SABELO MLANGENI

In Apartheid times, male hostels were created to house workers from out of town that were not allowed to live inside the city. I seem to recall Sabelo saying that they were exclusively male in order to make sure entire families of rural black South Africans would not move in. They were meant to be transitory flophouses, where men would stay only for the duration of their work.

I don’t know why these structures survived 1994, the end of Apartheid. I don’t know why the revolution that aimed to smash down racial barriers didn’t also dismantle these edifices of gender barriers. Nowadays, not many outsiders venture inside their walls. But deep inside, where most think only scavengers live, Sabelo Mlangeni found a rare beauty: a fraternal order amongst Johannesburg’s infinite supply of outsiders.

-Federico, FUMF Director

Episode: http://bit.ly/nwED1O

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