Posts Tagged world cup
Smash Block
Posted by admin in Africa's Game, Travel Photography on December 11th, 2009
We had a really cultural day today. A few days ago we paid a lot of money for a personal driver to take us into SOWETO, the notorious South Western townships of Johannesburg. Today, we got a ‘tour’ of a genuine slum shantytown for free.
A street scene in Smash Block
We are staying with a children charity in the Limpopo Province in the North of South Africa in our search for more soccer photos. The world Cup is coming and everyone is well aware of that.
Ladies cook up a storm
Our host, a modern day Mother Theresa, welcomed us in accompanying her to the year-end function of at the township clinic’s support group. They are a group of residents from the local community that support elderly and sick people in their homes, people who are too sick or frail to make it to the clinic itself.
Picture in you minds-eye your local year-end function. Some have formal dinner, a few drinks at the pub, or just a get together of work mates. But I bet you envisage at least four walls and air-conditioning!
The scene was set in the shade of a big old tree next to the clinic. The clinic consisted of 3 transportable offices, these had power and plumbing, but the rest of the houses in this 30 000 strong community did not. A few donkeys walked past in the distance, one chased the other with a loud hee-haw, nobody seemed to care.
Ladies show off the food
It was hot, there were flies and only limited shade. The proceeding started almost like a church service. Everyone got up and sang gospel songs in Xhosa, clapping and swaying. Because the community was of mix backgrounds, there were two speakers. One spoke in Sotho and the other translated directly after into Xhosa. It looked a little like a stand-up routine, as every so often there would be a word that could not be directly translated, then the speakers and audience alike would burst out in laughter.
Lunch, Chicken stew with rice, coleslaw beetroot and gravy
After a few speeches and a whole lot more singing, it was time for lunch. The cooks had been slaving away since six in the morning, cooking in huge cast iron pots over an open fire. They had to start early because they only had 3 pots and lots of different dishes to cook. Any navy cook would have been proud. With the large amount they cooked and the military precision to which they served up food for 50 people. Lunch was chicken stew, rice, coleslaw, grated beetroot and a beautiful gravy that tied it all together. It was rustic, but very, very nice.
We had to pick up one of the community members from his home, a fair drive into this makeshift city. The local iron ore mines act as a magnet for people seeking to make their fortune. Many come here from neighbouring countries and squat here as a temporary residents. Waiting to find work. Because the community is so mixed, our host told us, there is no sense of community and crime is rife.
A man carts water on a donkey cart
As you drive among the shacks, mostly made from tin and corrugated iron, it is hard to believe that roughly 30 000 people live here, mostly on a temporary basis. Many houses share the same ‘long-drop’ toilet and there are four points in the area where one can collect water. At the water point you will be charged a nominal fee to fill up your containers, but you have to cart them home yourself. Also the local entrepreneur’s have started a water running service. They load water containers onto the back of donkey carts and shuttle backwards and forwards between water points and houses, for a fee of course.
a store in the cbd area
A good town also has a business district, you can buy chickens, mobile phone credit, get a hair cut from one of the many salons or get meat from the butchery in the main street, albeit with donkeys, dogs and cats wandering the streets right next to the shops.
All up, in SOWETO we had to pay for an experience that was still very limited and we did feel like tourists. Here, the people were friendly and forthcoming. They fed us lunch, the same as what they had, they sang African Gospel and we had a township experience that money can’t buy.
It was great.
Ooh and almost forgot to mention, we were there on the wrong day for soccer, but on the two soccer fields in this area known as Smash Block, there are 3 soccer teams. Amazing.
SOWETO
Posted by admin in Africa's Game, Travel Photography on December 9th, 2009
SOWETO. The name immediately makes many a South African uncomfortable. Ask any South African and they might mention words like crime, hardship, Apartheid, poor, riots, student uprising, Mandela etc. They will probably tell you to run the other way.
Spectators watch the game in SOWETO
I have not met many South Africans who have actually visited SOWETO before, as a tourist. Equally, I have never met an international tourist who had not gone there while they were in South Africa, miraculously they all survived to tell the tale.
I myself had always wanted to go and visit SOWETO, but have always been too scared to venture to the SOuth WEstern TOwnship. When we decided to do this photo project, we knew that we would need photos near the major landmarks. With the Soccer World Cup 2010 fast approaching, we though there would be no place more recognisable for Johannesburg than SOWETO. Home of the Orlando Pirates Soccer team, various soccer stadiums including Orlando Stadium which will be a 2010 venue. And also the colourfully painted cooling towers of the planned Nuclear Power station, which never produced any power.
So yesterday at the Tourist information place we asked the lady about Tours to SOWETO. Without hesitation she offered us the number of Obrey, she said that she knew him well and he is very dependable. I rang him and I did think the price that he quoted was a bit steep. Then I realised that this was Africa, we had to negotiate. I rang him back and after a bit of to and fro, the price had dropped by a bit. We were set to go the next morning at 10 am.
Spectators watch the game from the sideline
After going with Obrey, I would not recommend taking on the taxi-riddled streets of SOWETO by yourself if it is your first visit. Just about all the backpacker’s hostels offer organised tours, but we needed a more personal service (and a photographic model) and thus our private driver, Obrey.
I won’t write here about the history of SOWETO because I do not know enough myself about it. I will tell you about our experience. It was well worth it. I had imagined rows and rows of corrugated Iron shacks and immense poverty everywhere. Instead, we saw a lot of well-built houses, bricks and mortar, interwoven with poorer shacks. Some houses were half brick, with an extension made from corrugated metal. Many had nice patches of garden out the front. Propably the most interesting commercial initiative we saw, were ready made metal shacks. You can buy the four sides and roof, with holes ready cut for windows and door. Take this to your desired site and assemble. Our driver Obrey said that a ready made “house” could be as much as R6000.
We headed straight for the Hector Pieterson meseum. Hector was a 13 year old student protesting against the government policy that the local schools should be taught in Afrikaans, even though many students did not speak the language. He was shot and killed during the riot. A powerful picture was taken of another boy carrying the dead body of Hector down the street. This picture became a poster for the struggle against Apartheid. The museum does not take sides, but has many exhibits of powerful images and video that was taken during this time. It is very moving.
After that we went for a little sight seeing drive. We passed by the house that Nelson Mandela stayed in during his time in SOWETO. Right next door is the new restaurant/coffee shop tha we were assured is owned by Winnie Mandela, the ex-wife of Nelson. We saw women cooking and selling a kind of take-way, pap & vleis (porridge and meat) and mini bus taxis driving like they own the place!
Because we were focused on soccer, we decided not to doodle. We found a local soccer game being played and pulled into the stadium to take some pictures, the game looked very serious. One game was underway on the main field while other teams warmed up on the adjacent one. We stood out like sore thumbs! I could see one other white man, but I think he was a coach of one of the teams, he kept shouting instructions as they warmed up.
A man blows a plastic horn (vuvuzela) in support of his team
People looked at us funny, for all of about two seconds, then they went back to their serious game. Strangely, we almost felt welcome. A bunch of fairly intimidating guys crowded around a Vuvuzela (I think the spelling is ok), one of the trumpet horns that they blow at the soccer games. We timidly walked over and asked if he would be in a photo. He leapt at the opportunity. He started blowing wildly in all directions. It was loud.
After that we went to the cooling towers/smoke stacks. I had read that you can bungee jump off the top. I think that those days had come and gone. We pulled in almost directly next to the foot of these towers. The area looked DODGY AS! I asked Obrey if he thought it was safe before we got out. He was more concerned about Lions that Tzotsi’s. Seriously, as we walked into the area that was a deserted commercial district, it resembled the secene of a deserted New York City in the movie, I am Legend. I think this is why he was scared of the lions.
One of the cooling towers that is colorfully decorated
We did our photos as quick as possible and got the hell out of there. Obrey was great, No Problem, but I would’t have wanted to stay any longer. I can’t believe he was more worried about lions than totsies!
Cheers
Morne de Klerk
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