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Re: Cape Town, Jo'burg - South Africa
Once we arrived, I grabbed my camera to head down the street to get some "shots" of the area. Much to my dismay, our driver advised me not to and that I shouldn't take any pictures of the men hanging out on the corner. Further, that we needed to lock up anything of value in the trunk of the car and we should stay close to him. Of course, this was a tad nerve wracking because it meant we were not necessarily in a safe area. Because he, the driver, was born in Jo'burg, I figured he must know what he was talking about and I wasn't about to go against what he suggested. For now, we just put our heads down and headed straight to the museum.
The Hector Pieterson Museum is a large museum located in Orlando West, Soweto, two blocks away from where Hector Pieterson was shot and killed. The museum is named in his honour. It became one of the first museums in Soweto when it opened in 16 June 2002. The museum covers the events leading up to, and during, the anti-Afrikaans Soweto Uprising.
The picture here shows Pieterson being carried from the scene shortly after he was shot by South African police. It was carried in newspapers all over the world and served to make him the face of the the struggle. He was just 13 years old. His sister is on the left and at the time we visited, she was working at the museum as a guide.
We spent several hours here reading and watching videos of the events of June 16, 1976. The Soweto Uprising, also known as June 16, was a series of high school student-led protests in South Africa that began on the morning of June 16, 1976. Students from numerous Sowetan schools began to protest in the streets of Soweto, in response to the introduction of Afrikaans as the medium of instruction in local schools. An estimated 20 000 students took part in the protests, and roughly 176 people were killed.
To say this was a very moving experience would be an understatement. I was horrified at the extent to which violence was used against school kids, and the incompetence of the authorities in handling what were peaceful protests. I was not the only one with that reaction. In talking to other visitors around me, the reaction was basically the same. It was hard to imagine that this atrocity took place in this generation. The visit to the Holocaust museum in Cape Town was moving; this one left me numb.
The anniversary of the uprising, June 16th, is now a public holiday, Youth Day, in South Africa, in remembrance of those events.
Once we arrived, I grabbed my camera to head down the street to get some "shots" of the area. Much to my dismay, our driver advised me not to and that I shouldn't take any pictures of the men hanging out on the corner. Further, that we needed to lock up anything of value in the trunk of the car and we should stay close to him. Of course, this was a tad nerve wracking because it meant we were not necessarily in a safe area. Because he, the driver, was born in Jo'burg, I figured he must know what he was talking about and I wasn't about to go against what he suggested. For now, we just put our heads down and headed straight to the museum.
The Hector Pieterson Museum is a large museum located in Orlando West, Soweto, two blocks away from where Hector Pieterson was shot and killed. The museum is named in his honour. It became one of the first museums in Soweto when it opened in 16 June 2002. The museum covers the events leading up to, and during, the anti-Afrikaans Soweto Uprising.
The picture here shows Pieterson being carried from the scene shortly after he was shot by South African police. It was carried in newspapers all over the world and served to make him the face of the the struggle. He was just 13 years old. His sister is on the left and at the time we visited, she was working at the museum as a guide.
We spent several hours here reading and watching videos of the events of June 16, 1976. The Soweto Uprising, also known as June 16, was a series of high school student-led protests in South Africa that began on the morning of June 16, 1976. Students from numerous Sowetan schools began to protest in the streets of Soweto, in response to the introduction of Afrikaans as the medium of instruction in local schools. An estimated 20 000 students took part in the protests, and roughly 176 people were killed.
To say this was a very moving experience would be an understatement. I was horrified at the extent to which violence was used against school kids, and the incompetence of the authorities in handling what were peaceful protests. I was not the only one with that reaction. In talking to other visitors around me, the reaction was basically the same. It was hard to imagine that this atrocity took place in this generation. The visit to the Holocaust museum in Cape Town was moving; this one left me numb.
The anniversary of the uprising, June 16th, is now a public holiday, Youth Day, in South Africa, in remembrance of those events.
And I remember learning about Hector, thanks for the reminder, cause atrocities like that should never be forgotten.
A box with soft tissues sounds like a good idea, but there is no doubt in my mind that unless that box was made of hard wood, it would get crushed 
Will wrap this up later.</span>
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