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A divided Johannesburg to wrestle with

If you think apartheid ended somewhere around 1990 as I did, Johannesburg will come as quite a shock. Segregation between the black rundown downtown-area and poor townships and the white luxurious northern neighbourhoods is almost perfect. The dividing lines are invisible yet razorsharp. I stayed with three amazing guys – thanks R&L&S! – with whom I stayed a whole month! This is a city I wrestled with to understand. And still do. But it’s fascinating and tantalizing.

Impressions.
Joubert Park, downtown. I’m positively the only white guy around. Not safe.

Disturbing
Disturbing sight at the Apartheid museum.

Bentleys at Hyde Park mall, of course.
Bentley’s for sale at Hyde Park Mall. All visitors white. All servants, security personnel, parking attendants and waiters black. Classifying Johannesburg as 2nd world makes no sense: it’s 1st and 3rd world.

Colors of Zoo Lake
Great autumn/winter colors of Zoo Lake.

Constitution Hill - isolation cells
Isolation cells for black people at Constitution Hill.

View "Top of Africa"
View on downtown from “Top of Africa”.

Penthouse without view?
A penthouse without a view?

More Johannesburg pictures.

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This entry was posted on Thursday, July 31st, 2008 at 3:50 pm and is filed under South Africa. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.

2 Responses to “A divided Johannesburg to wrestle with”

  1. Sief Says:
    August 1st, 2008 at 2:09 pm

    Ha Rogier!

    Herkenbaar verhaal, heb min of meer dezelfde worsteling gehad toen ik in de regio van Kaapstap reisde. De verschillen zijn te groot. Indrukwekkend. Wat is je volgende stap op de wereld? Je weet het: ik blijf je vanuit dit saaie grijze kantoortje in Den Haag volgen…. ;-)

    Liefs,
    Sief

  2. Died Says:
    August 4th, 2008 at 10:11 am

    Hi Giertje!

    Vanuit dit grijze kantoortje in Rijswijk weer genoten van je foto’s. Erg stoer. Als Nederlander ben ik niet trots op het woord Apartheid trouwens…

    Have Fun!

    Died