After only about an hour drive from Jo’burg, you enter Soweto, and yes, you’ll know when you’re there! A bustling energy, full of excitement and warmth, immediately surrounds you. Unlike the suburbs of Johannesburg, where people seem to remain either inside their houses or in their car (for safety reasons or a fear of their black compatriots), here, people are everywhere! Kids wave enthusiastically from the sidewalks; Families and friends barbeque outside their houses – organized chaos in all its beauty. While at the same time, exuberating an overwhelming sense of cool.
On our second day, we decided to take one of the hostel’s unique, soon-to-be-famous bicycling tours around Soweto to see more of the city. Our tour guide, who lived nearby, greeted us with helmets and a huge smile – which in a way is a symbol of black South Africans strength. Despite their history of disrespect and humiliation from whites, oddly enough, there is no hostility, no resentment. And we saw this everywhere. Nelson Mandela said “Before changing the society, you have to first change yourself,” and it seems that this message is truly taken to heart in the black community. Getting us back is not about making us uncomfortable or scared, but showing us how wrong we were to judge them by their color.
While Will ran back to our room to get the camera, I chatted with the guide, asking him how he started giving tours. He told me that he used to work as a volunteer for one of the community projects supported by our hostel. During that time, he met an American couple that had come to help out, and after getting to know him, offered to support his training to become a guide. You could tell from his manner that he was proud of his job and happy to be there, he had an opportunity to support himself and his family. It’s easy to say that people in the townships don’t want to work – that they would rather just hang out and do nothing, because unfortunately that’s often what you see - but it’s completely untrue. Their ability to step out of poverty has been crippled by years of racism and lack of opportunity. This has nothing to do with their work ethic, but the unjust and economically-hindering treatment of blacks by the apartheid regime.
As he told his story, giving credit to that couple who helped him out, I saw that he wasn’t ashamed or embarrassed for needing assistance, but grateful and proud. Proud, perhaps, of the fact that we, the human race, are helping one another have a better life. The African philosophy of Ubuntu is one that’s been mentioned by Nelson Mandela, Desmond Tutu, even Bill Clinton, to explain the importance of our interconnectedness as a people. A SeTswana proverb – “Motho Ke Motho Ka Batho” – translates as “A person is a person through other persons,” the idea being that our behavior and decisions will affect the lives of others and vice versa, creating an invisible thread through which we are all linked. Pull on that thread and you may not feel the difference, but you will inevitably shift the position of others who are also attached.
This idea I find most comforting, and one that seems to be growing in pertinence every day. Globalization, thanks to the internet and cheap travel, has shrunk our world into one ever-flowing exchange of ideas, products, and identities. “I am because you are,” is no longer only relevant to a town or city, but actually to the whole world. We are in this together. This is why I urge whoever is visiting South Africa to visit Soweto. To learn about its history, not in a museum, but hey, why not on a bicycle! Experience the friendliness of a people that endured more than I, a white Californian, could ever imagine - but still just keep on smiling. During those two days, we both pulled on that invisible string, and felt a big tug back.
To learn more about Soweto Backpackers you can visit their website at: www.sowetobackpackers.com
Love to everyone!
Emily
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