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Children of Soweto

Posted on August 16, 2010

I’ve been on a trip over 8000 miles away from home visiting one of my favorite places, South Africa. Though I’ve been twice to Cape Town, I had not yet had the pleasure of a stay in Johannesburg. While there, I took a tour of the township of Soweto, the site of a major Apartheid-era uprising among schoolchildren.

There you can find wealthy and middle class homes right near the tiny shacks of the poorer sections. The people of Motsoaledi allowed us tourists to visit them in their homes. I was very torn about such a tour as it felt as though we were intruding and treating them as if they were an attraction in the zoo. Yet the people were so welcoming and the tours did provide some financial help for the community.

But the kids! The kids reacted to my camera as if it were magnetic. They swarmed to have their pictures taken, as long as I showed them the image on the LCD screen afterwards.

Here are a few captures:


Check out the full gallery: Children of Soweto