Saturday, Oct 15
My flight is at 8:30 pm so I decided to book a day tour to 2 other must-see sights in Joburg. Cradle of Humankind, where the oldest fossil of a humanoid was said to be found, and Soweto a famous township where you can witness what life was/is like for blacks in SA. So it was a history day.
The sight of Cradle of Humankind is northwest of the city of Joburg, less than an hour away. It’s a world heritage site and there’s excavation ongoing. Back in the late 1800’s they were mining this site for limestone which was in high demand for its building materials and also used in the processing of gold. Unfortunately they had already accidentally blasted the skeleton of the body away before they discovered the skull of Mrs. Ples. Yes they actually gave it that name. Ples actually is short for a very long scientific name. And at first Dr.Broom had guessed it was a woman. Currently they are excavating the remains of Little Foot which they believe is a small boy that fell into one of the opening of the cave 2.9 million yrs ago. Because of the fragility of the remains they are using a powerful dental drills and brushes. As a result it has taken 13 years and they are only 85% done, can you imagine? The museum at the site depicted skulls found at the site and how they must have looked back then. It’s amazing to see the full evolution of man. The tour was interesting. We went down 180 feet into the cave and saw some fantastic examples of limetones. The guide let us touch a vertebrae of an animal fossil that was embedded into a rock. This cave had a lot of small openings from the top so as a result a lot of animals and humanoids (from million yrs ago) have fallen in and died in the cave.
Our next stop was the township of Soweto (stands for southwest township). This township got started back in late 1800’s for the miners that came to Joburg when gold was discovered here. Fred showed me the “camp hostels” that are still being used today. They are just rows of brick buildings that provided a one room home for the workers at the mines. The minor would have one room as living quarters. No electricity, no water or bathroom. They looked like they should be knocked down but there are people still living in it today. Over the years after apartheid the government started erecting these simple but new homes that are subsidized. You have to pay a nominal rent and running costs. What people were surprised to find out was that many of the blacks did not take up this opportunity. Instead they preferred to stay where they were because it was costing them nothing, they didn’t want to start paying rent or utilities. As a result many of these new homes are standing empty and you still see people living in shacks. We drove by scenes where the “local butcher” set up shop in an empty dirt lot. His shop consisted of cardboards and tarps held up by wooden sticks. Nearby locals form the neighborhood were washing their clothes at an outside water tap. Many of the homes, some had 4 walls and some were shacks made of tin, does not have running water. The nicer section of the neighborhood had the “matchstick homes” which was a tiny house surrounded by walls and gate. At least they looked to be better maintained.
The township is huge, about 50 square miles and about 3 million people. In some parts you see some decent looking new houses. Fred explained that during the apartheid blacks were not allowed to buy or own a house assuming they could afford to. Once apartheid ended some people who made more decent money had saved up money over the years started to buy land and build their houses.
We drove by the house of Winnie Mandela who still lives there for part of the time. Ofcourse her house is probably the biggest and nicest in the neighborhood.
We had just enough time to do a quick stop into the Apartheid Museum. Had to admit that this was not on top of my list but Fred thought it would be good to see. I was glad we found the time. The design of the museum and the contents within was incredibly impactful. We only had an hour so Fred was nice and gave me a condensed version of the museum. I can imagine spending the whole day here.
Just watched the movie Invictus on the plane. I had heard about it, didn’t know what it was all about but wasn’t interested because it was about rugby. I remembered Louis at the lodge telling me what it was about and I should see it. So glad I saw ithe movie after I’ve been to SA, it all came together for me. All that I’ve seen and learned in the past 4 weeks helped me appreciate the movie even more. I recognized the scenery in the movie and it was great. It was also a great movie, cried through the whole thing. I had asked Fred my guide if the movie had represented the facts correctly and he said it did. He was impressed by the accents of Morgan Freeman and Matt Damon.
Fred says that it will take generations for real change to take place. The laws of apartheid might have been abolished less than 20 years ago but not enough has changed. I saw it first hand at the plant where almost 100% factory workers were black and most of office and mgmnt were whites. Even though there are efforts of diversity there are just not enough of blacks with the education and skills. The next generation will be more education which will result with better opportunities and the generation after that will be better. Already there is an emerging black middle class and upper middle class.
What a great experience it’s been. Home for a few weeks and then it’s Milan Italy. Sounds boring after S.Africa but hey, I’m not complaining.
I have decided that this place is worth a second trip. There's so much more to see and I really only got a little taste. It was a big check off my bucket list but it's worth putting it back on again! Only this time G will go with me...
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