One day we drove down to Soweto which I'm sure most of you remember from South Africa's civil rights' movement. For a further history of Soweto, please see the next album. Back in the early days there were no stores and no medical facilities in Soweto yet the people did not rise up against the segregation. Strangely enough, it wasn't the separation that began the revolution against apartheid; it was language.
All South Africans speak at least two languages. There are actually eleven official languages. Almost everyone speaks English. The whites speak English and Afrikans, which is a dialect of Dutch, and the blacks speak their various tribal languages and English. Public schools were taught in English, but a decision was made by the South African government that all the public schools would be taught only in Afrikaans thereby making public education a service only for the whites.
Blacks who suddenly realized that they would no longer have the right to receive an education or to raise their living standards began demonstrating for schools to be taught in English. Hector Peterson, a 15 year old boy, was shot to death by the white police during a disturbance marking the beginning of the revolution that eventually ended South African apartheid.
After WWII the people who gained control of the government of South Africa began to strengthen the separation of the blacks from the whites. Nelson Mandela was a young prize fighter back in the 1960's. He also belonged to a black group that was fighting for the end of Apartheid. The group used violence, and explosives, and people were killed at these demonstrations. Mandela was arrested for having taken part in them, and he was put in prison where he remained for 27 years. According to our guide, he was offered his freedom various times if he would swear to no longer revert to violence in his fight for the end of Apartheid. He refused to so swear and was therefore kept in his cell on Robben Island which is off the coast of Cape Town. In the early 1990's a forward thinking prime minister came along and realized that the time for Apartheid had truly passed. He set Mandela free.
The group that Mandela had belonged to in the 1960s became a strong political party and they made Mandela their candidate in the first elections in 1995. He was elected by a landslide as blacks were allowed to vote and since they form the majority in the country, blacks now rule South Africa.
One of the local guides, a white woman, said that she was afraid that the blacks would change the constituion and make life miserable for the whites and colores. Coloreds are any people who are not either white or black, and according to her, they are the most mistreated in the country now.
