“You could have chosen to be anywhere else in the world and you chose to be here, so we thank you”! Those are the words stated repeatedly by our tour guide, Siya (if that’s how you spell his name), throughout our Soweto bike tour. Soweto stands for South Western Townships. This bike tour took all 21 of us through several townships of the Soweto province in Johannesburg, South Africa. We were joyfully greeted in all townships by the loving people of Soweto. “Sanibonani!” (a greeting used in the Zulu language to address a group of people) they shouted as we rode through their streets, and we responded by saying “yebo”! Children happily ran towards us, offering high fives with bright smiles. Additionally, we learned some interesting facts regarding the Soweto province of Johannesburg. There are over 41 townships, along with over 3 million people living in Soweto. The first official Soweto township was established in 1931. Johannesburg was founded due to the gold rush started in 1886 by an Australian named George Harrison. This gold rush caused slums to emerge. The slums then caused the bubonic plague to find its way throughout Johannesburg. This unfortunate circumstance was used by the government to separate races. As a group, we rode through multiple stops, and our tour guide shared information about the history of Soweto at each stop. We learned about the intense soccer rivalry between Orlando East and Orlando West, two Soweto townships. These townships received their name after Edwin Orlando Leake was the first man to arrive. Throughout Soweto, we saw flat-topped mountains. Our tour guide made it clear that these mountains were not natural, but man-made. These mountains were formed by the excavated material due to the gold rush mining.

Towards the middle of the tour, we came across children playing soccer in the street. Five of us GLCM students were then challenged to play 5 vs. 5 against these children. After a long and hard-fought battle, the mighty GLCM students fell to the Soweto locals by a disappointing score of 1-0. This area of Soweto had many abandoned and worn-down homes. We were told that Nelson Mandela built these homes in 2010 for the people. However, due to economic and political issues, these homes were never occupied and have since been abandoned. Nevertheless, we were able to bond and share time with the wonderful people of Soweto. We later stopped at a local restaurant and ate authentic South African vetkoek with atcha and chips with its unique sauce.

Soon after, we continued riding our bikes and were surprised by a performance of the traditional Zulu dance performance right outside of Nelson Mandela’s home! Dancers harmonized and made beats to their music while dancing. After the performance, we were able to explore Nelson Mandela’s home.

One of our last stops was at a memorial created for violent protests and fights that broke out due to the Apartheid. Our tour guide spoke about how the education for a black student was roughly 42 rand, while for a white student, it was 500 rand, displaying the grand inequality. We also learned about Confrontation Corner which was when police killed 23 students who were protesting. Throughout 3 years, police killed roughly 600 students. After a tiring but eventful tour, we ate a wonderful lunch.

Blog by Max Saucedo