Jina hilo ni kifupi cha Southwestern townships yaani "mapambizo ya kusini-magharibi". Hayo yalianzishwa wakati wa apartheid kama makazi ya Waafrika pekee, na kwa hiyo yalitazamwa kuwa "mapambizo meusi" ya Johannesburg.
Kati ya miaka 1983 na 2002 Soweto ilikuwa manisipaa ya pekee, baadaye imekuwa tena sehemu ya jiji la Johannesburg.
Ndani ya Soweto kuna vitongoji mbalimbali, idadi inatajwa mara kuwa 29[2], mara 34[3]. Kati yake, vingine ni maeneo maskini sana, hata mitaa ya vibanda; vingine vina nyumba nzuri.
Soweto ilikuwa kitovu cha upinzani wa wanafunzi dhidi ya apartheid kwenye mwaka 1976.
Philip Bonner; Lauren Segal (1998). Soweto: A History. South Africa: Maskew Miller Longman. ISBN0-636-03033-4. {{cite book}}: Unknown parameter |lastauthoramp= ignored (|name-list-style= suggested) (help)
Dumesani Ntshangase; Gandhi Malungane; Steve Lebelo; Elsabe Brink; Sue Krige (2001). Soweto, 16 June 1976. South Africa: Kwela Books. ISBN978-0-7957-0132-0.
Glaser, Clive (2000). Bo Tsotsi – The Youth Gangs of Soweto. United Kingdom: James Currey. ISBN978-0-85255-640-5.
Grinker, David (2014). Inside Soweto: Memoir of an Official 1960s-1980s. Johannesburg: Eastern Enterprises. ISBN978-1-29186-599-8.
Harrison, Philip, and Kirsten Harrison (2014) “Soweto: A Study in Socio-Spatial Differentiation.” In Philip Harrison, Graeme Gotz, Alison Todes, and Chris Wray (eds) Changing Space, Changing City: Johannesburg after Apartheid, Johannesburg: Wits University Press, pp 293–318. https://doi.org/10.18772/22014107656.19
Holland, Heidi (1995). Born in Soweto – Inside the Heart of South Africa. Penguin. ISBN978-0-14-024446-5.
French, Kevin John, James Mpanza and the Sofasonke Party in the development of local politic in Soweto, unpublished M.A. dissertation, University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, 1983.
Makala hii kuhusu maeneo ya Afrika Kusini bado ni mbegu. Je unajua kitu kuhusu Soweto kama historia yake, biashara, taasisi zilizopo, watu au utamaduni? Labda unaona habari katika wikipedia ya Kiingereza au lugha nyingine zinazofaa kutafsiriwa? Basi unaweza kuisaidia Wikipedia kwa kuihariri na kuongeza habari.