I had a very sheltered upbringing. I went to private catholic schools, I did ballroom dancing and horse riding as my extra mural activities and my parents drove me everywhere. My version of a fun time as a teen was going to a restaurant with a friend and ordering a glass of wine hoping the waiter wouldn’t ask me how old I was. In many ways, the Joburg of these novels is a city that was, and still is, unknown to me. Reading these books felt very similar to reading about a city that you have never been to, but are suddenly inspired to see more, understand better and ultimately discover it for yourself.
Mpe Pashwane
Welcome to our Hilbrow
South Africa | USA*
Summary: This book moves fast and hits hard. Hilborow, a district within Joburg, suffers the ills of poverty and crime. It is a place that would be difficult to travel to if you don’t know someone who lives there to show you around. Refentse, our main character, gives us an exhilarating sweep of his life as a student living in Hilbrow. His is a story of love, loss, betrayal and death.
Quote: “Welcome to our Hillbrow! you heard one man say to his female companion, who was a seeming newcomer to this place of bustling activity, visiting it for the first time since the conspiracy between her parents and fate decided to usher her presence onto the face of the Earth. Welcome to our Hillbrow
. . .”
Page Count: 150
Zakes Mda
Black Diamond
Summary: This book is set in my district—Roodeport! It is probably the first and only book I have ever read set in Roodeport. Its locality (at least for me because my district is Roodepoort) turned my area from a sleepy safe suburb to an district teeming with crime, prostitution and love triangles. Black Diamond follows body guard Don Mateza when he is assigned to protect magistrate Kristin Uys after she is targeted by the Visagie brothers. While Don is trying to keep a stubborn Kristin safe, Tumi, Don’s long term girlfriend works hard to turn Don into a Black Diamond.
Quote: “… Don continued living in guerilla camps in Angola and Mozambique and leading expeditions of sabotage inside South Africa. Now… Done is middle management at a security company—often becoming a foot soldier when there are not enough bodyguards to go around”
Page Count:312
1000 Tales of Johannesburg
Harry Kalmer
Summary: I was pleasantly surprised at how intellectually generative this novel was. Not because the pros are dense, but because it reflected Johannesburg’s cosmopolitanism. The cast of characters range from Zweig, an architect from London who comes to South Africa to give a presentation on his work, to Marceline and Hippolite, a couple from the DRC (Democratic Republic of the Congo) who try to carve out a living in the particular precarity of Joburg. This novel also spans over a time span of 100 years, starting in the boer war in 1901, and ending in the post-apartheid year of 2001.
Quote: “The first time she saw a camera she still had both her eyes. She got a fright when the photographer handed her the portrait. All four children’s heads had been shaved to get rid of lice. To see them like that made her realize how poor and neglected they looked. Her own face was a skull.”
Page Count: 270
Can Themba
Requiem for Sophia town
Summary: Sophiatown is often thought of as a precursor to what Johannesburg has become. It was a suburb of Johannesburg that was destroyed in the 50’s because of the Natives Resettlement act of 1954. This proto-city lives in my mind as this place of juxtaposition: a place where slum dwellers drink at the same bars as gangsters; where women are devote church goers by day, and sensational shebeen queens by night; where romances between children from opposing gangs end in tragic violence that not even Shakespeare could write. Can Themba’s account of Sophia town in this short story collection only confirmed how Sophiatown continues to live in my mind.
Quote: “So she put on a sheath costume with provocative slit along one leg and went to the party in Tladi Street, Atteridgeville. Right from the gate she flung herself into the party. She swayed her hips and slid her feet to the rhythms of the jive number. A Johannesburg jive sheik rudely left his partner and made for her.”
Page Count: 180
*Note: I have included links to accommodate both my South African And my American readers
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