Day 97 - Soweto

Soweto (South Western Township) - one of the largest townships in South Africa - is now considered a part of Johannesburg. It's famous for violent Soweto Riots of 1976 (kids were protesting against use of Afrikaans in schools) and the fact that is has a street where two Nobel Peace prize winners lived (Desmond Tutu and Nelson Mandela). Our guide, a native of Soweto, claimed she could speak all 11 official languages since all of them are widely used in Soweto. I believe her.

Houses in Soweto range from tiny delapidated shanties made out of sheet metal and still covered with barbed wire to nice large homes without any fences around them. A lot people who get wealthy do not want to move from Soweto to more upscale neighborhoods - instead, they just build nicer houses. Property there is pretty cheap - you could buy a decent house for about $100K. Not sure I'd want to live in Jo'burg though.

A house where Mandela lived is now a small museum. Hector Peterson museum is also in Soweto - it's an exteremely powerful space that talks about apartheid in general and the riots specifically. Sadly, 30 years later kids still have to take matriculation exams in English or Afrikaans. African languages are not offered as an option.