Shosholoza, Sowetan style

As mentioned in a previous blog, Soweto was the spiritual home of the black people during Apartheid and the centre of youth rallies and uprising in the 1970’s. Today, Soweto is the flagship for the people of South Africa and a reminder of the struggles of the past. Soweto is a city within a city, meaning that it forms part of Johannesburg but contains its own thirty or so suburbs. The class divide is something that catches your eye from the time you arrive. In the north east corner there are homes which are not unlike a leafy street back home. Turn the corner however and literally within one hundred metres you will find what the locals call ‘informal settlements’, corrugated iron homes with no electricity or running water stretching as far as the eye can see. The government has pledged that by the year 2015, enough homes will have been constructed so that people living in these horrid conditions will have a proper roof over their head. This seems a massive challenge and I hope it eventuates but after seeing what I have during this trip, I remain skeptical. We visited the famous old home of Nelson Mandela which nowadays serves as a museum and landmark to honor the great man. It was the first time that I felt like a tourist this whole trip. Walking in, it was difficult to move in the tiny home with so many people eager to get a glimpse. Soweto has changed since the fall of Apartheid. It used to be a place where a white person would never be seen but nowadays and with the influx of tourists, Soweto is a place for all. A reminder of the past, and a huge step towards the future of South Africa.
‘Shosholoza’ is a song which has captured everyone’s imagination. Sung by the locals at most World Cup stadiums throughout the tournament, tourists have caught on and now can be heard being sung by people everywhere. The song itself is a traditional folk song which was sung by male migrant workers when making the rail roads. Matthews says that the steel was obviously heavy so they would sing the first line, pick up the steel, then as the second line of the song would start that would signal for the men to raise the steel to their shoulder and start walking. This would be repeated over and over. Today, it’s sung as a song of welcome and was first done so when the country hosted the 1995 Rugby World Cup. In Soweto it’s a song of the people, to rejoice, to welcome the thousands of visitors that have arrived in their country for the World Cup but more importantly it’s a song from the heart for a people that battled and won.