Soweto - their struggle continues

---

Day 3
And the second of our two full days in Doha.

The oppressive heat is relentless. When we set off in the morning we felt it had eased off a little, but by half way to our target museum we realised that was a false hope. It's not so much the temperature but also the high humidity, in the upper 70%s.

We headed today for the Msheireb Museums, a group of 4 heritage houses in the heart of old Doha, each given over to a particular theme.

The first, Radwani House showed rooms and artefacts associated with traditional Qatari family life in the 1920s.

Next, Company House, was once the HQ for Qatar's first oil company. Before oil, and later gas, were discovered Qatar's economy was mostly built upon hand dived natural pearls, and dates. Neither are the greatest of commodities to build an economy on. And even that faint lifeline was shattered when the Japanese worked out how to induce pearls and drastically undercut the natural market.

When oil prospectors and surveyors first went to Qatar their first impressions were not very positive at all. Quite dismissive in fact. Even when they started to drill, initial lack of findings was such that they were about to give up. But then a well blew, and the rest is history.

Good focus in there on stories from 'workers' rather than all being from a company point of view.

Bin Jelmond House focused on a much darker side of human history - human slavery and exploitation. After a video presentation noting many different types and periods of slavery - Romans, Chinese, European middle-ages serfdom, New World slavery ... - a focus was on the extensive Indian Ocean World ( as they called it ) and Arabian Gulf slave trade. It gave us a different perspective from the one we had experienced in the American Deep South last year.

But it was bang up to date with modern themes of human trafficking, enforced prostitution and the like. There was even a reference to 'contractual slavery' illustrated with a photo of vegetable pickers in the English Fens!

A very powerful museum, and clearly very new - or immaculatly maintained.

A sub-gallery within that house had a special exhibition on DNA amd what it said about ancestory and how it could help in the future eg through genetics amd personalised healthcare. Qatar is clearly investing large sums in this technology. All prospective marrying couples are offered free DNA / genetic screening as are all unborn children, though that itself has very profound ethical issues which we don't recall being covered much in the exhibition.

The final house, Mohammed Bin Jassim House, built by the son of the founder of modern Qatar, looked at local life, how shops and souks developed, how 'modern' life arrived in Qatar.

As is not unusual for us a museum that was guided as being around 2 hours to visit occupied nearly twice that time for us.

Respite from the heat followed before venturing Souk-wise for the evening. Regrettably Paul's camera didn't take kindly to the atmospheric conditions and refused to unfog all evening which was a bugger as there were some specific shots we had wanted to take eg of the Bismillah hotel, the name being used in a well known song...... (And if you would like to know Bismillah means 'In the name of God' and is the first word in the Qur'an ).

Early-ish to bed though as up at 3.30 am for flight to Johannesburg ?

Day 4
was, therefore, essentially just our onward flight to Johannesburg. Same impeccable service as for the first flight, though aircraft was slightly older. All on time and smooooth service throughout.

Our Explore booked hotel for two nights - we have arrived a day earlier than needed - is 'African' themed - thatched roofs..... even though it is only just off-airport but it is adequate enough, and has a pool. The birds are singing & the flowering shrubs smell divine. And Paul got his first ultra zoom photo on his new camera, of a yellow Southern-masked Weaver, and 'caught up' a country on Pip. Before this trip Pip had been to SA, twice, and Paul hadn't. But Paul is now just 'ahead' by Gibraltar.

Day 5
Our first full day in SA. We have this day, and 4 others when we return to Joburg after the Explore tour, to do as we wish, so we had booked a tour to Soweto for today.

Booked through a travel company associated to our hotel we had a private tour guide/driver to ourselves.

On the way across we got a photo-opportunity at the 2010 World Cup Stadium, and also saw noticeable signs of the substantial mining heritage in the area - mine head winding gear and vast spoil heaps.

1st stop was the Hector Pietersen Museum. Hector was a 13 year old boy who became the iconic image of the 1976 Soweto uprising in apartheid SA. The image of his dead body - he had been shot in the back by police during a student demonstration - being carried by another Soweto resident, who was forced to flee to Botswana, became the iconic image of the uprising.

The students were protesting about the imposition of Afrikaans and English as the dual medium of instruction, to the extent, as the museum's displays explained, that different subjects were taught in different languages. And neither language was native to the pupils.

We then moved on to Vilakazi Street, reputedly the only street in the world that is the original home to two Nobel Prize winners - Nelson Mandela and Archbishop Desmond Tutu.

Mandela House was built 1945, and Nelson moved in in 1946 with his first wife, Evelyn Ntoko Mase. After divorce in 1957, Winnie Mandela moved in in 1958.

However Nelson spent little time here as his role in the struggle forced him underground, living on the run until his arrest in 1962. When he was released in 1990 he only spent 11 days here before moving to somewhere more removed from press, well wishers and other prying eyes.

"It was the opposite of grand, but it was my first true home of my own and I was mightily proud. A man is not a man until he has a house of his own. " From his memoirs, The Long Walk to Freedom.

There was a brief stop at Desmond Tutu's house - not open to the public as that is still his home! - since 1975. He is 87 in October, and married for 63 years.

It was good to see that both these places were also being visited by coach loads of young schoolchildren, many of primary school age, in all sorts of school uniforms. Clearly a great importance placed on teaching their recent history.

On to Soweto Township, an area covering 200 sq.km bordering the city's mining belt in the south. Population estimated around 1.4 million, 98.5% black African, mostly speaking Zulu.

Contrary to popular belief most of the Township consists of brick / concrete, properly roofed units, with modern facilities - water, sewage, electricity - but they are mostly very small, barely 2/3 room bungalows, as tightly packed as squares on a chess board.

But there are also substantial settlements of, basically, one room tin shacks, and we got to have a brief walk in one of these areas. Built of corrugated tin, tin roof with holes, threadbare carpet over the ground - no 'floor' as such - and no built in services. Kerosene stove for cooking, candles for lighting. Half a dozen standpipes for water in a community of 2000. Porta-toilets around the edge of the settlement the only toilets. And what electricity there is jerry-rigged from neighbouring supplies, with the dangers that this brings at 220 volts and metal houses.

We were shown around for 15 minutes by a settlement guide who told us that a 12 year old girl had been electrocuted and died yesterday from such jerry-rigged wiring.

Quite numbing.

Those living there are on waiting lists for brick built properties in the more modern sections. The numbers painted on the tin shacks showed they were registered such.

On a plus side, there is free schooling, and nearby - though probably further than the average UK school run - there is one of the world's largest hospitals, where free medical treatment is given.

Two less contentious stops on the way back.

Firstly the Orlando Towers. These are a pair of brightly painted power station (now defunct) cooling towers that get regularly rebranded, and can be seen for miles. An enterprising local company had now even slung a bungy jumping platform between them. Paul resisted the temptation this time after the fun and games in New Zealand!

Our final stop was the Catholic Regina Mundi Church, built 1961. Known as the People's Church it was often the place to gather during the apartheid struggle as meetings in public places were banned. During the Soweto riots on June 16, 1976, many students fled here but police entered and fired live bullets, as did a helicopter outside. There are still bullet holes in the ceilings.

On the way back our guide stopped by his flat and introduced us to his two children, 12 and 8. The elder girl wants to be an air stewardess, the boy a rugby player. Life and its dreams is the same the world over!

Our tour officially starts tomorrow and we are of to the Drakensburg Mountains, apparently the oldest mountain range on the planet.

---

Photos

Teddy Bear Lamp
Artwork in Doha airport