THE LESSON FROM MY SOWETO DIARY

By Kenneth Nkemnacho

Some years ago, I had the opportunity of visiting South Africa. Thanks to the organisation I
worked for then. My colleagues and I were to spend a few weeks in Midrand mastering the
art of running a Quick Service Restaurant, as my organisation was involved in a franchising
business. It was a great privilege to visit that great nation that I have heard and read so
much about. Apart from hearing and reading about South Africa, some of the things I’ve
either seen on movies or watched on the television made me have a passion for the nation
and the people therein.

It took about five and half hours from Lagos, Nigeria on board the South Africa Airline to get
to Johannesburg. One of the things that amazed me at first sight was the beauty of the
Airport. As a rational being, I quickly made a comparison between were I came from and my
present location; my mathematical variation was a complete inverse proportionality. At the
Airport, we were picked up by a white cab driver who is of Eastern European origin. As we
drove past HOLIDAY INN, I was carried away by the level of maintenance of the roads.
Unlike my home town where potholes and ‘basin holes’ wrestle with vehicles, I felt no
galloping so, there was no walloping.

The journey to Midrand; in the suburb of Johannesburg was with mixed feelings for me. I
thought about my native home and where our government got it wrong, I also thought
about what went wrong when the evil apartheid regime was in power. I remembered the
sacrifices made by people like Dr. Nelson Mandela and all those who died to ensure the
freedom of this great nation. In less than one hour after missing our route a few times, we
arrived at Bambanani Guest House. Bambanani according to the Guest House manager,
Peter is a Zulu word for togetherness. Hmmm, I said to myself, freedom can only be won
when the people are together. The lesson of togetherness is what every human race should
learn. The only way to crush evil opposition is when UNITY prevails in a community and
among a people. Our division only strengthens our oppressors. The battle for freedom is
only won in the spirit of love.

A few years before my arrival in South Africa, one of my friends in a bid to escape the
frustrations in my native home adventured into the tales of migration. With no passport,
visa, or money in the pocket, he was on his way to South Africa; the new Europe of Africa.
To cut a long story short, he finally arrived after about twelve months on the road, but that
was not without spending about three months in a Cameroon jail for breaking immigration
rules. My friend ‘U’, as I will prefer to call him got married to a South African lady ‘E’. As a
well cultured African man, I was determined to say, ‘Thank you’ to the family that gave their

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daughter to a complete stranger with no trace of his family background. One cold Saturday
morning, while I was off work, we decided to pay a visit to Soweto, where my ‘in-laws’ live.
The journey from Brakpan to Soweto was a bit long but exciting because I was very
enthusiastic about Soweto; Soweto was a symbol of the fight and the struggle against the
apartheid regime. In Soweto, I was given a typical Zululand hospitality by my in-laws; to tell
the truth, I was touched by their hospitality.

During my visit, I met Beki, another in-law who offered to take me round Soweto. I was
delighted. We started by visiting Morris Isaacson High School, where the 1976 riot started.
From there, we proceeded to the Beer Hall which has been left as a monument for historical
and tourism purposes. Opposite the Beer Hall is an old train station and beside it is the only
Fire Service Station as at then. Somewhere around the High School was a Police Station
which was then operated by white racists. Beki also took me to Regina Mundi Catholic
Church were I saw the bullet holes on the walls and roof of the building. These were holes
inflicted by the bullets of the racist Police Officers when they chased the Secondary School
student rioters into the church premises.

MORRIS ISAACSON HIGH SCHOOL

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As an inquisitive person, I asked Beki, ‘What was the reason for the riot?’ The question was
not as a result of ignorance of what happened in South Africa, but a quest to understand the
philosophy behind the action. I believe that as individuals or a community, we must not just
embark on actions, but do things with the guidance of a positive philosophy. The culture of
our souls must be cultures of right philosophy. We can’t afford to live like mobs when we
should be guided by principles. The motivation behind the riot of 1976 in Soweto was a
motivation of common sense and principles. In those days, the black elders from Soweto will
go to work in the morning, and on their way back, they will go straight to the Beer Hall. At
the Beer Hall, they will consume alcohol until the early hours of the morning, and get home
drunk. When its morning time, with hangovers, they will go back to work. This cycle of
irresponsibility continued, until one day, their children in Morris Isaacson High School got
fed up. They said to themselves, ‘We are under the slavery of apartheid, and our parents are
under the slavery of alcohol, when are we going to be free?’ They understood that if their
parents continue befriending alcoholism, they won’t have the time to think about freedom.
So they had a plan, ‘If we burn down the Beer Hall, they will have no place to go drinking.
And if they have no place to drink, they will sit down to think. It is only when they think, that
we can be free.’ They burnt down the beer hall, and the Police came after them, shooting
and killing. Sacrifices where made, but that resurrected the drunks from their graves. The
blood of the martyrs became the strength to rise up and think. They came to a realisation
that thinking is freedom.

REGINA MUNDI CATHOLIC CHURCH SOWETO

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Your freedom is in your thinking. It takes those who think to plan. If your life is full of
activities, you cannot think. In life, we must create time for sober reflections. Never be
carried away by fun; embrace the life that meditates. If young teenage students understood
the relevance of thinking, how about adults? The lesson from my Soweto diary is think!
Think!! Think!!! It is when you think that the ink of life will imprint life changing ideas on the
board of your mind.

God bless you as you imbibe the life of meditation.