In keeping with our updates from the PCP guys in South Africa, we now have the second installment for you to enjoy. This was a particularly interesting one as it gave a good chance to see the context of how contemporary J'berg is. Taken place in the shanty town of Kliptown, it was another case of art cutting through boundaries. Also another reminder to writers all over the world to illustrate how good they have it. Every picture tells a story and this is no exception...

Kliptown History
In the dark days of early apartheid rule half a century ago, on 26 June 1955, over 3 000 representatives of resistance organisations made their way through police cordons to gather on a dusty square in Kliptown, Soweto, 40km south of Johannesburg. This was the Congress of the People, who met to draw up the Freedom Charter, an alternative vision to the repressive policies of the apartheid state.
At the time, Nelson Mandela had to stay concealed to avoid the police. On the second day, the authorities broke up the gathering, but not before the charter was adopted as a guiding document. It remains the cornerstone of African National Congress (ANC) policy to this day, and is seen by many as the foundation of South Africa's 1996 Constitution.
That dusty field has now been declared a national heritage site, and on 26 June 2005 President Thabo Mbeki lit a flame of freedom in Kliptown to mark the opening of the Walter Sisulu Square of Dedication - and 50 years of the Freedom Charter.

From PCP…
Basically walking through the maze of Kliptown shacks, you can’t help but feel the pain and suffering of the people, even with the kind greetings and smiley faces they projected when seeing us.
Before taking a walk up through the shacks to find one to paint, we were at the community centre set up to help with schooling and youth programs. (Seth from france was out here and he was painting something for the community centre) A lot of tourists had come in while we were chilling at the centre and gumboot dancing shows were done for them, and I couldn’t help but think that this poor place was kept more as a tourist attraction… as a muse almost to these people that had come to visit. It left an empty place in my stomach thinking the residents of Kliptown were more of a tourist attraction, rather than a community of people in dire need of basic supplies and amenities, let alone housing.

The walk up to paint a shack was an amazing exhibition of adaption and engineering. There were perfect pathways and walkways between a maze of shacks, each uniquely designed to fit flush with its neighbor, each with its own touch. I figure this is what the tourists don’t see. Finding the place to paint we got busy transforming the corner piece between where two shacks meet. We decided chrome would be best on the raw rusted zinc roofing used to wall the houses, as it just pops off its original background in it pure form like the metal used to be. The character with the ‘nobody knows’ on his hat is a statement in true sense of the fact that millions of South Africans have no idea on the human suffering and conditions the people of Kliptown and other poor communities are forced to live in. Nobody knows… NK