Date of Entry: November 28th 2016
Date of Writing: April 24th 2017
We wake up early again trying to cram in as much as we can to Renata’s 4 day visit. She flies out today in the evening back through Angola to Sao Paulo, my new home. We pack up Renata’s suitcase and take it with us when we get picked up by our friend Ben at Footprints in Africa, we’ve managed to jump on a tour with two lovely older dutch ladies to take us through Soweto, perhaps Africa’s most famous township, where so much recent history has unfolded as South Africans emerged from Apartheid society. We’ll also be visiting the Apartheid museum to learn more about the dark history of South Africa and the incredible progress made. The tour is also a bit of a Joburg tour stopping at plenty of sites and museums on the way to Soweto. Our first stop is at one of the big soccer stadiums built for the 2010 world cup. Our awesome guide Ben points out how it looks like a mug of beer with lots of height and seems to imply that was entirely intentional. And luckily in this entry our friendly older dutch friends take lots of pictures for us.
On our way into the massive township of Soweto we make a picture stop for the sign and of course, since no trip to south Africa is complete without them, some vuvuzelas, these one’s made into a sculpture and thankfully silent. Our next stop is at two giant graffiti towers which have a story behind them which I have unfortunately forgotten but you can absolutely organize to jump off the bridge between them, in what is a huge bungee jump. Not for me though, and definitely not for Renata.
Our next stops are both versions of Mandela’s house, one being the private dwelling of his 2nd wife Winnie Mandela’s house, though we just look on from outside, then it’s on to Mandela’s house a museum in his old house dedicated to him. We opt not to go inside as the cost is a bit steep and we don’t have long, instead we shop for gifts for Renata’s mum and boys while our friends explore the museum. We stand outside for some photos and to hide from the sun too, and I see Soweto’s version of recycling trucks.
While waiting outside we meet a school group on a field trip from elsewhere in Africa. Renata seems set on getting a photo with them and so I ask and they accept some kids very eager, other’s not so much. Either way here’s the result.
From here we head a short distance over to the hector pieterson museum. For those who don’t know Hector was a teenage buy who was killed during protests against apartheid by countless university students, the museum is dedicated to him and the protests and days which led to the end of an official apartheid. I do want to say I did encounter quite a bit of casual racism in South Africa, not against me of course but just comments like oh you shouldn’t go there it’s a black area, and stuff like that. I was surprised and disappointed, and of course usually went “there” and had nothing but good experiences. Read the quotes in the pictures below if you can, they are quite moving.
Inside the museum is a multimedia barrage of all the horrible things that happened in south Africa not that long ago. It’s hard to watch and look at and read about, and the air is heavy inside and I’m very glad we as a people and South Africa has come so far, but also upset that both South Africa and the world have so far left to go. Many people died for the basic human rights in south Africa just a handful of years ago, and while I did know that prior to coming, seeing the excellently arranged evidence of all this, well it’s a different kind of knowing. Renata’s moved too, and I know that brazil’s history with black people is far from excellent, and see myself how racism still exists back home too, usually in small ways, but there’s no such thing as insignificant racism.
After an hour roaming the museum on our own we head back outside and meet ben heading for a drive through Kliptown, one of the poorest parts of Soweto and what many would call a slum, or in Brazil, a favela. We’re supposed to stop and have a walkthrough, but with Renata’s flight hour there’s no time. Ben explains to us that despite the poverty there is actually very little crime and violence in Kliptown these days as the residents largely work together to do the best they can. Hygiene and safety concerns are very real though, with fires and water access both real problems. They really do look like the favelas of brazil, just not the ones in rio which are more hilly and so have a different look. I wish we could stop, but we need to get to the apartheid museum now.
The apartheid museum is huge and completes a day of education, sadness, but also hope at the progress made by Mandela and those who worked with him. It’s been a hard day, but inspiring too, and Renata is thrilled to be here and see all these places she’s always wanted to visit.
Inside the sprawling space of the museum there is more moving images and videos inside of Black South Africans struggle and a detailed timeline of Mandela’s incredible life. It’s too big for us to fully explore but it’s clearly excellently curated, down to the entrance where your ticket tells you whether your black or white and thus dictates your entrance path to the museum. Sadly even in the civilized world today, life is still different depending on the colour of your skin. How is that even possible?
Outside we reach the final room of the museum and snap some last photos of Renata before calling an uber and heading straight to the airport and enjoying one last meal together in the food court before a very hard and tearful goodbye as she heads back to Brazil. At least we both know I’ll be back in just over two weeks, so it’s not goodbye for long, and hey, it was an incredible and unplanned visit, and the first of what I have no doubt will be many international travels together. Here’s to a life of Travel Renata. I love you. Amo voce meu Brasilera!
