Word: soweto
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Dates: during 1980-1989
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...their chairs tightly ringing the table. They spoke with obvious emotion and leaned forward to hear the responses. The focus of their attention, listening more than he talked, was Edward Perkins, the first black U.S. Ambassador to South Africa. For three hours he traded thoughts with civic leaders from Soweto, the black township outside Johannesburg...
When he arrived in South Africa, Perkins, a career Foreign Service officer who had previously been Ambassador to Liberia, set out immediately to meet the country's black community. He still attends largely white diplomatic dinner parties, but more often he heads to grimy offices in Soweto or a spartan church in Mamelodi, the dusty black township outside Pretoria, or a listing shanty in Crossroads, a squatter camp near Cape Town. Perkins attended Christmas services at St. Paul's Anglican Church in Soweto and has taken long walks through the mean slums of Alexandra Township, next door to Johannesburg...
...asks pointed questions. His interlocutors say that what impresses them most is his intensity. In his new post, Perkins has had unreported talks with dozens of black leaders, including Albertina Sisulu, co-president of the United Democratic Front, the largest antigovernment group, and Nthato Motlana, chairman of the Soweto Civic Association...
...Masabata Loate, a leader of the 1976 antiapartheid student uprising, was slain with axes and knives near her Soweto home after serving a five-year prison term for treason. Loate, 29, had angered the comrades by speaking out strongly against necklaces...
...have donned white headbands and armbands and organized patrol groups called vigilantes. "The people of Old Crossroads will hunt them down and beat the comrades," said Sam Ndima, a leader of the fathers. Frequent clashes have claimed dozens of lives on both sides and destroyed thousands of shanties. In Soweto, the city council has called for the formation of vigilante bands to stamp out "political renegades" and protect local citizens...