The African Expat

Soweto, Soweto, Soweto! As you can tell, I love Soweto and one Sunday in January my wife and I gathered our clan to visit the foremost township in South Africa. I had not been to Soweto (which is an acronym for South West Townships) since I moved to Cayman Islands about 3 years ago, so I was looking to forward to spending an afternoon in the place I call the “soul of South Africa”. For the uninitiated, Soweto is steeped in history, especially as far as the apartheid era is concerned. I discovered Soweto through a flat-neighbour of mine back in the late ninety’s . Lucky Diale was one of those Soweto residents who had grown up when the South African apartheid regime was at its repressive worst. He was heavily involved in the legendary June 16, 1976 riots that took place in Soweto and he always talked about Soweto with a burning passion that was so infectious. So I was fortunate enough to visit his home in Diepkloof a great many times, meeting his mother, brothers and sisters who were still living in Soweto at the time.

Soweto consists of several townships such as Orlando, Diepkloof, Dube, Moroka, Meadowlands, Jabulani and as such each township has its own special characteristic and history. Every resident seems to be particular proud of the section of Soweto that he or she hails from, but overall they all consider themselves as residents of Soweto. What seems strange to me is that many of the white population in South Africa and many “upmarket” black immigrants for that matter, have never been to Soweto and have no intention of visiting this great South African institution. Because of Soweto’s rebellious past as far as apartheid was concerned and the fact there were many bloody political battles fought in Soweto, many people up to this day, consider Soweto a violent place that best be avoided at all costs. Although this perception is unfortunate to say the least, I was pleasantly surprised by the way that Soweto has changed in the few years that I had not visited it.

Everywhere we drove there were B&B signs (Bed and Breakfast Lodges), new buildings had gone up or were going up in several Soweto townships, there were definitely more traffic lights present than several years ago and major road works were evident wherever we went. We came across many buses carrying tourists. Off course, Soweto still has a long way to go to be a fully developed area but the signs, in my opinion, are really positive and pointing in the right direction. I would urge anyone who visits South Africa, especially Johannesburg, to take some time to visit “the Soul of South Africa” and mingle with the local residents, you will not regret it!