The Unknown Street Musician Of Oxfordstreet 36 Years Ago - The Photography Of Rob Mellin

36 years ago there was music on Oxfordstreet!

Unknown Street Musician At The Corner Oxford And Terminus Street 36 Years Ago, East London South Africa

There is a reason for everything and there is also a reason why this image has found its way into our magazine 36 years after it was taken. 

You probably remember, that we have started a research project and are busy collecting material to set up a digital archive for old Mdantsane and East London images. The archive will be made up of images coming from local families and from photographers of diverse backgrounds, who are generously allowing us to digitalise their family treasures. 

Let us tell you the interesting story behind this beautiful historical photograph.

Chocolat, our publisher and founder of the magazine met a while ago a gentleman in a second hand shop, who shared her passion for old records. The gentleman of name Rob had already too many records but Chocolat was still buying and adding to her collection. So Rob promised her to give her some records. And he did - to the great excitement of Chocolat. When she visited Rob's house to collect the records they started chatting and she was in for another surprise. They shared another passion, photography.

Rob Mellin worked as a photographer and photojournalist for the Daily Dispatch newspaper for 18 years. He is retired since eleven years. Rob has a rich and turbulent past. He started taking up photography in the 1970s as a hobby, but soon his hobby became his work. He took pictures for the at the time "Rhodesian Air force". He said working for the air force was the turning point of his life.

"It was my experience with the air force, that laid the foundation for a career in journalism. Whenever I held a camera I felt compelled to take news worthy pictures".

While he was staying in Zimbabwe his images were published in a community newspaper and this was the inspiration he needed to work relentlessly towards a career as a photographer. In 1983 he eventually joined the Daily Dispatch.

There are two sides to his photography. There is the more conventional work he did for the newspaper he worked for. But he also had an interest in the local African culture, which was rare at the time and the black and white images he shot are testimonials of East London's history and street culture. His photography is art.

Rob Mellin is a photographer of the old school, before the digital photography saw the light of the day. He is an artist who knows all the tools of the trade. He knows how to develop a picture in a drak room..

The day when Chocolat visited him, he showed her treasures she did not think she would see this day. His darkroom, though hardly used now is fully intact and his collection of non archived negatives, slides and photos must amount to the thousands.

"We were under sanctions these days and we could not get material from Agfa, so we worked with Ilford Paper and Developer. But I started making my own developing liquid and you can see I have done a good job because this picture is 36 years old."

The picture we published today, he took while he was on what was called "an open assignment" for the Daily Dispatch. In those days, that meant photographers were sent out on the street to look for interesting scenes. 

The street musician in the images was sitting at Oxfordstreet/corner Terminus Street and Rob said the man had a very  raspy" beautiful voice, that captured his attention.

He does not remember the exact date, but he says it was in 1986. He also does not remember if it was ever published by the Daily Dispatch but he handed it in for a photographic competition with the photographic society of East London at the time and it was marked down because the Black Label sign, that you can see in the background was cut off and not readable in its entirety.

A friend, whom we told this shook his head and said: "But the musician, he is the black label, He is the black label of the finest quality."

And so is Rob Mellin's picture.

Image Courtesy Rob Mellin. With Rob's permission we will published more of his images. 

The Longest Washing Line

Having said this, I can hear some already protesting and proclaiming loudly that their washing line is longer. 

I am sure there are longer ones but this one was pretty phenomenal. It looks small in the picture but when you stand right in front of it, it is a different story !

Since nearly ten years the MURP - Mdantsane Urban Renewal Programme is concentrating all it's efforts to upgrade and improve urban life in the Kazi. Successful ? We are not here to judge.

Housing programs are mushrooming all over the township, but still informal settlements grow on a daily basis.

On A Hot Day

The Art Of African Sign Board Painting

Kings Hardware Store in Centani is getting a serious face lift

E-Commerce, Internet-marketing, Search Engine Optimisation, Google-it, E-mail marketing, Podcats, Minicast - the list can be continued ad infinitum.

No efforts are spared - even if it involves a complicated act of balance

 

But still, in Africa we paint the sign boards to attract a potential costumer's attention. It is one of the cheapest and most affordable ways to market your shop or product locally. There are troops of talented sign board painters out there.

Africans are doing it the African Way

And that is truly, truly great !

Teamwork on the roof top of King Hardware Store In Kentani In the Transkei

Bigger surfaces are dealt with in  team spirit like here in Kentani at the Wild Coast where the wall of Kings Hardware trading store is getting a face lift !

It takes time.......and patience

While the one paints, the other can rest. And vice versa.

Proudly South African

Africa is a fantastic continent !
We salute you artists of Africa !

Walk Gentle

I read a twitter comment that somebody had made the other day. 

" Coming home to Mdantsane for holidays is like going on vacation to Afghanistan. "

Mdantsane still lacks the most basic entertainment facilities after 16  years of independence. There is not one cinema in the township ( the population of Mdantsane is estimated to be over a million people). There are hardly any pubs, bars or restaurants, apart from the usual shebeens. From a point of view of entertainment facilities the township has not much to offer. You have to be in your house in the evening because of the high crime rate.

But one thing that distinguishes this township from many other big townships is the pristine and beautiful environment. The beaches are close and easy to reach. There are miles of unspoilt coastline.

Christmas time is beach time. You go to the beach with your familiy and friends.
Have a braai ( barbecue), just linger, have drinks, talk and relax..The Christmas season in South Africa is like a prolonged national holiday and many companies and firms close around the 15th of December.

Just spoil yourself and if you can get forget your sorrows over money, love, the lack of things you need and don't have for a couple of days. They'll come back to you as soon as you let them. And they are willing to stay with your for another year. SO let go for now !

Go for a walk with your daughter.

And just walk gentle.

The Last Sheep

While the last sheep waits more or less patiently on Hi-Way market that his fate will be determined, a group of young men are engaged in a board game and some intense conversation on on the other side.

Mdantsane - A Way of Life

Car Wash on the weekend overlooking beautiful NU 5

The material for the book " The Mdantsane Way " has been collected for over five years by now, and my archive of photos and stories is still growing. The Mdantsane Way has evolved and become a project. The first version of this book will be released in January as an e-book. We have decided to publish it as an e-book as well because e-books are taking the whole world by storm. The book will be cheaper to aquire and this puts more people in a position to have access to it. There will be a hardcover version as well. 

We have named the book " The Mdantsane Way " because most of all Mdantsane stands for a certain way of life. It is the second biggest township in South Africa but foremost it represents a life-style. A lifestyle that embodies community spirit, African vibrancy and energy, uniqueness, creativity and a whole lot of humor. If you live in Mdantsane you do it the Mdantsane Way. 

It was our objective to capture and to show you as many scenes of daily life and street life of this township as possible. I can say today this has not been done before ever. Not for Mdantsane. There is very little photographic material about Mdantsane available. Nobody has taken as many pictures and collected as many stories as we did. What started in my head as an art project became a journey with consequences. I infected my friends with this idea and we could not let go of it since then. And we feel a little proud of it.

This blog was created for you, the people in Mdantsane who have helped us pushing it through. 

The stories, the faces, the photos we were allowed to take, the fun and the new things we have seen and learned are worth a trillion.

I hope you see your face here on this blog sooner or later. And it is for all the others as well that have taken an interest in it. I can say there are many who know Mdantsane by now a little bit through our stories and pictures. 

If you want to use and upload the pictures that you see here and on our facebook and twitter pages-you can. Spread them, show them around, add them to your photos. That is why they were taken. Just mention our name so that we get seen and heard more.

This will enable us may be to get more support for the online magazine and the movie we have started working on.

Everything Under Control On Hi-Way !

There is no other way to say this, but the "Orange Dude" is an institution in Mdantsane.

Hope he forgives me for calling him like that.  But whenever I come to Mdantsane he is there, around Hi-way in front of an orange mountain counting the money in his plastic bag.  He is there, was there and should never leave. I give him dozens of likes if he ever sets up a fan page.

And there is no way that his picture could not crown a page in our book.

With Eyes Wide Open

With your eyes wide open you will see !

 

Close to the Sisa Dukashe stadium in NU 1 is a grey concrete wall, fenced and spiked on top, serving as the ideal location for all sorts of advertisements. You can see this wall to your right when you drive down Shai road in direction to the high way.

The wall does not only display advertisements but also the handpainted pastel murals that you can see in the pictures. The colors are faded which makes them even more attractive giving them a small ressemblance with old fresco drawings in churches in Italy that have endured thousands of years. 

These African murals are very beautiful. Beauty of course is in the eye of the beholder. But to me they are beautiful.

They seem to portray typical village scenes. Adolescent boys playing a board game while sharing a coke. The glass coke bottle is drawn in a naive but accurately charming way. You know immediately it's a glass coke bottle.

Other scenes show older men sitting in front of their houses, chatting, ( chatting like in the old days, namely face to face) and smoking a pipe. And I guess the scene on the right with the dog and the men in traditional clothing shows an initiation school.

Then there are women in front of houses attending to a garden and a farmer leaving with his donkey cart. It is probably not Mdantsane that is shown here. 

Who made them? Who is the artist? I don't know. Many advertisements in the township are signed by their creator but here I could not find a name or a phone number. The paint is washed off in many places but these murals are large and very impressive. You can just walk along them and move from one scene to the next.

I was busy studying them when these two ladies spotted me and developed a keen interest in my photographic ambitions. 

It has to be mentioned that they had already downed a considerbale amount of happy making spirit. So, it became nearly impossible to look for a name and instead I became the object of their undivided attention and had to take photos of them. Nope, not shown here ! They wouldn't like it ! Only the back.

But hey, it was Mandela Day and that is a true reason to celebrate.

A Strong Vision

Mdantsane FM has a strong and ambitious vision. Bravo !

" A leading development orientated radio station that is not only accessible but attractive to both public and private interests by promoting the needs of the community."

 Banner spotted on Oxford Street.

Visions are like capricious ladies. Beautiful, seductive and enchanting. They dance and swirl, twist and hide, change clothes all the time, flirt, walk away from you and come back when you don't expect them. 

They need a strong man but can't be handled too hard otherwise they break and loose all beauty. They need a lot of adoration and passion. And they have to be feel loved and cared for all the time. 

Great Vision !

Don't let ever go of your lady Mdantsane FM !

Mdantsane FM Goes On Air, At Last

Mdantsane FM !!!

For years Mdantsane has been starved the opportunity to have its own community media (community radio and newspaper) thus denying the local community a plartfom to be entertained, informed and educated about issues that directly affected them. 

The community of Mdantsane finally woke up to music in their ears on 18 November 2011, when Mdantsane FM went on air for the first time at the Mdantasne Hotel premises.

Mdezee studio at the back of the butcher in N. U. 5

It took the intervention by the Buffalo City Metropolitan Municipality for the station to finally go on air, after failing to do so for four years, when the station first received it's broadcasting license.

The Municipality threw a lifeline and funded the station with an amount of R138 000 for them to pay rental to the South African signal distributor Sentech, for their transmitter for six months with a possibility of futher funding thereafter, depending on how successful the station turns out to be.

Part of the protesting crowd at the Highway Taxi Rank

So desperate was the local community for their own station that about two years ago, an alleged illegal community radio station had to be closed down a few months after it started, as it was operating without a broadcasting licence and was deemed unlawful. 
Mdezze FM, a brainchild of a local businessman and ironically a former Sentech engineer Sivuyile Mahlahla, started broadcasting at the back of his business premises in N U 5 via setellite. It was just when the station was starting to gain popularity around Mdanstane that all hell broke loose. 

Another larger crowd

 It is alleged that the station gained popularity because it was seen as the mouthpiece of the community to voice their needs, expose lack of service delivery and incompetent councillors, something that did not go down well with the authorities. As a result members of the South African Police, Sentech and coucillors raided the premises, this move angered the community who took to the streets to protest as they felt the station was helpful.

The new Mdantsane station employs over 50 people and mostly the youth, and broadcast in 80% Xhosa and 20% Engilsh. Not only the township will benefit but also communites in the station will reach outlying area as well. 

Most of the spectators that came where form NU 5

Story and Pictures by Siyanda Nkonyeni

Ethel - Life As A Female Car Guard

It was last year around Christmas, that I saw Ethel for the first time. She is the only female car guard I know.

May be, in the bigger South African cities there are more women who earn a living like this, but not in East London.

Two days ago I saw her again, sitting on the small wall at the Esplanade in Quigney. I stopped to have a chat with her.

Ethel works in the area around the Wimpy. Although the sky was of the brightest beautiful South African blue and the ocean was calm and looked like in the Mediterranean, this day the Esplanade had a lonely and deserted feel. Municipal workers were setting up the yearly Christmas decorations on the street lights.

She is close to seventy years old, but does not know her real age. Everyday she travels from Mdantsane, NU2, where she lives, to the Esplanade. 

Last year she got hit by a car on the road and severly injured. She spent several weeks in hospital. She has what she calls, a big plate in her right chest, which is very painful often. Since then she walks with her upper body bent to one side.

" The doctors told me that I will have to go to the hospital again to have the plate removed because something is not right, " Ethel says.

My question as to why she still wanted to work as a car guard after having such a serious accident and considering the fact that guarding cars is obviously a male dominated and sometimes also violent field of work, where competiton is not taken lightly, she said :
" It is still easier than at home ". 

" Some of the men are not happy to have me here, but I just stay out of their way .May be they don't chase me because I am short and old. Others think I am crazy ".
Ethel is not more than 1,40 m tall.

Send In The Troops - It's Cleaning Time

It is not an unusual sight to see whole battalions of women on the streets of Mdantsane and Buffalo City in general who are cleaning and sweeping the gutters and the roads with brooms. Their activities are part of a job creation program initiated by the South African Government to battle unemployment and that stretches right down to the different municipalities in each province.

And what applies to women all over the whole world is also guaranteed here !!

Nothing is done by half measures, all or nothing, and full attention is given to the detail.

Time For Laughter

Mothers Of A Nation

When looking at these beautiful pictures I want to say the biggest assets of any nation are probably their mothers. That's my personal opinion of course.

After I have shown you their dresses let me show you now their faces.

               

They stand for peace rather than war, for patience, for love and strength.

They should lead more.  

With this post I am thanking all of them for being so patient with me and allowing me to take their portraits on their special day.

I am extremely happy with these shots because they came out so real and are full of emotion.