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The history of African townships south west of Johannesburg that
would later form Soweto was propelled by the increasing eviction of
Africans by city and state authorities. Africans had been drawn to
work on the gold mines that sprang up after 1886. From the start
they were accommodated in separate areas on the outskirts of
Johannesburg, such as Brickfields (Newtown). In 1904
British-controlled city authorities removed African and Indian
residents of Brickfields to an "evacuation camp" at Klipspruit
municipal sewage farm (not Kliptown, a separate township outside the
Johannesburg municipal boundary, following a reported outbreak of
plague [. Two further townships were laid out to the east and the
west of Johannesburg in 1918. Townships to the south west of
Johannesburg followed, starting with Pimville (1934; a renamed part
of Klipspruit) and Orlando (1935).
Industrialization during World War II drew thousands of black
workers to the Reef. They were also propelled by the implementation
of legislation that rendered many rural Africans landless. Informal
settlements developed to meet the growing lack of housing. The
Sofasonke movement of James Mpanza in 1944 organised the occupation
of vacant land in the area, at what became known as Masakeng
(Orlando West). Partly as a result of Mpanza's actions, the city
council was forced to set up emergency camps in Orlando (1944),
Moroka, and Central Western Jabavu (1946).
Soweto's only hospital came courtesy of World War II. The Royal
Imperial Hospital, Baragwanath, was built in what today is Diepkloof
in 1941 for convalescing British and Commonwealth soldiers. John
Albert Baragwanath owned a hostel, The Wayside Inn, from the late
19th century near the hospital's current location. Field Marshall
Jan Smuts noted during the opening ceremonies that the facility
would be used for the area's black population after the war. In 1947
King George VI visited and presented medals to the
troops there. From this start grew Baragwanath Hospital (as it
became known after 1948), reputedly the world's largest hospital. In
1997 another name change followed, with the sprawling facility now
known as Hani-Baragwanath Hospital, in honour of the African
National Congress leader who was assassinated in 1993 by white
extremists.
After the Afrikaner-dominated National Party gained power in 1948
and began to implement apartheid, the pace of forced removals and
the creation of townships outside legally-designated white areas
increased. The Johannesburg council established new townships to the
southwest for black Africans evicted from the city's freehold areas
of Martindale, Sophiatown, and Alexandra. Some townships were basic
site and service plots (Tladi, Zondi, Dhlamini, Chiawelo, Senaoane,
1954), while at Dube middle class residents built their own houses.
The first hostel to accommodate migrant workers evicted from the
inner city in 1955 was built at Dube. The following year houses were
built in the newly proclaimed townships of Meadowlands and Diepkloof.
In 1956 townships were laid out for particular ethnic groups as part
of the state's strategy to sift black Africans into groupings that
would later form the building blocks of the so-called "independent
homelands." Spurred by a donation of R6-million to the state by Sir
Ernest Oppenheimer in 1956 for housing in the area, Naledi, Mapetla,
Tladi, Moletsane and Phiri were created to house Sotho and
Tswana-speakers. Zulu and Xhosa speakers were accommodated in
Dhlamini, Senaoane, Zola, Zondi, Jabulani, Emdeni and White City.
Chiawelo was established for Tsonga and Venda-speaking residents.
In 1963, the name Soweto (SOuth WEstern TOwnship) was officially
adopted for the sprawling township that now occupied what had been
the farms of Doornkop, Klipriviersoog, Diepkloof, Klipspruit and
Vogelstruisfontein.
Soweto came to the world's attention on June 16, 1976 with the
Soweto Uprising, when mass protests erupted over the government's
policy to enforce education in Afrikaans rather than English. Police
opened fire in Orlando West on 10,000 students marching from Naledi
High School to Orlando Stadium, and in the events that unfolded, 566
people died. The impact of the Soweto protests reverberated through
the country and across the world. In their aftermath, economic and
cultural sanctions were introduced from abroad. Political activists
left the country to train for guerrilla resistance. Soweto and other
townships became the stage for violent state repression. Since 1991
this date and the schoolchildren have been commemorated by the
International Day of the African Child. |
