I had always believed that the city of Johannesburg had very little influence influence on my life, however, now upon reflection and after studying the three readings outlines below, I realise what an important role my city has played on how I see the world today.
Growing up in Morningside, a predominantly white neighbourhood in the Northern suburbs of Johannesburg, I attended a Jewish day school for primary school and then moved to a private, multiracial high school.
I was born in 1994. My generation, colloquially known as the “born frees” are supposed to be the generation to epitomise democracy and freedom, however this not the case.
Johanneburg has had a tumultuous history, beginning with the gold rush in 1886. It had been considered to be the city with streets lined with gold and has attracted fortune seekers from rural South Africa as well as throughout the rest of the continent. These prospects continued over the years, from the gold capital to the industrial and now the business capital of Africa. This has caused immense overpopulation which in turn has caused Johannesburg to become a breeding ground for crime as the city simply cannot sustain the
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Vladislavić used to frequent the Cartlon Centre every week. Over a fifteen years, he observed the downfall of this iconic centre. “In the mid-1990s, the parkade began to shrink. The demand for parking fell, level by level, like a barometer of change in the city centre.” (Vladislavić, 1998). Hillbrow today has become a feeding ground for crime and related illegal activities. It is for this reason that I have avoided the city centre absolutely. Unfortunately, the inadequacy of the police have only assisted this degradation with bribery ruling the land - the narrator’s Cousin, a policeman, in Welcome to Our Hillbrow “received oceans of rands and cents from these unfortunates” as a result of their