A 55-year-old white South African from the Johannesburg suburbs visits Soweto for the first time, alone, on his motorcycle, at the end of a school day.

The roads were just full of kids; small kids, bigger kids and teenagers on their own or in groups of up to 10 were everywhere. Children as young as 5 wandered past me, on their own as they walked home. Huh? Children in the suburbs don’t walk anywhere, don’t walk on their own and if they do they are at least 12 years old. They are taken everywhere, almost under ‘armed guard’ by their parents. The freedom of the children on the backroads streets of Soweto was an amazing and profound thing to see and experience.

Read the full piece. Not what you’d expect to read on a blog called Flames on My Tank. The final paragraphs are particularly moving.