even for groceries or work, without risking arrest.