The Great Granny Revolution

Shooting Diary 2

Portrait of Alexandra Township:

One morning we got up and arrived at the township at sunrise and we spent six hours driving around picking up shots of township life. It takes three of us to do this because one has to stay by the car as guard. However, we filled a tape with fantastic, evocative shots of markets, children at school and goats. Goats Goats are everywhere - roaming freely over the roads and eating refuse, corn husks and tree branches. Those who have seen our documentary on AIDS in Southern Africa will remember the powerful images of ox carts and my stories of how we had to chase them while carrying our equipment. Well, having collected perhaps 10 shots of goats I can't say how glad I am that they stay in one place most of the time and they seem to like watching us which means I haven't had to chase them even once.

Alex is twice the size it was in the mid-eighties. It used to be called Dark City because there was no electricity then. Susan has memories of the students doing their school work by candle light. The entire East Bank where the clinic is situated is new. Housing can be a room without electricity or water - in which four people live such as Caslina's home. Then not fifty feet away could be a home with three or four rooms, a tv and a fridge. Four or five homes will share a courtyard and within each courtyard neighbours help each other. There is very little privacy.

One of the most startling things is that out of these houses, from the very smallest to the well endowed, come beautifully pressed and clean children heading for school and adults heading for work. Functioning with the same technology used by Canadian pioneers, they boil water for washing, hang the clothes on a line and use live coals to heat their iron.

It seems though that everyone is worried about keeping their house. Even those that have had the stability of staying in the same place for thirty years like Magdeline. She is concerned that her home will be knocked down for a new bridge extension across the little river that cuts through the center of the township. Lucia has a different problem. In the 80's she and many others were driven from their homes by the Inkatha Freedom Party members housed in an all male hostel. The city council put them into displaced housing, sometimes four families in one small room, and there they stayed for 10 years. They lost everything they owned except the clothes they ran in. When they were finally relocated into new housing they were expected to pay for the houses - 16,000 rand. Lucia doesn't have the money. She is afraid that one day the council will come and force her out. She explains that as she is nursing a sick grandchild and also caring for two healthy ones she needs the space. What will she do?

It is easy to see the township as a dirty place where people don't care. This is not the case. The density of the houses and the sheer numbers of people living in them make it impossible to keep up. Please no dumping Then there is the fact that roadside stands selling food use barrels and wood fires for cooking. Often there is refuse on the road - piled up waiting for the trucks to come and take it away or for the goats to eat it. You see women sweeping the streets wherever you go. They wear the plastic bags tied around their waists like an extra skirt. All of this and the smells which assault your nostrils can be overwhelming.