Johannesburg, South Africa

Johannesburg, a story of courage, evolution, unity, freedom and equality. Everybody has an idea about South Africa's history and how the Apartheid ruled the country and injustice prevailed for most of the 20th century (without mentioning the previous centuries) but being there, you see the change and how people are still responding to it and adapting to the unknown. Such a recent change that was accomplished thanks to the union of its people. A union that was so desperately sabotaged, but a bond so unbreakable that lasted, and will last, forever. So many lives were lost, a sacrifice that will never be forgotten but that made the separated country reach a strong unity and the needed equality. 

Seeing everything (at least how it is today) first hand was such an amazing experience that made me realize how lucky we all are that, little by little, the world is approaching a more liberal and fair situation (it still needs time, but the scars are healing). 

Soweto. A crucial landmark that symbolizes the reality of the struggle and the scars that are still open. A beacon of hope for many Africans from other countries of the vast continent, that move to a more liberal place in order to make it and be able to live freely. However, it's not easy to see the conditions of these townships (SOuthWEstern TOwnships) that were actually created during the Apartheid in order to separate blacks from whites. 

Families live together in small tin houses with poor conditions but with a strong sense of community and love for each other that is definitely admirable. They can always count on one another.

The kids in Soweto have so much energy and it's hard not to see them playing, running and enjoying their lives. Even if you can't see the smile in their faces in this photo, they're always smiling :)

Beautiful art work in the middle of Soweto. It represents different communities that coexist together and who are all protected by God. (You can see the Black Virgin Mary with a black baby Jesus)

This street in Soweto is the only one in the world where two Nobel Peace Prizes have lived: Nelson Mandela and Desmond Tutu. It's ironic how "Vilakazi" means "lazy" in Afrikaans. Its inhabitants were anything but. 

The streets of Johannesburg are full of urban art and colors. Not just the colors of the walls, but, as Desmond Tutu said, the colors of the rainbow, of its people.

Johannesburg has the contrast of the old and new South Africa. Tall buildings and Coca-Cola signs that clash with the simplicity of the people who walk its streets. 

An impressive and great installation, at the entrance of the Apartheid museum, that represents the union of the races. The reflection of the people in the mirrors where children and grandchildren of South Africans are portrayed.

The Nelson Mandela exhibition: character, comrade, leader, prisoner, negotiator and statesman. Such an important figure in history that changed not only his country, but also the point of view on equality and freedom in the rest of the world. 

Beautiful photograph in the museum. Not so beautiful message. Disgregation and injustice once ruled the country. 

This is the entrance to the Apartheid Museum. It represents just a tiny bit of how things were back in the 20th century. Johannesburg was the city of signs;  the signs that separated people and paved the way towards injustice. Some larger, others petty, all just showing how irrational the regime was. The Apartheid is where it belongs, in a museum. 

"...we used to call that wall the stop nonsense... we were always standing on that little concrete thing looking out to the street, always..." Always looking out the window, South Africans reached freedom.