Soweto is a collection of townships, on the southwest coast of Johannesburg and created in the 1930s. It is the largest urban settlement in Africa with a rich political history.
Soweto is a sprawling township, or more accurately, a group of townships on the southwestern flank of Johannesburg. Soweto was created in the 1930s, with Orlando the first township established. In the 1950s, more blacks were moved from "black spots" in the city center, black neighborhoods that the apartheid government had reserved for whites.
With a population of over 2 million, the commune is Africa's largest black urban agglomeration with a rich political history. Soweto was the center of political campaigns aimed at overthrowing the apartheid state. The 1976 student uprising started in Soweto and spread to the rest of the country. Many of the sites on this route therefore have political significance.
From the walkway of the Chris Hani Baragwanath Hospital, the largest on the continent, one can have a panoramic view of Soweto.
Visit the Hector Pieterson Museum in Orlando West, Soweto, built in memory of those who died that day, June 16, 1976.
Nelson Mandela's humble little home in Orlando West, Soweto, now called the Mandela Family Museum, is an interesting stopover for those wishing to immerse themselves in the authentic story of the world's most famous former prisoner.
The museum, a house comprising four intermain rooms, contains a rather eclectic assortment of memorabilia, paintings and photographs of the Mandela family as well as a collection of honorary doctorates awarded to Nelson Mandela from universities and institutions around the world.
You can also catch a glimpse of the house owned by Winnie Madikizela-Mandela in an affluent part of West Orlando. Archbishop Desmond Tutu's house and the residences of Sisulu are in the same neighborhood.
