I’ve been looking for an excuse to hang out at the sprawling outdoor market in Fordsburg – Joburg’s “Little India” – on a Saturday night. The market, called “the Square,” is where Fordsburg residents go to see and be seen on Saturdays. It’s also a great place to buy clothes, DVDs, spices, jewelry, and tasty Indian and Pakistani street food.
The Mean Streets of Hillbrow
On my recent post about downtown Joburg, I received some questions about Hillbrow – a huge residential community overlooking the city center. I now have some answers.
Hillbrow was a bustling middle-class neighborhood until the end of apartheid rule, when it began to transform. Similar to many 20th-century American inner cities, Hillbrow’s white middle class fled to the suburbs, making way for poor black South Africans (who were previously barred from living in places like Hillbrow) and immigrants from across the continent. The population soared and crime grew rampant; Hillbrow became a “no-go” area for visitors.