Soweto, the name of the South West Township that borders Johannesburg, the city where I was born. Merely thirty kilometers from where I was born, a drastically different country seemingly resides. It’s paradoxical the drastic wealth disparity between the luxurious golf and country estates to the township that many call home.
A tour took us past a statue of Nelson Mandela, proudly surveying a beautiful square that stood for the end of the apartheid regime. Apartheid in South Africa ended in 1994 when Nelson Mandela (South Africa’s first black president) was released from Robben Island. Robben Island was a working prison camp that held many political activists and those that spoke out against their party. The African National Congress (ANC) was a rival party that was not recognized by the current regime as legitimate until the release of its leader, Nelson Mandela.
The tour continued across a set of train tracks, the only divider between the four star hotel and some of the poorest areas of Soweto. The people that lived here were on the waiting list for government housing and some of them had been for over 10 years, since the ANC had been elected into office. Houses were supplied with power by frayed copper wires, a large percentage of which had been stolen from pre-existing lines at the risk of electrocution. The result of the electricity being spread so thinly for so many people is ‘load-shedding’.
I was in South Africa last year and even then load-shedding was a very foreign concept. Load-shedding essentially is a rotation of electrical power between areas. Certain times of the day are blacked out for periods of up to four and a half hours to provide power for everyone plugged into the electrical grid. Imagine not having power (any electricity) for a period of four hours. That means you can’t cook, no air conditioning (it’s a warm country) and for some no running water (much of the water is supplied by pumps). Also, if you’re lucky enough to experience load shedding in the evening that also means no lights in the evenings for home work and other tasks.
We walked into the downtown core of the city. Side stepping garbage and stagnant water, walking between houses fenced by barbed wire and old mattress springs. Homes in South Africa never used to be so fenced. When apartheid ended in 1994, people grew afraid of what might change and built high walls to protect their wealth and current lifestyle. Gated estates became normal and those patrolled by 24 hour guard not so uncommon. Poorer people also began to build fences and walls as a symbol of status out of whatever they could find, typically brick or scrap metal.
Soweto houses about 4.8 million people and still many more refugees from bordering countries come to Johannesburg looking for opportunity. Johannesburg was founded during the gold rush where many outsiders came and amassed great wealth. The gold mines still exist and still hold gold but at a depth that is currently not economically viable to reach it at. The people who made lots of money returned to their homes with gold and the stories of the riches of South Africa. And so, more people come, hoping for something more than they are able to get in their country, looking for other opportunities but they are disappointed with cramped housing (if any) controlled by mafia leaders.
Everywhere we walked, we were flanked by several children, smiling and waiving at us and asking us to “shoot them” , ensuring that the pictures were perfect. It was quite an eye-opener for me to know that if I had been born just thirty kilometers from where I was, the two children pictured above (roughly aging 5 and 3) would have been one of the five children I might’ve had by the age of 17. The difference that birth can make but also the ability and unique position we are in to be able to change that.
Did you know? Nelson Mandela’s name was not originally Nelson but Rolihlahla. AÂ teacher struggled with the pronunciation of his name and dubbed him ‘Nelson’.
Fantastic post Elene! I had the opportunity to visit Soweto when I visited South Africa 5 years ago, as well as the Khayelitsha town ship outside of Cape Town, and found the experience really eye-opening. It’s crazy how visiting a place like this can change your worldview
Thank you very much! For me it really just readjusted my perspective on how we are really so small in such a big world yet still have the power to influence change when we work together 🙂
Interesting article. When one compares places like this to lets say, Dubai or the Gulf Arab states, one sees just how much disparity in wealth exists in our world.
Thank you very much for your comment, Armeen! Wealth disparity is definitely going to continue to be a problem as we see increasing divide between the haves and have nots and Dubai is a particularly interesting example of wealth in architecture and infrastructure.