Here are some more pictures: http://picasaweb.google.com/emilyausbrook/SouthAfricaSummerOf2007#I took this picture in the township of Alexandria in Johanesburgh South Africa. This township was created in the early years of Apartheid for black Africans. Africans living in the coutryside, in tribal villages were brought in to the city to do manual labor and live in Alexandria. Resources in these villages were and still are very meager. Clean drinking water, workable land and cattle were, and are, hard won. Black South Africans would work and send money and other necessities home to their families. It was mostly men that came to work in these towns, leaving their wives and children at home for months and years at a time. Some families did come together but it was a very difficult existance. During Apartheid they weren't allowed to be there or leave unless they had work permits. Unfortunately, the government made acquiring a work permit difficult and for a lot people, almost impossible. It was a wild goose chase and you usually had to pay off several government workers in order to get a work permit, which would then allow you to work to make money. It was a catch 22 in a couple of ways. As we know, Apartheid has now ended but the residents of this township are still 100% black Africans. I'd read a lot about the township and wanted to see it for myself. I told some South Africans when I arrived that I was going to Alexandria to look around and I was told that it was very dangerous for me as a white person (from any country) to go their on my own. I really wanted to go so my boss arranged for me go there with our driver, Joseph. Joseph laid out the ground rules early: 'he said he was delighted to show me around Alexandria, that he lived there and that it was his home but he said, I was not to get out of the car for any reason.' I asked him if it was rude to take pictures, he said, 'no, people love to have their picture taken.' He actually said 'they hope that the person taking the picture will share the pictures with the world and tell their story.' He also said that people taking an interest in their community, brings them hope.
I fell in love with Alexandria. For the limited resources that this community has to work with, they're truly rich. The sense of community and connection was overwhelming. Everyone knew their neighbors, their names, families and stories. The children played with each other in large and small groups in the streets and the adults stopped to talk to each other on every corner. Children play with bits of plastic and metal and are as engrossed in their imaginary worlds as western children with large inventories of Lego's and Bratz dolls. They don't have Whole Foods or Trader Joes. They don't have Targets or Big Lots. There stores don't have long, well lit, numbered isles or boxed risotto and organic vegetables. You can't choose between Cotonelle and Charmin or Dannon and Horizon. But! They have butchers for red meat (cow) and chicken (and all its parts). They have produce stores and bodegas stocked with all kinds of intersting goodies. There are plumbers and mechanics fixing bathrooms, bikes, scooters and cars with all sorts of creative parts. There are phone vendors, tailors and cobblers. Everything you need, all without walls and all using everything in nature you can imagine to get their respective jobs done.
This picture is one of my favorites from the day because it shows an average, every day moment in the life of a South African mother. With her child strapped to her back (not made by Bugaboo or Graco, but from fabric fashioned into a sling by just tying a knot) washing clothes, by hand, while her toddler watches from the doorway.
I was honored to be there.
