Overview
By Nechama Brodie, author of The Joburg Book (Pan Macmillan)
Speculators have been predicting the death of Johannesburg ever since it was a dusty mining camp (which wasn’t actually all that long ago). In the aftermath of democracy, around 1994, white expats who had fled the central business district (the concentration of skyscrapers at the city’s heart, usually called the CBD), or even the country, shared emails depicting apocalyptic inner-city squalor and decay. But the city, which turns 130 this year, has, in many parts, successfully reconfigured itself as the Pan-African capital it was always destined to be.
Of course, sometimes this bears a closer resemblance to the metropolises depicted in Neil Blomkamp’s District 9 or Lauren Beukes’ Zoo City, but that’s part of the appeal: Johannesburg is defiantly entropic. A century and a half ago, the city landscape would have been grassland; now it surrounds what is claimed to be the world’s largest urban forest — terraforming so dramatic that new bird and bat species have migrated to its canopies.
In recent years, western tourists have also started to realise that Joburg has more to offer than just a well-placed airport with safari and beach transit lounges. Last year, Rough Guides listed Johannesburg as the number one city (in the world) to visit. GQ magazine called it the “cool capital of the southern hemisphere”, edging out Joburg’s scenic rival Cape Town.
Part of this is due to blogger- and Instagram-friendly urban regeneration projects, particularly the trending hubs of Braamfontein and Maboneng, but the energy of the city is just as sprawling as its geography. It’s a space that usually rewards curiosity and a spirit of adventure (ditch the bravado though, and listen to local advice). And, for first-time visitors, it’s important to get your bearings. Joburg, by area, is slightly larger than greater London; it can take hours to go from north to south, or east to west, and public transport is tricky. If you’re not a confident and assertive driver, use taxis for short trips.
The city’s fast pace can often feel frenetic — it’s the residual buzz of commerce, offset by an established music, performance and fine art scene that’s one of the most exciting anywhere in the world. A great way to experience this, for novices and veterans alike, is on the monthly First Thursday events, where galleries and cultural attractions stay open into the evening, encouraging people to drive and even — shock — walk between venues.
There are still a handful of holdouts who complain that there’s “nothing to do” in Johannesburg. It was a whinge that prompted local journalist Laurice Taitz to start a blog of the same name; she now publishes the local edition of the In Your Pocket guide, which is indispensable for updates on weekly events in and around the city. And our pick of local experts have more than a few places to recommend, too
Live music and clubs
By singer, composer and author Nakhane Toure, whose EP The Laughing Son and debut novel Piggy Boy Blues (Jacana) are out now
The Orbit Jazz Lounge in Braamfontein is one of the few spaces almost exclusively devoted to live music, and the acoustics there are really good. Of course, jazz is seen as a little bit elitist, but get over it. There are two bars and two spaces, so if you don’t want to listen to music, from the likes of Sibongile Khumalo or Carlo Mombelli, you can go downstairs and drink and have fun without distracting the musicians.
I launched my album at the smaller Jazz Room at The Bassline in Newtown — there is also a larger concert venue that can take bigger crowds, but the sound doesn’t bleed much between the two. I like The Bassline because it has a rich history of showcasing forward-thinking black musicians such as Simphiwe Dana, Thandiswa Mazwai, the late Busi Mhlongo... artists who were commercially and artistically successful. But it also has Ragga Nights (on Thursdays), and comedy nights. The people who run The Bassline have an astute understanding of the landscape.
Kitcheners in Braamfontein is a different type of jol (a kind of South African equivalent for craic, among other things). The identity of Kitcheners is always changing. In the daytime, there are older people, ordering a drink at the bar at 11am. Then, around 5pm, you get the student crowd. They can be rowdy, but they spend lots of money and keep the economy going. They’re also passionate about music. I cannot explain how bad the sound is — bleeding, distorted — but when you start to play, people listen. Of course, they start the music quite late when people are already merry, and no one is concerned about sound, what they want is a performance. Every time I’ve played there, I’ve had a good show. I just hope nobody recorded it.
Monchichi in Marshalltown is in a different part of downtown. It’s a very minimal space, all stone, with hanging lanterns, and if you don’t want to be inside there’s an outside space that isn’t on the road. It’s a good spot to catch local DJs. And we do have fantastic DJs — Miss Buttons is great. DJ Rambo (Tshepang Ramoba) is a world-class drummer and possibly an even better DJ. He’s great at reading a crowd and knows what to play and when to play it. He can mix kwaito and Donna Summer and Talking Heads, and it will all work.
If you want to buy music and vinyl, Aware Records in Braamfontein has a vast selection. Recordmad in Linden is also really good, and there’s WeHeartbeat at 27 Boxes in Melville. Tucked away in the Braamfontein Centre is another shop called Just CDs — if you’re looking for an obscure jazz album or a hard-to-find Busi Mhlongo, they’ll have it.
Fashion and shopping
By fashion designer Maria McCloy, owner of Maria McCloy Accessories, at Work Shop Newtown (and Sundays at Maboneng’s Market on Main)
Downtown Joburg is where I feed my creativity, my soul, and my heart. I can’t drive, and using public transport changes the way you experience the city: you see things differently in a taxi or a minibus, or on the train. I meet and find most of my suppliers on foot, and my makers are all over the place.
My necklaces are made in Soweto; my shoes by an old Italian guy in Jeppestown. I buy my cloth all over downtown. Although some people see it as all the same cloth, I work with many Pan-African cloths, from acid-etched Shweshwe, originally from Lesotho, to wax-prints associated with the rest of the continent. Ironically, almost all of these cloths and patterns started being made somewhere else, but now they’re part of our fabric.
Diagonal Street has the best variety of Shweshwe around, and you can also pick up beautiful Basotho blankets and visit the muthi (traditional medicine) shops — but you must have a proper look.
Mai Mai is my favourite market. It’s an amazing experience, and so funny because it’s just down the road from the more gentrified Maboneng precinct. They are worlds apart but just five minutes’ walk away. Mai Mai feels like going home to the village. People have lived and worked there for generations - Joburg’s history is embedded there, a unique mix of the traditional in an urban space. I go to buy Zulu, Tsonga and Shembe beadwork. Mai Mai is also known for traditional medicine, but if you’re going to do that I would recommend contacting the sangoma (traditional healer and diviner) Nokulinda Mkhize through her Facebook page. You can find great contemporary urban streetwear at the DOPE store on Commissioner Street and at Thesis in Mofolo Village in Soweto; both stock their own labels and other designers.
The Rosebank precinct between Bath and Cradock avenues (consisting of the Rosebank Mall, The Zone, and The Firs) is also worth a visit. You can shop for popular South African labels such as Butan and Strussbob and Head Honcho at the Shesha store. Burgundy Fly stocks African-inspired women’s clothing. And then there are luxury labels such as Thula Sindi and Naked Ape that would fit on any catwalk in the world. If you have money to spare, you must also visit fashion icon Marianne Fassler at her house and creative workshop in nearby Saxonwold. She is a legend, and the space is a fantasy world of African awesomeness.
Work Shop Newtown is adjacent to the Newtown Junction Mall, whichis a lovely space with a lot of open areas, and feels as though it’s the right mix for an increasingly residential inner-city district. It stocks a mix of some of the best local South African fashion and accessory designers right now, including Henriette Botha and Pichulik, MAXHOSA by Laduma Ngxokolo, and Jacques van der Watt’s label Black Coffee.
Where to eat
By Andrea Burgener, owner of The Leopard restaurant in Melville and author of cookbook Lampedusa Pie (Pan Macmillan)
If you want to eat well in Johannesburg, you have to know that there is no food scene as there is in Cape Town. It is and always has been a city of immigrants. In Joburg, people cook for their own communities, outside of what is trendy or fashionable. That’s not to say the food is “authentic”; that’s not what this city is about.
King Arabic Sandwiches in Mayfair is owned by a Palestinian family from Gaza. It is like the food you can find in Ottolenghi’s cookery books, but from the other side. It’s best to call ahead and place a special order, like maqlubah (an upside-down rice dish), or one of its eggplant dishes. King Arabic also makes beautiful flatbreads, and baklava and date biscuits.
A few blocks away is a Somali restaurant, Kismayo, which makes the best biryani-style dish I have ever had in my life. It also makes spaghetti — a legacy of Italian colonisation — and introduces it to guests as if they’ve never seen pasta before. Visitors should try the Doolshe sponge cake, which has the added flavour of cardamom.
There are many wonderful places to eat in Fordsburg and Mayfair, but they are predominantly Indian and Muslim neighbourhoods and you shouldn’t try and go there during Friday prayers: the area tends to shut down from around noon, until the late afternoon. Eastern Temptations in Emmarentia is a little bit of Fordsburg in the suburbs with a growing Indian population. You can buy many types of rice and every kind of dhal. And it stocks the most beautiful dates from the Free State.
Slightly east of the city centre is the African Food Market in Yeoville, where you will find normal vegetables, but also traders from Cameroon, Ghana and Congo, selling cassava, dried shrimp, dende oil and so on. I love speaking to the women there about their food — you can see that food is maybe the only connection they have left. They are keen to tell you everything about how to cook it. At the back of the market there must be about 30 fantastic tailors, who will sell you amazing fabric or make you an outfit.
In the southern suburbs of Johannesburg, you can get excellent Portuguese food, which is really Mozambican-Portuguese. A palhota in Rosettenville serves Mozambican specialties such as spinach with peanuts, matapa (crab cooked in coconut), and whole-baked fish. You should phone in advance, to book and see what is available, particularly on weekends.
I think food shows us how closely connected all our immigration stories are. In the gentrified area of Maboneng, there is the Che Argentine Grill, opened by an Argentinian and a Uruguayan, which serves fantastic empanadas and makes its own chourico, all using free-range meats (a rarity in this city). In Newtown there is a real gelato factory, La Cremosa , started by two Italians who moved to Johannesburg from Rome and decided to live here and continue their family tradition of making ice-cream; I love the less-creamy gelato style, and they really do it properly. The flavours are amazing.
Heritage and culture
By archaeologist, historian, inner-city activist and tour guide Jo Buitendach, founder of the Past Experiences walking tour company
The nice thing about Joburg is that there are places that offer a soft landing, which let people experience the city in a way that won’t freak them out. Braamfontein is not as upmarket as Maboneng, but it also features nice markets and coffee shops. These neighbourhoods are far from being truly representative of the city, however. When people say things like “no one goes into the CBD anymore”, you have to ask: “What about all the people who live there?” The magic of Joburg is in those areas.
One of the ways to connect to and explore these “other” spaces is through public art. There are large and small art installations across the inner city. I really like the statue of Albertina and Walter Sisulu in Ferreirasdorp, because one of my passions is political history. I also like the fact that a woman is being represented. In Ernest Oppenheimer Park is a set of benches that say “Nothing is impossible.”
Graffiti artists also tend to like the parts of the city that I like. The hipster areas get a lot of the nice stuff, but that is mostly legal or commissioned work. For me the best graffiti is in Jeppestown, or in Newtown under the highway, or near Mai Mai. Joburg is becoming a big graffiti destination — artists come from all over the world. Shepard Fairey made a large mural in Braamfontein but he also put up OBEY faces in other parts of the city, working with local artists. My favourite artists are Mars, Bias, Rasty and Tapz.
There is older graffiti, too, at the bottom of Constitution Hill: a one-time Boer fort, and former prison complex, now a heritage site and the home of South Africa’s constitutional court. I always start at the ramparts, so you get a view over the city. Then I visit the Native Prison — where Mahatma Gandhi was a prisoner in 1906, and Nelson Mandela, briefly, in 1962 — and the Women’s Gaol, each of which is within the Old Fort. The actual court itself is also worth going to look at, and is home to a major public art collection.
Liliesleaf farm is one of my favourite sites in the city — even though it’s not quite in the city. This was once the operational centre of the anti-apartheid struggle and was where many ANC leaders lived under cover in the early 1960s. It was raided by security forces in 1963, an event that led to the Rivonia Treason Trial (where Nelson Mandela was one of those sentenced to life imprisonment). Although the scope of Liliesleaf is not as broad as that of the Apartheid Museum, the site, the restoration and the storytelling is extremely well done.
Another museum that is often overlooked is the Workers’ Museum in Newtown; again, it tells a story of migrant labour, of compound systems, simply and well. When I tell people that compounds are still functioning in Joburg, they’re always so surprised. But it is real, and it’s still happening.
The arts and creative scenes
By poet, actress, TV presenter and producer Lebogang Mashile
The Market Theatre is a Joburg institution. It’s an incredible space with so much history, and a great entry point into Newtown. Across Mary Fitzgerald Square is a really cool dance hub, made up of Vuyani Dance, and the Dance Factory, and Moving Into Dance, where you can take your kid for dance classes on weekends, or benefit from being taught by some of the best dancers in the country in the evenings. At the nearby Bag Factory you can meet some of the country’s best visual artists, and you can buy direct from them. It’s not sanitised like a gallery; you can see as they are producing their works. You experience the process, not just the product.
The Soweto Theatre is another amazing venue, beautifully designed, and it’s a stone’s throw from the Jabulani Mall. A lot of people are shocked when they hear Soweto has a mall! It’s also close to historic sites such as Morris Isaacson High School (one of the schools where the June 1976 protests started), and just going there is a good way to explore and see the multiple worlds and extremes of Soweto. This theatre is also much more of a community space, and you will see visitors from old-age homes, or children taking drama classes. Word N Sound has had some of its biggest spoken word festivals here.
The Wits Art Museum (Wam) in Braamfontein has been constructed in what, when I was a student, used to be a dead space. Now it’s vibrant, beautiful and inhabited. It has live performances, installations, exhibitions of visual art, talks, lectures, and even monthly “family walkabouts” and activities for parents with small children. It gives life to the university in a way because it allows the world to access the “city” of the academy.
I think it’s worth exploring the leafy central northern suburbs for contrast. Tyrone Avenue in Parkview is one of the few spaces not in the inner city where people walk around, and there is a small shop there called Art Africa that sells objects from all over the African continent: Ethiopian Coptic crosses, masks, prints, beadwork, upcycled chandeliers... It’s a great, quirky space and perfect for gifts.
As an interesting juxtaposition, King Kong (on the Troyeville border) is in an old industrial space. It’s a nightclub-performance-hang-out space built in a studio in a massive loft. It has the most incredible views of the city by day — and by night. It’s a space local artists have created for themselves, and for the community in that area; it’s not a place where people are bussed in and bussed out. There are movies, poetry readings, fashion, food, book launches and bad-a** parties.
— Guardian News & Media Ltd, 2016
