Preconceived notions go down in flames:  Soweto

It’s always a bit of a shock to me when my preconceived notions turn out to be wrong. Of course it shouldn’t; many (if not most) do. But I don’t think I’m that unusual; we all create a mental image of an expected experience, and depending upon how strong that image is, when we are confronted by a very different reality it can be jarring.

Going to Africa was like that in lots of small (and some not so small) ways. One of the them is our experience seeing the shanty towns in Soweto. Like most of us, I’d seen the newsreels of Soweto, where people are living in tiny one-room huts tar paper huts with leaky corrugated tin roofs. This was such a strong image that when I think of people living hopelessly in abject poverty, that’s what comes t mind. Anyhow, Lorraine Leas (my friend in South Africa) had arranged for Mothusi (a man she regularly uses as a driver for airport runs) to take us around Johannesburg on a free day to see the sights and get a feel for the city. He showed us the more upscale parts of Johannesburg and made sure we got some of the history of South Africa (colonialism as well as pre- and post-apartheid life), and he also took us to Soweto.

Soweto is a quite large section of Johannesburg, and did in fact include the shanty towns I had envisioned. Mothusi drove us to one particular section and asked us to stay in his vehicle while he went to find his “sister.” (I learned later she probably wasn’t actually his sister in the sense of sharing parents, but I wasn’t really clear on their actual relationship. She could have been a “sister in faith,” meaning they went to the same church, or maybe even a half-sister, since polygamous marriages are accepted and common among South African blacks.) Either way, he introduced us to a very pleasant young woman who was extremely polite, articulate (and obviously educated). She was dressed like a tour guide, and took Cathy and me on a short walking tour of this shanty town. It was pretty much exactly like what I had envisioned, at least visually. One room huts made of tar paper, corrugated tin roofs, the whole thing. No plumbing, a single bulb in the middle of the ceiling, a cloth divider screening off sleeping areas, and so forth. So far, my notion of abject poverty.

But for the surprises. First, the people didn’t seem to be like people I would expect, living in such Spartan conditions. They seemed happy, hospitable and open. Several people invited us to walk into their homes without apparent expectations of getting paid, and seemed to take pride in what possessions they had. It also turned out that the South African government provided electricity, water and bathroom facilities, although the water source was a single faucet in the center of the shanty town, and “bathroom facilities” meant porta-potties lined up on the main walkway.

The next surprise:  the hopelessness that I had expected from living in such conditions wasn’t evident. Most of the people viewed the conditions as temporary, even if they had been there for 15 or 20 years; they were all expecting to eventually get moved to subsidized housing of some sort, either an apartment or a stand-along dwelling. Secondly, virtually all of the kids were in school. They had school uniforms which were clean and cared for, and they took their school attendance very seriously, as a way to improve themselves. No one wanted to drop out school, they didn’t complain about homework or how boring school is (as you find here), but definitely viewed it as a way out of their current situation.

The third surprise was Mothusi’s “sister”…she lives one of the huts she showed us. As I said, she looked like a tour guide and was very articulate and educated, yet she had grown up in these conditions that I had associated with abject poverty. Quite a surprise.

The fourth significant surprise:  I had assumed that Soweto is all shanty town. It turns out that some of the neighborhoods would fit in quite nicely in nicer Southern California neighborhoods. Smaller homes, yes, but well-kept brick homes with nicely manicured lawns and art on the walls.

So while I had assumed (as I think most of us who haven’t actually been there) that Soweto is all shanty town and a virtual definition of hopelessness, it was actually almost anything but that. Theses turned out to be the first of a number of preconceived notions that turned out to be very wrong!

I think the main difference I saw was that here, that level of poverty would be accompanied by a sense of hopelessness and a conviction that the entire system was rigged against them, while in Soweto people seemed to be convinced that they were on their way up and out.