South Africa History and Me

The video below is a reading of a book called Nelson Mandela, written and illustrated by Kadir Nelson. Play it to learn about South African history. Read this post to hear about my experiences with South African history.
 

From reading books to seeing the Gugulethu and Soweto townships to seeing Nelson Mandela's house to visiting his prison, I have learned a lot about South African history in my time here.  I'm going to tell you about some of my experiences with learning about South African history.

Robben Island: I took a tour of Robben Island, which is the island where Nelson Mandela was in prison.  In line to get on a ferry to Robben Island I read my little brohter, Ben, the Nelson Mandela book (which is in the video above) to teach him about the history of this country.  On the big ferry to the island, many people joyfully sang a song.

When we got to Robben Island, we took a tour.  Our guide showed us the quarry where the prisoners had to work.  They had to break up the stone to get the limestone out, and sometimes the reflection of the sand and limestone hurt their eyes.  It was hard and dangerous work. 

She also showed us Robert Sobukwe's prison cell.  He was also a leader of fighting apartheid, which is what segregation in South Africa was called.  Once Robert Sobukwe's prison term was over, people were worried about sending him back into South Africa because they thought he could be dangerous.  So they kept him on Robben Island.  His prison cell was big, more like a house, and there was room for his family and children to visit him.  He was no longer a prisoner, but he was not allowed to talk to anyone else on the island.  Not being able to talk sounded awful to me because I usually enjoy talking.

Our guide taught us many facts about Robben Island. Do you know why Robben Island is  called Robben Island? It's because in Dutch, robben means seals, and there were many seals at Robben Island.  Everybody thinks of Robben Island as a sad place because it was where Nelson Mandela and other leaders in fighting apartheid were in prison, but now that Robben Island is not a prison, people have made a little town on it and are trying to make it more of a happy place.

Later, our guide handed us off to a different guide who was a former prisoner on Robben Island.  He showed us a prison cell for many people.  It was long with only little cubbies, 2 long benches, and lots of bunk beds.  He taught us more about life in prison.  Then, he showed us Nelson Mandela's cell.  It was very tiny.  

Nelson's cell was the only one that had a little bucket in it.  This is because in prison, prisoners had only small buckets for toilets.  The bucket is still in the cell to remind us that in some parts of the country, people still have only buckets for toilets.  One lady didn't think that was a good idea, and she argued on and on about why they should take out the bucket.  Everybody snapped lots of photos of Nelson Mandela's prison cell. 

 Gugulethu and Soweto Townships: During apartheid, the black people were forced to move out of their houses and into little neighborhoods called townships.  Some townships had only shacks for houses, and the people in the townships were no longer South African citizens.  Although there is not apartheid anymore, there are still townships.

There are both larger homes and smaller shacks in townships today.

People are not forced to live in them, but some choose to or do not have enough money to live anywhere else.  We have visited 2 townships in our time here.  One is called Gugulethu.  My parents' friend Themba lives in Gugulethu, and we went to his house.  We did drumming and watched Themba play the mbira, an instrument wehre you push down little metal pieces to make music.  If you put it in a gourd bowl, it sounds louder.  We liked how the mbira sounded.

We made a new friend in Gugulethu.  His name is Lihle, and he is Themba's nephew.  Lihle drummed with us and played ball with us, too. He had a creative idea of putting newspapers in a bread sack to make his ball.  The ball worked very well.  We also got to drive through Gugulethu.  It was interesting to see it after being in the big city of Cape Town that it is right outside of.  In Cape Town, there are big grocery stores, big restaurants, big shops, and big houses.  In Gugulethu, there are small grocery stores, small restaurants, small shops, and small houses.  It was a very interesting experience to go to Gugulethu, and I liked going.

We also visited Soweto, a township near Johannesburg.  Soweto stands for South Western Townships.  We took a tour.  On our way to Soweto, we saw Nelson Mandela's house.  (It was his house after he was freed from prison.)  It was huge and so nice!  Nelson Mandela really deserved a great house like that.  Now, Nelson Mandela's grandchildren live in the big house.

By reading a book called Goal, we learned that many children in townships don't have soccer balls, so we took soccer balls to give to children in Soweto.  On our tour, we visited a part of Soweto called Kliptown.  There we saw the Sky Children Center, where we met a man who loves to help children, and he told us about his job.  We also watched some of the children at the center perform a dance.  They danced, clapped, and stomped in their rain boots. Then, we donated soccer balls to the Sky Children Center. The children were thrilled! 

Going to Soweto was also a very interesting experience.  I enjoyed donating the balls because it makes me happy to make other people happy.  Tours are good because you can learn lots of information from your guide about the place you're touring and not just see the place without learning about it.  I liked going on our tour of Soweto.  I am glad that we went to the townships.

South Africa has a lot of interesting history, and primary sources, just like Robben Island and the Gugulethu and Soweto townships, are a great way to learn about it.