In Soweto, a South African who celebrated history is mourned

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Family and friends observe social distancing during the funeral ceremony for Benedict Somi Vilakasi at the Nasrec Memorial Park outside Johannesburg Thursday, April 16, 2020. Vilakasi, a Soweto coffee shop manager, died of COVID-19 infection in a Johannesburg hospital Sunday April 12 2020. South Africa is under a strict five-week lockdown in a effort to fight the Coronavirus pandemic. (AP Photo/Jerome Delay)

JOHANNESBURG – Benedict Somi Vilakazi had been surrounded by history.

His grandfather was South Africa’s first black lecturer at Witswatersrand University and produced an English/Zulu dictionary, enormous achievements in a country then divided sharply by race. The most famous street in Soweto shares his name, and two Nobel Peace Prize winners — Nelson Mandela and Desmond Tutu — lived along it.

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Vilakazi was proud of that past and put a mural about his grandfather in his coffee shop that was popular with tourists and locals alike.

Some of them gathered, carefully, keeping a distance and many wearing facemasks, on Thursday to mourn the 57-year-old Vilakazi, who died of COVID-19. The pallbearers wore full protective suits.

“Somi knew how to welcome people, serve them a nice coffee and make them laugh,” said his cousin, Sipho Vilakazi, who has a gift shop next door. “So many people will miss him. Our family, our neighbors and many others.”

The coffee shop is located by the Hector Pieterson Memorial, a landmark of South Africa’s struggle against apartheid, the previous regime of racial oppression.

“Somi took great pride in telling people about the history of the family and Soweto,” his cousin said.

Vilakazi had taken the coronavirus threat seriously, observed precautions while serving customers and closed the shop well before South Africa went into lockdown on March 27, family members said.

He died on April 11, leaving a wife and two children.

South Africa has confirmed more than 2,500 cases of COVID-19, and more than 30 deaths. Its nationwide lockdown was imposed relatively early and is credited with helping to control the spread of the disease, bringing the daily average increase in cases down from 42% to 4%.

Health experts warn, however, that the disease is expected to continue to spread in the country of 57 million, especially in the crowded, often low-income townships surrounding Johannesburg, Cape Town, Durban and Pretoria.

Those townships include Soweto, the most famous of them all.

“We pray that we will all stay safe and healthy,” Vilakazi's cousin said.