From Brixton With Love

I think that living in the northern suburbs has made the memories of what true living is all about fade to just about nothing. It is sleep, work, eat, and then sleep again. In between work and sleep some of us party like there is no tomorrow but is that all to life?

Today I went to one of the poorest of suburbs in Johannesburg, Brixton, and I re-found what living is all about. This is what Johannesburg should be. No high walls, razor wire and electric fences found in the suburbs that I am now become part of. Here in Brixton, under the shadow of the Tower, once the proud symbol Apartheid’s achievements, not too from Squad Cars, the Brixton Murder and Robbery Police unit that kept us glued to the radio in the 70's. Yes here I found all of South Africa's Rainbow Nation living life.

A white couple with kids in tow walking back from a Spaza Shop stop and chat with a black neighbour; black kids helping a white kid fix a flat tyre on his bicycle and then all taking turns riding up and down the street; coloured teenagers playing soccer in the street; a young white mother pushing a swing with her daughter giggling; black students in class taking extra lessons on a Saturday; a young white man painting the gate of their front door; and then there is this photograph.

This is what Brixton is all about, on a hot summer's day black and white kids playing together in the street under a spray of water, Brixton with love.