Word: soweto
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: all
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
This is the first of two interviews conducted by Gerald J. Sanders and Ian Brookshire, students at the University of Texas Law School. Next week: interviews with Dr. Motlana, chairman of the Soweto Committee of Ten, and Judge Marais, an Afrikaaner politician who resigned from the National Party...
...Soweto, the cluster of poor black suburbs outside South Africa's gleaming commercial capital, Johannesburg, has always epitomized the darkest side of apartheid. Since it was developed as a dormitory for black labor toward the end of the last century, the township has been largely lacking in basic necessities, including roads, transit faculties, plumbing and electricity. Indeed, Soweto's lack of lighting contributed significantly to the frustration that fueled the June 1976 riots that ultimately cost the lives of 600 blacks...
Since then, rail and bus services and housing programs have been improved. Now it looks as if Soweto may get electricity too. A consortium of South African banks has begun to issue government-guaranteed loans for a $177 million electrification program. If all goes according to plan, some 22,000 residents should get electricity in three months, although it will take four years to bring power to all of the township's 1 million residents...
Johansen had seen some pictures of the people of Soweto, a South African ghetto, and decided that he wanted to write a tune that caught the particular combination of "being oppressed and always wanting to party at the same time." He may have got the name wrong, but the address is perfect. The song pulses so hard with fierce joy and feckless humor that the grooves of the record almost bubble up under the needle. Not long before his new album, In Style, was released last month, Johansen discovered his spelling blooper...
Arriving in South Africa on a two-week visit. Jackson offered enraptured black audiences the stirring mix of pep rally and gospel service that has made his program PUSH-EXCEL such a hit among blacks in the U.S. At two meetings in Soweto, he characteristically led the crowds in singing traditional hymns, as well as chants that stressed black consciousness and pride. He intoned: "I am somebody; I may be poor, but I am black, beautiful and proud." Then he called on his often tearful audiences to take up the chant. Referring to the 1976 racial riots, which were...