Fundisa: Langa

Townships

The history and story behind townships is too long and complicated for me to tell "rightly" so I'll settle for "simply" and try not to make too many generalizations. Townships are neighborhoods outside of the city that are made up of either black or coloured residents. The townships were initially planned to be separate housing for non-Europeans in Cape Town and every major city. They were relatively close to the city, but separate from the resident there so that white residents, if they were careful, never had to know that they existed. It's part of the system of apartheid. They were started in the 1920s with the urban areas act, which forced blacks to live in certain areas. When the apartheid government took over they created more and filled the existing ones to beyond capacity. Langa, the township I visited today, was initially built for 5,000 people, now nearly 15,000 people live there. The philosophy of apartheid said that if people were separate, less conflict would happen between the races. Of course, we know this was entirely flawed. Langa is one of the oldest townships in the country and the oldest in Cape Town. I think it might be best to let the pictures, and Siviwe (my guide), tell the story. First of all - plug for Siviwe - he is the best tour guide ever. He knows everyone, his tours are like a conversation, and he helped me out a lot. Let me know if you're coming down here and I will give you his contact information. So here we go. (They're WAY out of order - sorry - can't figure out blogger pics)

Here I am teaching about segregation in the US. How did this happen? No idea. It was something like: "Do you know about segregation?"
"Um, sort of... but I teach world history."
"But you are from the US?"
"Yeah"
"Can you tell us about the history of segregation?"
"Um, sure."
"Okay, Sean will tell you about segregation!"
"Yeah, so there was this 'separate but equal' idea..." etc, etc... Brown v. Board, Montgomery Bus Boycotts, Rosa Parks later...

Totally different high school now, this is where I saw the Cool Ideas play put on by the Nelson Mandela foundation - it focused on the issue of HIV/AIDS through short skits. More later.

Some students from the second school - they really want a print of this picture so I have to get some tomorrow...

Langa High School is the oldest - and probably the best funded - school in Langa. They actually have a working computer lab, school colors, some sports teams. This is Siviwe and some students.

The yard at Langa High School.

Outside (well, sort of) the township there are settlements - these are homes that were made from various scrounged materials on unclaimed land. These are called the Joe Slovo settlements. People have electricity (the government put it there to prevent fires from the paraffin lamps that were here before) but no running water in their homes. These women are washing clothes at the communal fresh water source.

When people move out of the settlements into the township, they often rent space in people's backyards to put up their homes. The peaked roof in the background is the home, the tarped homes are former settlers who are helping pay for power.

A street in the township.

Many businesses are housed in these shipping containers. They are easy to secure and cheap to establish. You find many cell phone distributors, barber shops, restaurants, etc. in these.

The empty school classroom (before the students I would teach arrived).

A very active gospel church on weekends, pretty shut down during the week. Just outside the Joe Slovo settlements.

Many people in Joe Slovo are starting to run small businesses catering to the tourists (like me I guess) by selling nick-nacs outside their homes. Later pictures show the inside of this woman's home.

Because there is no running water, bathrooms are on the bucket system. This is a row of toilets. The govt. comes by once a week to empty the baskets in there and put in new ones.

This is the childrens' room of the woman above's house. Her walls are made of salvaged wood and cardboard.

A street in Joe Slovo.

This is Siviwe in one of the hostels in the township. These were built for workers in the 1930s, and originally housed only men. In the 1980s women and families were allowed, but the hostels were not developed or expanded.

The following three pictures are inside a room in the hostels. Today, as in the 30s, three people live in this room and pay about R30 per month. They basically have the space of their bunk and above it. The electric range is all of a kitchen that is available, and there is no space I did not photograph here. In the 80s, there may have been two or three families living here - small children on the bed with the couple, others on the floor of the common room you saw above.

They call this the "Beverly Hills" of the township. It was built on the outer part of the township near the highway because people were uncomfortable seeing the hostels and settlements from their cars.

I needed a haircut, but Siviwe didn't recommend this place.

The next four pictures are the hostels from the outside.

This building has a dubious history. It was where people needed to register for their passbooks. There were thousands in line every day.

Langa is commissioning some street art to commemorate the past - this is a mosaic that depicts hostel life for the workers.

A feared sight during apartheid. The police were the primary enforcers of apartheid and they would use these to disrupt protests. At first, it was tear gas and rubber bullets. Eventually, the police merely sat inside the van and stuck their guns out the holes you see here - and used real bullets to break things up, kill, and "control" the uprisings.

This is Patricia - she sells sheep heads. In Xhosa tradition eating a sheep's head is important. There is a somewhat complicated process, but it is primarily communal and everything is shared. I didn't get a chance to have any, maybe later.

I mentioned the play earlier - this is where it was held.

Here is the play - a situational drama about a woman being taken advantage of - that was meant to teach people about safe sex and good decisions. It was interesting to see how much like our assemblies this was (different subject matter of course).

These are the guys from Cool Ideas and the Nelson Mandela foundation - very amazing, very nice people. Siviwe was an incredible help with getting pictures.

We went to a traditional healer. Some people have fully bought into western medicine, but many still believe in traditional medicine. This healer often treats newborns actually, as his remedies for small ailments like colds and flus seem to work much better than the pharmacy. You're seeing a seal's carcass here.

Various other parts of animals - used for anything from good luck to cures for diseases. The healer learns through dreams and continues to learn today.

I guess you would call this BBQ alley. It's where you go to get meat. Everyone sells the same thing, but you are only a regular in one place - people stick with their friends and favorites.

As a meat eater... and most people here are of my ilk... this looks damn good.

Too many pics... um... a street in the township.

Another pic of the traditional healer's. If you can identify any of these things, let me know. I was really astounded by all of it. The healer can name it all though, and he knows which ones do what.

One of the biggest problems in Africa, of course, is HIV/AIDS. Many people were initially coming to traditional healers for cures, and they were dying. So there was a concerted effort to educate all healers about the disease and now they all carry these.

This is the school I taught in.

The students writing down their addresses for me.

Coolest kid, really smart, made a great connection with apartheid and the US and segregation. Wish I could get all of their names.

This is a program of the cultural center - these women are learning how to make pottery to build job skills and make money from tourists and others. They make beautiful stuff actually - I want to go back and get some more.