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.

#Dialogue…

NELSON MANDELA ATTENDS A REUNION OF HIS WITS UNIVERSITY LAW CLASS. 1996 WITS UNIVERSITY JOHANNESBURG SOUTH AFRICA PHOTO/JOHN ROBINSON

One goal Of dialogue Among Cultures And Civilisations Is To Recognise And To Understand Not Only Cultures And Civilisations Of Others, But Those Of “One’s Own.” We could know ourselves by taking a step away from ourselves and embarking on a journey away from self and homeland and eventually attaining a more profound appreciation of our true identity.

It is only through immersion into another existential dimension that we could attain mediated and acquired knowledge of ourselves in addition to the immediate and direct knowledge that we commonly possess. Through seeing others we attain a hitherto impossible knowledge of ourselves. – Mohammad Khatami, former president of Iran. (pp 267) Reconciliation, Pocket Books, London.

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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”.