Our writing group is multinational, multilingual & multicultural, but is based in SA. When those of us who live here saw the prompt ‘Africa’ we naturally imagined we had the home game advantage. But how do you do justice to an entire continent, or even a tiny corner of it in just 100 words? Maybe the sights and sounds of the bush? The wildlife, or expansive coastline?
But I am a city girl at heart and my first love is my adopted home, Johannesburg. Here’s my own Ode to Jozi, warts and all.
From the minute you arrive in Jozi it molests all of your senses. The city throbs with sound. Car horns blare, sirens wail, and hawkers’ voices shout above the din. Its streets reek of petrol fumes, overlaid with the smell of charcoal grills, mealies and boerewors.
Downtown the pavements stink of rotting vegetables and uncollected refuse. Vibrant splashes of colour disguise the poverty. The sky is blue, the clothes are bright and garish.
You reach out to touch, but it snarls and you withdraw your hand. Later it will come meekly to you and ask forgiveness.
You can never leave.
