Word: soweto
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Dates: during 2000-2009
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...change its policies, there ''could be the worst bloodbath since the Second World War.'' The immediate justification for the new state of emergency was the preparation for a series of strikes, demonstrations and vigils by antiapartheid groups to commemorate the tenth anniversary of a June 1976 uprising in Soweto, the sprawling township outside Johannesburg that houses some 2 million blacks. That riot touched off a year of protests in which more than 600 people died, and has become a milestone in the struggle for black rights. Two weeks ago, Law and Order Minister Louis LeGrange issued a blanket...
...Godun, that he cuts off his sibling's tongue with a kitchen knife. Later, Ncolela's wife, Hlubi, is found with her throat slit and her breasts severed from her body. Although Godun is the prime suspect, no charge is laid, and the feuding brothers continue to run their Soweto-based security company together...
...money to flaunt its success, the choir decided early on not to do so, but instead to channel its energy and fund-raising abilities toward community projects, particularly the choir's own AIDS orphan foundation, Vukani. "We couldn't lose touch with what's happening in Soweto, even if we wanted to," says Bok. "We've all lost people to crime or AIDS...
...Soweto's difficulties still provide the choir's musical inspiration. Soprano Fikile Sidumo, 34, saw one uncle shot dead in the street when she was a teenager, and another uncle died of AIDS in November. Before joining the choir in 2003, she earned just $25 a month from singing and dancing at weddings - not enough to support the three families living in her shack in the dirt-poor township of Alexandra, near Soweto. The choir, which pays members a day rate of $20 per rehearsal, seemed the answer to her prayers, until she collapsed during a performance and was diagnosed...
...Today, Soweto's population of an estimated 2 to 3 million is emerging as the bedrock of South Africa's new black middle class. Clapboard shanty towns are being replaced by neat rows of brick and tile bungalows. BMWs and Mercedes are a common sight. And last September saw the opening of a vast steel and glass mall. The choir's success reflects Soweto's new dawn. "Soweto is a place of change," says Bok, "and the choir walks hand in hand with Soweto...