ZAF: Life in Soweto

SOWETO, SOUTH AFRICA - MAY 10: A young girl sits crying in principals office in a primary school on May 10, 2007 in Orland West district of Soweto, South Africa. This was her first day of school and she just wants to go home to her grandfather. Many of the children are poor and live with usually one parent or with grandparents. The school provides a free meal every day, and that is the only meal for some o the poorest children. Soweto is South Africa's largest township and it was founded about one hundred years to make housing available for black people south west of downtown Johannesburg. The estimated population is between 2-3 million. Many key events during the Apartheid struggle unfolded here, and the most known is the student uprisings in June 1976, where thousands of students took to the streets to protest after being forced to study the Afrikaans language at school. Soweto today is a mix of old housing and newly constructed townhouses. A new hungry black middle-class is growing steadily. Many residents work in Johannesburg, but the last years many shopping malls have been built, and people are starting to spend their money in Soweto. (Photo by Per-Anders Pettersson/Getty Images)