A Space That Was

Two Abattoir Road

Photos, John Robinson.

Two Abattoir Road is in Pietermaritzburg, South Africa. It is like many places in this city, it has a past. When it was built it was a bus depot for the city’s segregated transport department. It was then a home for some of the city’s Aids affected and infected children. After that it was a private Christian school and safe space during the pandemic. It has been cleared out to make a place for the homeless people on the streets of the city of Pietermaritzburg. These pictures were taken during a two week period while the building was being cleared out for its new purpose.

Ghraham B.

HIV positive

The members of Ghraham B’s HIV support group come from many walks of life. The majority are from the Johannesburg gay community.

Getting it right, Ghraham B dances with his dance partner in the late winter afternoon light.

Ghraham B works as a hairdresser in a Sandton, Johannesburg hair salon.

Photos, John Robinson 

In 2001, Ghraham B and many other HIV+ people in South Africa did not have access to Antiretroviral drugs to manage his condition. Instead, Ghraham B used his job as a hairdresser, ballroom dancing lessons with a dance partner, meditation and stress relief techniques in a support group for HIV+ people meeting at a Johannesburg shul. Ghraham B also used alternative remedies for his condition.

If you like what you have seen and read here, you can always buy me a $3.00 coffee at https://www.buymeacoffee.com/JohnRobinson or PayPal.Me/jrphotographer

Covid 19 In South Africa, Coming Through Bitter Experience…

HIV and TB, And Now Covid 19 In South Africa

A lone grave marker in the grass strewn field at Mountain Rise Grave Yard.

A council worker cutting overgrown grass among graves with his ‘bread cutter’

A worker pauses from clearing graves for a smoke.

Tombstones and simple wooden crosses in the mountain rise grave yard.

A daughter looking for her mother’s grave among the wooden crosses marking other resting places of the dead.

A lone bird flies over the still grave yard.

Mourners at a funeral.

Pastors blessing the dead, while a grave digger looks on.

A young child holds flowers for the dead.

Ice cream vendor looking for customers among the graves on a busy Saturday afternoon.

Photos and Words John Robinson

Gogo, you kept us strong when we were bitten by the whip, and we are still strong. Though we are not a nanny state people, through you our elders, we are strong. Though we are not of orderly streets and straight lines. In this Gogo, we are strong.
We know of viruses and microbes in our midst. The devastation they cause runs deep on our pathways, soaking our fields with premature endings that alter the ways of our left-behinds totally, but Gogo, you have made us strong.
Gogo, you have done your bit, you have been strong for us. If it is your time now, pass with peace of mind, you have made us strong. What you have taught us over the years is with us now in this new thing. All your grandchildren are strong now.
-I have had an inner peace that the people of Africa will come through the Covid 19 pandemic stronger than many others with better resources. The difference is in our collective strength through the bitter experience with the viruses and microbes of our daily lives… John Robinson

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Visiting Mom

Images Of an Old Lady At the End of Her Life and a Girl Who Is Starting Out on Life

At the time when my mothers independence failed her, my daughter Erin’s (1) was just developing. These seven images are aspects of an interaction between an old lady nearing the end of her life and a little girl who is only starting out on her’s. We are all somewhere between these two points. These images were taken during family visits to the frail care centre where my mother spent the last few months of her life on this earth. ©John Robinson/South Photographs africa afrika afrique aged ageing disabled elderly frail

At the time when my mothers independence failed her, my daughter Erin’s (1) was just developing. These seven images are aspects of an interaction between an old lady nearing the end of her life and a little girl who is only starting out on her’s. We are all somewhere between these two points. These images were taken during family visits to the frail care centre where my mother spent the last few months of her life on this earth. ©John Robinson/South Photographs africa afrika afrique aged ageing disabled elderly frail

At the time when my mothers independence failed her, my daughter Erin’s (1) was just developing. These seven images are aspects of an interaction between an old lady nearing the end of her life and a little girl who is only starting out on her’s. We are all somewhere between these two points. These images were taken during family visits to the frail care centre where my mother spent the last few months of her life on this earth. ©John Robinson/South Photographs africa afrika afrique aged ageing disabled elderly frail

At the time when my mothers independence failed her, my daughter Erin’s (1) was just developing. These seven images are aspects of an interaction between an old lady nearing the end of her life and a little girl who is only starting out on her’s. We are all somewhere between these two points. These images were taken during family visits to the frail care centre where my mother spent the last few months of her life on this earth. ©John Robinson/South Photographs africa afrika afrique aged ageing disabled elderly frail

At the time when my mothers independence failed her, my daughter Erin’s (1) was just developing. These seven images are aspects of an interaction between an old lady nearing the end of her life and a little girl who is only starting out on her’s. We are all somewhere between these two points. These images were taken during family visits to the frail care centre where my mother spent the last few months of her life on this earth. ©John Robinson/South Photographs africa afrika afrique aged ageing disabled elderly frail

At the time when my mothers independence failed her, my daughter Erin’s (1) was just developing. These seven images are aspects of an interaction between an old lady nearing the end of her life and a little girl who is only starting out on her’s. We are all somewhere between these two points. These images were taken during family visits to the frail care centre where my mother spent the last few months of her life on this earth. ©John Robinson/South Photographs africa afrika afrique aged ageing disabled elderly frail

At the time when my mothers independence failed her, my daughter Erin’s (1) was just developing. These seven images are aspects of an interaction between an old lady nearing the end of her life and a little girl who is only starting out on her’s. We are all somewhere between these two points. These images were taken during family visits to the frail care centre where my mother spent the last few months of her life on this earth. ©John Robinson/South Photographs africa afrika afrique aged ageing disabled elderly frail

Photos John Robinson

At the time when my mother’s independence failed her, my daughter Erin’s (1) was just developing. These seven images are aspects of an interaction between an old lady at the end of her life and a little girl who is only starting on her life. We are all somewhere between these two points. These images were taken during family visits to the frail care centre where my mother spent the last few months of her life on this earth.

My mother Lin Robinson had an Astrocytoma grade 4 tumour removed from her brain, after the operation, the surgeon said to my dad and I that mom had 3 to 6 months to live. Lin Robinson went on to live another 10 years or so. After one more operation, my mom opted to have no more surgery done in her head. The last years of her life were quieting ones, there were the visible effects of brain surgery and the invisible ones too to be detoured around by the whole family.

My dad cared for mom at their home until the point came where mom had to be cared for in a frail care centre. Lin Robinson always liked to walk around in the garden with her husband holding the flowers that he grew for her. She died in a room with a wheelchair beside her bed and had to rely on my dad to get food into her mouth. The last time I saw her alive she knew that I was taking pictures and she smiled at me, it was too late for words.

I feel that my mother just got tired of what is, my father and mother were people of great faith and she wanted to move into the great beyond.

That night I drove home under a starlit night after taking the last photograph of my father’s hand and my mother’s now dead face.

 

Xenophobia On The Streets of Durban

Crowded in Between a Landlord And Fear of Xenophobia in the Streets of South Africa. Photo John Robinson

The Madiengua family lives in an overcrowded flat in the Point area of Durban, South Africa or “Little Nigeria” as it is locally known.

This family lives with their personal belongings packed in plastic bags in case of immediate eviction by the landlord of their building in the Point area of Durban, South Africa, Paty Madiengua stands with his wife Yvette and 4 children L to R Ephraim (15), Sabrina (14), Geffrey (10) and Genesis (2) in the kitchen of their flat ready be on the move again.

Yvette comes from the village of Buta in Oriental Province, DRC. her parents were killed by the DRC army, she escaped to Kinshasa with her brother and sister where her brother went missing. Yvette met Paty who worked as an egg vendor on the streets of Kinshasa and followed him to South Africa with their 4 children.

Paty works the night shift as a security guard in the city and Yvette sells clothes on the beachfront. Mr Madiengua’s salary does not match up to the rent on their 14th floor flat, the landlords in the area are getting rid of families on the overcrowding rule. While the Madiengua family feel safe in their flat they struggle to keep up with the rent and the cost of a family and they are “fearful of the xenophobia in the townships”.