welcome to my world
I was recently reading Mpe’s epic tale of Hillbrow, Johannesburg,
Welcome to Our Hillbrow”
Our Hillbrow, Our world. Mpe
describes the world of residents who live in Hillbrow, in a postcolonial Johannesburg,
their experiences, their perceptions of the world, they understanding of
globalization, they issues, including they fight against xenophobia, euphemism,
prejudice and the auto immune virus that’s claiming lives, AIDS.
Welcome to Our Hillbrow” could well be a” welcome to my past and present life . I looked at the aspects of the book
that reflect my own life experiences and how Mpe helps
me think through the necessary “reconfiguring of the stories in our
lives”.
Welcome to my world, a world filled with paranoia, governed by status and ruled
by ultimate power. A world where prejudice still lurks just beneath the
surface, a world where I believed that ethnicity isn’t a problem anymore, yet
there are people who still class you by the colour of your skin, and doubt your
intellectual capacity based on your background.
I hail from a small farm
town in the Eastern Cape, a place where everyone wants to leave, start a better
life somewhere, a place where education is your way out. A poverty stricken
place, where the cycle of non-educated just keeps repeating itself, where young
people tend to turn to crime for survival, a world that’s filled with such fear
of the unknown that new comers are seen as threats, vermin that need to exterminated
,foreigners accused of coming to “steal” from them. This is a town whereby you
make the opportunities for yourself, where innovation is your ultimatum weapon
to prosper.
At the begining of 2012, i moved to Port Elizabeth, a very windy city in the heart of the eastern cape. Its a concrete jungle that limits the urge to rebel and be spontanious. I think the one lesson my new home has taught me that being naive and turning a blind eye on things will come back and bite you hard.
well thats the basic welcome to my world....
siya angel mhlangabezo
