My visit to Slabstown on the 9th of March marks a memorable day I will never forget. The initial idea was to visit Cloetesville, a neighborhood in Stellenbosch where my domestic worker, Samantha, lives. We have a wonderful relationship and our daily conversations about life in Cloetesville gave me a deep desire to capture the essence of Cloetesville as a home to many – a familiar place but not always the safest of places. Cloetesville is known or gangster activity, shooting, drug dealing and corruption. The safety of innocent people including children are often at stake. I hear about these events from my domestic worker and through the years my concern has just become greater as I realise that even the officials are for some reason (due to fear or even corruption) are unable to solve this big problem. Many lives has been lost and many of these stories don’t even reach the local newspaper. I felt compelled to capture Cloetesville in my visual journal – it’s culture and community and the houses of those who call it home but also the darker side that needs a solution.
Samantha, however, though it was a good idea to take me to an area in Cloetesville called Slab-town instead of her own house. Slabs-town got it’s name due to the way that the dwellings are constructed – made up of building rubble, timbers planks, mattresses, held up by timber beams/poles. The roof structures are mostly also out of timber covered with plastic sheeting or steel and held down by the weight of rubble on top (ie. old tyres, timber planks, doors etc). The +- 30 dwelling used as homes for people who are either without work or needing to live there for free due to a very low income, have been there since about 20years ago. The first water tap was dug up from a nearby water-pipe and illegally put up by the people themselves. Portable toilet facilities was only recently put up by the local municipalities when it was clear that they were there to say and desperately needed it.
Perhaps Samantha felt a bit private about her home life and therefore cautious to let me come and take photographs or afraid that the gangsters who life in her street might get suspicious about my presence there with a camera. Or maybe she just wanted to take me to Slabs-town to show me the conditions in which these people live, including her cousin who ended up there because of drug issues. Having grown up in Cloetesville, she knew one or two other people who live here. Uncertain but curious to see what home looks like for the people of Slabs-town, I agreed to go there with her.
It wasn’t with this first visit that I took pictures and walked into the area. I felt unprepared and I didn’t want to some empty handed. Upon my first visit, we stayed near our car and met Samantha’s cousin Patric and a friendly gentleman named Joseph (who also live there) who told me to not bring money when I visit again but rather food. The next day I came prepared but unsure about what I would find and who I could approach to take me into the area. Slabs-town in my opinion was home to people who were the poorest of the poor and in worst conditions than those who live in the well known township of Kayamandi which is just a few hundred meters away from it.
Photo’s of Slabs-town, Cloetesville.
In my visual journal I write (just after my visit) : “I came to Slabs-town with preconceived ideas. I thought it would be sad, and miserable, that there would be abuse but what I found was completely different.”
I was greeting by a very friendly well dressed gentleman, Micheal, and his wife, who came running to me asking if they could help. I told them I’m an art student who wanted to capture their community and home and asked if they would mind if I took some photo’s. They didn’t mind. I had food and drinks for which they were very thankful. They were also more than happy to show me around. I was taken to the gentleman’s house which was near the bridge across from the portable toilets and ‘water-wall’. It happened to be the only double story house there. He welcomes me in and showed me around. When I asked where the staircase led to, his answer me very proudly saying: “ I made it.” Followed by: “ ..and I also made the little door.” He was so proud and sweet. The house can be seen in the photo’s below. A very humble home but with the proudest owners. The friendliest people I have met in a long time.
I was ready to go back to my car when I was encircled by a group of bouncy children. They ran to a doorway of a nearby dwelling that had more of a typical ‘shack’ structure (a shack being a house made of wood and corrugated steel sheets and a door with some windows). They asked me to take a picture of them which I did. A lady appeared behind them with a big smile and I knew it was their mother. She introduced herself as Michele. She was nearly dressed and groomed and invited me in. I told her about my studies and my project and she was happy to tell me about the area.
At this stage it was clear that there was a real sense of community in Slabs-town and that my pre-conceived ideas were far from the truth. Michele went on to tell me that she often makes food for the community and showed me her tiny kitchen area with gas stove. When I asked if she get’s money to make the food she said no. She uses her own money. Knowing that these were mostly people who lived either no money or money they make from gathering recycled items and that some of them were suffering from incredible drug and alcohol addiction and sicknesses like TB and HIV. I knew this lady was a real blessing to them. I would later hear from Samantha that she had a very sad life-story filled with abuse, family betrayal and alcoholism herself but that she decided to change and contribute to this community. I left Slabs-town in awe of how the poorest of homes can be filled with such care and compassion for others. I was completely blown away by the welcome and openness of the people. Slabs-town was a home to the people who live there and they had community and a sense of belonging.
Experimenting in my journal:
Below are some pages from my journal that capture my experience in Slabs-town. I started by doing a few drawings combining various photographs that I took. I decided that I wanted to go over it with oil paint to capture the bright colours found there. I experimented with writing and then painted over it. I painted in oil, scratching away some paint and drawing over it with pencil again. At some stage it felt a bit brown and dirty but I feel in the end, I captured a tiny bit of the atmosphere and friendliness that I experienced there.
This was only one of the communities I visited and sketched recently. I see my work as a type of artistic take on Visual Anthropology. Observing a community that has a different culture to my own and capturing their sense of home and experience in a personal visual journal. I also reflect in this journal observing my own opinions and biases, taking a step back and asking some of the questions that is at the heart of my research – what influence does place have on my identity? What influence does my identity have on place?
Dwellings constructed of recycle material, doors, umbrellas, wooden planks, mattresses and held together by the weight that is put on top.
Details of dog on a broken armchair.
In the future I would like to spend more time drawing on location and experiment with ‘reportage’ style drawing where I spend more time on location and draw what I experience and see around me. There was a risk of danger in this specific location and I therefore decided to take the artwork further in the studio.
What a wonderful and surprising experience this was. I realise that even though there is a community and sense of belonging amongst the people of Slabs-town, the conditions they live in is far below what is considered healthy. I hope to visit again sometime soon. I also hope to capture Samantha’s home and plan to get involved in the local Cloetesville community center to give art/visual journal workshops. I will make sure a risk assessment and ethics documentation accompany my work done in these communities in relation to my research.