During the last week of march I had the opportunity to go work for a couple of days with our team in South Africa, this time I was able to squeeze an extra day to take a tour around some landmarks of the city and talk with locals about the history of South Africa and Johannesburg. This was my second time going there, so you now start to get a better sense of the place and what to see if you only have 24 additional hours.
The city was founded in 1886 following discovery of gold and quickly received a great number of outsiders to establish for work and have living from the new found riches. Thousands of people arrive to work on the mines and used local for the manual labors, this created lots of issues moving forward with many instabilities. There are no working mines today in the urban part but you can see machinery used many years ago.
South Africa is a country that suffered a lot on racial discrimination, what I saw during my visit is that the people are embracing the story to make a stronger place to live for everyone with equal rights for every citizen. Their is along journey ahead but you find great things are happening when talking with the people and also how proud they are on what they have achieved with hope for a better tomorrow.
One of the places I visited was Constitution hill, in this place there was first a fort that was made in 1899 to protect the South African Republic from British invasion. Along the fort a prison was built, known as number four and during the apartheid era was used to put people that opposed the system it was active until 1983. Both Nelson Mandela and Mahatma Gandhi were prisoners at some moment in the prison, along with thousands of prisoners that were held for things like not having their pass to be walking outside. Conditions were not great and there are may stories of abuse in the prison. They have maintain the place opened for people to go and learn what happened there, so it will never happen again.
As part of their new constitution and focused to bring justice to the people, a new constitutional court was established in 1993 and now has a permanent place in the Constitution Hill, along the old prison. They used the prison blocks in the construction of the court in a strong message of change, at the entrance you see the words constitutional court in their 11 official languages and a enormous wooden door with the carving of the 27 rights of the bill of rights in their official languages and also sign language.
Constitution hill is a place that show some of the most dark moments in Johannesburg but also show how the city and the country are moving forward with clear equality principles, the people know they have a long journey but are proud of their advances.
Another important place to visit is the Apartheid museum, where you can see the story from the establishment of the system, the process to take it down and the establishment of the new government system with a new constitution that brought new rights to the people of South Africa with universal suffrage and the elections of 1994 were citizen of all races voted. The place contains lots of details using photos, videos, and audios of those times. You can spend easy a full day exploring the museum and get a good idea of the events that marked the apartheid era.
From the museums we move to SOWETO (South Western Township), a township created during the 1930’s to move blacks and separate from whites during the apartheid area. As you enter this township you know that the place is special and that has is own personality. It was a place that saw many riots as parts of the protests against the apartheid regime. SOWETO is huge with many places to explore, more than 1 million people live there. One of the highlights is that in one of the streets of SOWETO to Nobel prize winners lived (Guinness Record), Desmond Tutu and Nelson Mandela. There is actually an attraction in the house that Mandela lived.
We also pass thru the FNB stadium home to the 2010 world cup final where Spain beat Netherlands 1-0, Is the largest stadium in Africa with 94,000+ capacity (currently bigger than Estadio Azteca). Talking with locals the world cup was one of great significance to the country, a moment where the whole country united and had a lot of investments in infrastructure, an example is the Gautrain a mass transportation system that is still in use. For my trip back to Dubai I used the train and let me tell you is spectacular, the cleanliness, timely and good value makes it an option if you are staying in the Sandton area.
Also during my visit, had chance to eat in a local restaurant called Chez Alina. In the place had local made food that was excellent and also one of the local beers called Soweto Gold, it was a great lunch where I met local people that knew my guide Thando. The food was tasty and flavorful, the most interesting thing was a steam bread that was great to accompany the stewed beef.
To end the tour Thando showed me where he was born and the current community he is helping, suburb is named Kliptown a very humble place with tons of great people that want to contribute to society, the work being done is spectacular currently they are helping more than 100 kids get ahead in life providing school program, food and the necessary support to move ahead in life. If you want to find some information you can find them on Facebook under Kliptown Youth Program (KYP). The way that Thando hosted me was spectacular and added to my visit making the day perfect; but to be honest all the people that I met in South Africa were spectacular there easy to get along, happy to help you and more important real.
I am thankful of my job and the opportunity of getting to different places in the world working with great people and also knowing about the culture of the place I visit. Johannesburg has left me with a great impression and would definitely would recommend for a visit, the tour was an excellent find in trip advisor (Thanks to Stephenson Adventures – Ultimate Johannesburg tour). I hope to be back in the near future and explore more of the country.
Now back to Dubai where hot temperatures are close. If you just read the post please forward to a friend and sign in to receive our updates; also follow us on Instagram, or Facebook look for #BORICUASLIVINGABROAD. Until next time….
Boricuas Living Abroad 