Maboneng

There is a neighbourhood in the inner-city of Johannesburg that since I arrived has sounded like the coolest place to be; Maboneng! I finally went to check it out the other weekend and it epitomized the essence of Joburg, all in one small area. Beauty, revitalization, fear, laughter, segregation and reconciliation.

I went with a friend on a walking tour of Maboneng. We got to see the revitalization that is taking place as well as its historical sites.

We started the tour checking out the artistic hot spots, with lots of independent shops and restaurants.
Then we toured through the local healer's market. It's clear that tourists don't really go through there so we were a sight to be seen by them! The market was full of animal skins, horns, hairs, seeds and nuts as well as other hand made goods.

We then went down under the freeway where a group of women were cooking on open fires and selling meals. I ate the insides of a cow's head! I was thinking of Grandma Smith saying she likes to eat head cheese. It was actually not bad. haha

We also stopped by Africa's largest 2nd hand bookstore. There were piles like this everywhere, we were walking through a maze of books stacked floor to ceiling.

Then we headed up the street a ways, so to get there we hopped in a taxi. Here a taxi refers to the mini-buses that follow certain routes (a typical taxi for personal for hire is a "cab") through the city and pick up anyone along the way and drop them off wherever as asked along the route. Locals know all the hand signals to flag the one heading in the direction they're going. People pile into the taxis, up to 20 people sometimes and whoever is sitting in the front seat is responsible for collecting the money from the other passengers and divvying up the proper change (note to self, don't sit up front! Although, they aren't a mode of transportation you ever see white people in, so I doubt I'll be using them much anyways. Unfortunately they aren't too safe).

Next stop was South Africa's tallest building, I think the 2nd tallest building in Africa. It was just over 40 floors. Crazy to think it's the tallest building in SA, when our Chicago office is just casually on the 46th floor of it's building. Lovely 360 views of across Joburg though:

We walked from there down to Ghandi Square. This statue is outside of the location where Ghandi's law offices were located in Jozi. It's very cool to have such an influential figure in India's history, also have his own place in South African history. It's interesting to note that both Ghandi and Mandela were some of the first lawyers of their race to be practicing in their own law offices in South Africa, who went on to have such an impact globally.

Speaking of which...here is the location of Nelson Mandela and his partner (another famous political activist), OR Tambo 's law offices. There is a statue outside based off of a famous picture of Mandela boxing, which was an activity he did a lot of in his youth. Around the building is also a timeline of Mandela's political pursuits. There was a man who asked me to take his picture giving Mandela a rose. Haha

 All in all, a beautiful neighbourhood with many great markets, artwork and a rich history. Our guides were saying hello to people they know in the neighbourhood all day and it was clear the community is very close knit. I'll be sure to get back to spend more time in Maboneng!