Hobo Magazine Spring 2004
CARTES POSTALES - Johannesburg
It’s thirsty here. Sand and sprawl and shadeless sun. Johannesburg seems built on crushed bone and the tailings piles of old gold mines. There’s no river, no ocean, no easy water. It just feels like a hard place to live.
Near one of the old mines is the Apartheid Museum. Its walls of rock, caged in wire mesh, make a fitting container for Mr. Malan’s plan. Inside, faces of freedom fighters like Steve Biko and Chris Hani hang on memorial walls, while 1976’s students of Soweto fight continuously on looped video. Anger and hope spills out in song and speech. A young Mandela gets arrested, gets old, and gets free.
But outside, white lines still divide Joburg's black potholed roads. Apartheid's only been dead a decade. I see some kids smiling like kids should. There’s always hope, and the chance of rain.
Amandla, awethu. Power, to the people.