Sophiatown

The tour starts with a background history talk given outlining eventsleading to the 1955 forced removals of 55000 people to Soweto. Sophiatown was razed to the ground by the apartheid government and sub-economic housing was built on the land for White people. The area was renamed "Triomf" (Triumph!). It has now been renamed Sophiatown.

We see the Father Trevor Huddlestone Memorial and his Church, tell the stories of the old days and see Bertha street, and the sites of the old Odine Cinema, Gerty street and Toby street, and the home of Dr Xuma, President of the African National Congress in the 1940’s.

We also see the site of the "Hanging Tree", as well as the site of the first Congress of the People meeting that led to the Freedom Charter meeting in Soweto 5 months later.