So much learning, so little time

Uhhhh...so yeah...about keeping up with writing this blog. SORRY! Our time in Johannesburg was so quick and we did so much that I just never sat down to update you all on what I have been up to.Basically in one word my time in Johannesburg could be described as intense. Almost from the moment we stepped off the plane we began touring the area and learning all about the political and cultural history of South Africa. The thing that continues to amaze me is the incredible amounts of history that is in this area. 

We first arrived at St. Peter's Guest House which was a beautiful place where we got to stay during our time in Johannesburg. They gave us meals and had tea and coffee for us 24/7! 

The outside of St. Peter's. 

My awesome room with bright purple blankets (excuse our messiness and note the Clark sweatshirt)

The beautiful courtyard which was the best for journaling and early morning tea.

We started out our journey with a tour of Soweto, the most populous urban residential area in the country with a huge population of about a million. The township was first created as a home to black laborers who worked in mines and other industries in the city, purposefully located away from the main city center. As segregation was common at this time, the city was designated as home to the whites only. Soweto is actually an acronym for South Western Townships. The current problems of Soweto include poor housing, overcrowding, high unemployment, and poor infrastructure. The Apartheid government did not plan or provide much in terms of infrastructure and only in recent years has the democratic government started movements to better the land and housing. 

View of some of the settlements in Soweto

We visited the Regina Mundi church which is Soweto's largest Catholic church. This church also played a huge role in the township's history of resistance against Apartheid. We also visited the Hector Peterson museum where we got to hear from his sister, Antoinette Sithole, who was there the day of the riot and pictured behind Hector in the famous picture taken during the student riots of June 16, 1976. For those of you who do not know much about South African history, the riots of 1976 were planned by the students to protest the introduction of the language, Afrikaans, in their schools. This language was regarded as the language of the oppressor and black Africans did not want it taught as their primary school language. The riots and student uprising of 1976 accelerated the demands of the public against the Apartheid government. The museum walked us through the riots and also all of those who lost their lives during this time. It was extremely moving and powerful. After that we visited Nelson Mandela's house where he moved in 1946 with his first wife. He didn't spend too much time there because of his role in the struggle for freedom where he mostly lived a life on the run. It was an adorable little house and Mandela spent some time here as well after his release from prison in 1962. 

A room inside of Mandela's house. "It was the opposite of grand, but it was my first true home of my own and I was mightily proud."-Nelson Mandela

We did all of those things I just talked about in one day too! ONE day! We had the busiest schedules so packed with places to go and speakers to listen to but it was all so worth it. I learned an incredible amount about the history of these areas and this place is truly beautiful.

One of the places we visited that really stuck out to me was when we visited Kliptown, a suburb of Soweto in Gauteng, South Africa. Kliptown is the oldest residential district of Soweto and was first home to informal settlements, or squatter camps. The area now contains a mix of housing including a large number of broken down shacks lacking basic needs such as water, electricity, and proper building structures. We walked through these areas and at first I couldn't help but feel like I was intruding. It seemed strange to just browse the neighborhood and look at the poor conditions these people were living in. The residents were actually extremely welcoming though and talked to us as we walked through. They told me about how the South African government promised them they would fix their houses and provide better water systems but they have done nothing. I know there isn't much I could do as an American but the residents said they wanted us to write to the South African government as well and tell them about what we saw and why they need better places to live. It was a really intense and emotional experience and was the most challenging of my trip so far. Being an International Development major, you read about places like this all the time and people who are struggling to get through everyday life but seeing it in person and being there and walking around was really intense. I wasn't sure how to feel or what to do or anything really. It was like all of my classes at Clark just culminated into that one moment when I was standing in the middle of a neighborhood next to stray dogs, small children running around with no shoes, unclean water in puddles everywhere, and the smell of outhouses and improper toilet systems filling the air around me. It was incredibly emotional and I had trouble breaking down how I was feeling afterwards. I still think about that day so much and it really exemplifies the major divide between the classes that exists in South Africa.

The next day we visited two of the political parties that exist here in South Africa. The Democratic Alliance (DA) is the governing party of the Western Cape province and is the official opposition to the ruling party, the African National Congress. The DA's vision is to "imagine a society in which even a child born into the most desperate poverty can become a brain surgeon, a concert pianist, or a sports hero." Uhh...yeah that sounds all well and good but I found that our meeting was very uneventful and wouldn't we all love that?! Next we met with the African National Congress (ANC) which is the current ruling party and the main players in the liberation movement. For nine decades, the ANC has led the struggle against racism and oppression, organizing mass resistance, mobilizing the international community and taking up the armed struggle against apartheid. It was interesting to hear from them as well because they are so highly valued throughout South African society because of their role during the Apartheid times but now many people's views of them have changed. The public has been less supportive of their policies because they do not always listen to the public and many peoples basic needs are not being met. I saw this firsthand when 

walking through Kliptown and it definitely made me more critical of the ANC and their policies. After visiting these two political parties I realized that politics here are like politics anywhere else...you ask a lot of questions and nothing really gets answered. 

We also went to Treatment Action Campaign (TAC) which is a major HIV/AIDS organization in South Africa. I was extremely excited about this because of my love for learning about HIV and the global policies surrounding it. I was even more excited because just by coincidence, last semester in Cultural Anthropology we were asked to research an organization about anything we were interested in. I just googled "HIV/AIDS organizations in South Africa" and TAC popped up first so I decided to write about it. Little did I know, I would be visiting the organization just a couple months later! Nice to see my school work back at Clark actually connecting to something in the real world. TAC is a super awesome organization that campaigns for equitable access to affordable treatment for all people living with HIV/AIDS and also supports efforts to prevent and eliminate all new HIV infections. They run different support group and education efforts around South Africa in both the rural and urban areas helping to educate the public about HIV and reduce the social stigma that sometimes surrounds the disease. I have also written lots of papers at Clark about stigma and discrimination surrounding HIV and how this can sometimes deter people from getting proper treatment and to hear firsthand from someone who is HIV positive about their experience with the social and cultural stigmas was really powerful. The things I am reading in books are true and getting to learn about them firsthand is so much more beneficial than any 10 page paper I have stayed up until 4 am writing.

This was only our first couple of days in South Africa! We did so much but it was all so amazing and educational. I am breaking up my blog about Johannesburg into like three different entries because I got overwhelmed! Read the next entry to learn about my homestay with a family in Soweto and the end of my time in good ol' Jo'burg!

A view of Johannesburg from our bus