SOWETO Tour - An Experience of a Lifetime
- Mar 7, 2022
- 5 min read
Updated: Mar 14, 2022
When we hear the word Soweto an element of fear runs through our minds. We connect it with crime and danger and have already made up our mind that it is a NO GO ZONE ...
In my wildest dreams, I never imagined that I would be exploring Soweto on foot and bringing my 5-year-old son with me! However, as we immerse ourselves in the Johannesburg community, we continuously grow fond of this city. Special thanks to our friend Hannah from newintown.podcast, whose passion for South Africa has inspired us to engage with local life and back community initiatives.
SOWETO, which stands for SouthWestern Township, became most well-known in South Africa back in 1930's during the peak of apartheid. The " non-white" people were forced to leave their homes and move to areas outside the city which were sanctioned by the government, designated only for certain race groups (black people, coloureds and Indians). These townships were underdeveloped and lacked the basic facilities and sanitation. Many of the families lived in tiny houses made of containers.
Our awesome, warm hearted guide Thami made our tour very special. Though there were parts and stories which made your heart cry, he always had a smile on his face and a joke ready in his pocket to make the moment lighter again.
After all these years and end of the apartheid era, one would think these townships are getting better, but there are many parts of it which still are way beyond our imagination. Certain parts are better developed with decent facilities and other parts make you feel that time has just stood still.
The famous saying goes “when Soweto sneezes whole of South Africa catches the flu” and that’s very accurate as many of the events in the recent history started in Soweto.
Our Tour
Our guide Thami fetched us in a mini van from our house in Johannesburg and drove us to Soweto.
We stopped by a petrol station near Soweto where we got into our Tuk-Tuks for the tour to continue. My son Ari, was super excited to sit in the colourful Tuk-Tuk, it absolutely made his day.
Our first stop was the fancy part of Soweto - where the 'Cheese Boys' live. Well if you are thinking Soweto is all about poor housing, think again... you will be pleasantly surprised as we were, there are some streets with fancy looking houses and expensive cars and others where people live in ruined containers with no running water or electricity.
Thami took us inside one of the container housing, it was very hard to watch and disturbing to know how people used to be packed inside these containers mostly miners - maybe 15-16 sharing one big room. Currently, these empty containers house people coming from various rural parts of South Africa into Johannesburg in search for work and livelihood.
Our second stop, we stepped inside a Shebeen as our guide Thami explained how they came into existence. Apparently during apartheid black South Africans were formally forbidden from selling alcohol or entering licensed premises. Also, meeting in groups of more than three - four people, and even dancing were considered illegal. This was also the time when, black South African women struggled to find work in the formal sector as they were not allowed to carry legal passes (also many employers preferred to hire people that they could track and control) - which gave rise to women taking up the brewing of alcohol and selling it "illegally" and this was the beginning to the “shebeen queens”,
Then we entered the area which our guide Thami termed as "Fear Factor Soweto" - i.e; actually walking through the main market area where all the action takes place. It was busy with, an array of small shops, fruit vendors, ladies selling meat for braaing, hawkers selling various things. We were standing right next to massive Baragwanath Taxi and Bus Facility, SA taxi's as they are locally known. This space seem to provide for transport, trade and social interaction. Also, just opposite the Taxi and Bus Station is the Chris Hani Baragwanath Hospital (the largest hospital in Africa and third in the world), the facility serves over 42,000 people daily, attracting more than 1,000 informal traders.
Further to this organised chaos we met a "traditional doctor" who had his stall set up round the corner in this busy market. He was selling medicinal drinks using various native African herbs and he seemed to suggest these native medicines could heal any illness known to mankind.
Later, we ventured on to the famous Vilakazi street, full of restaurants and little shops. Here we stopped for our lunch break and enjoyed some local African fare.
Further, this street in Soweto is where two of the Nobel Peace Prize winners –"Nelson Mandela and Desmond Tutu" – both lived. It was definitely a moment of pride for Thami.
Next stop was Mandela House, leading centre for the preservation, presentation, and research of the historical heritage and Mandela Family legacy. Whether you are a local or a tourist, you feel a sense of pride when you hear the stories of Mandela Families struggle and devotion towards their country and their people.
Another, major highlight of the tour was visiting the Hector Pieterson Memorial and Museum, situated in Orlando West, Soweto. It commemorates the role of the country’s students in the struggle against apartheid and in particular the role played by the school children who took part in the Soweto protests of 1976.
This is an iconic image of the 1976 Soweto uprising in apartheid South Africa which shook the world when a newspaper published the photograph by Sam Nzima - of the dying Hector being carried by a fellow student.
This was the end of our tour and it was a real rollercoaster of emotion: heart-warming, stunning, shocked and saddened, but Thami still had a smile on his face.
Later Thami drove us around parts of Soweto and we saw the famous Soweto Towers. There is bridge connecting the two and if you are brave enough you can try "bungee jumping" here.. Well we skipped that part.
This tour of Soweto was a wonderful experience and our guide Thami made it all the more special. If you plan a trip to South Africa, and would like to experience African life up close with no filters attached visiting one of the townships in South Africa is a must. Though, I wouldn't recommend just wandering on your own but rather to visit with a local guide so that you can truly understand and appreciate the life and struggle around these townships.
"There is something magical about Soweto. Yes, it was a prison designed by our oppressors, but it also gave us a sense of self-determination and control. Soweto was ours. It had an aspirational quality that you don’t find elsewhere. In America the dream is to make it out of the ghetto. In Soweto, because there was no leaving the ghetto, the dream was to transform the ghetto."
-Trevor Noah, Born a Crime
Final thoughts
A guided tour of Soweto will give you a real life exposure to off-the-beaten-path of daily local African struggle and life. It offers you with an opportunity to meet the locals and learn about the different aspects of township or 'kasi' life and culture in South Africa and at the same time support local township tourism initiatives.
For Private Soweto Tour : Please contact / WhatsApp our awesome guide - Thami +27 817437990
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