« Der Begriff Web Services | Home | Esther Dyson »

30.11.02

Marabastad

ohne den Herrn Merensky hätte meine Diplomarbeit wohl anders ausgesehen, vor allem Marabastad wäre dann im Titel wohl nicht vorgekommen.

Impressionen aus Marabastad:

Marabastad, like most locations, was an organized rubble of tin cans. The streets were straight, but the houses stood cheek by jowl, rusty as ever on the outside, as if they thought they might as well crumble in straight rows if that was to be their fate. Each house, as far as I remember, had a fence of sorts. The wire always hung limp, the standards were always swaying in drunken fashion. A few somewhat pretentious houses could be found here and there. These were, like the rest, of corrugated iron. But they had verandas paved with concrete, and the pillars were of concrete too. ... The other verandas, where any, were paved with mud, and about four poles supported the roof unevenly. There was only one house which had a flower garden. ... The backyards were always inclined to be dirty, much as the people swept them continually with home-made grass brooms. Most of the houses had a room or two to let out to a family or a single person. So it was not uncommon to find about three braziers blazing away in the same yard. (Mphahlele, 1959: 32).

Tck, Tck, so much water in the seas, but none in Marabastad, ... (Mphahlele, 1959: 29).

The three Chinese shops along Barber Street were poor corrugated-iron structures, including that of the rich Fung Prak opposite us. These were purely grocery shops, and they were untidy. The five Indian shops were bigger buildings, of brick. They were tidy, and each shop had grocery and drapery departments. On the verandas of all the shops was a carpet of monkey-nut shells. Abdool's was one of these five. One large window displayed bananas, oranges, granadillas, ... There always lingered in the shop a delightful spicy smell. A door led to the back quarters and coal-yards. ... From the ceiling, converging on a central electric cable, hung multi-coloured paper streamers. Once a set was hung up at Christmas-time, it kept up there for many months. (Mphahlele, 1959: 53).

Saturday night and it is ten to ten, I can hear the big curfew bell at the police station peal 'ten to ten, ten to ten, ten to ten' for the black man to be out of the streets to be at home to be out of the policeman's reach. Year after year every night the sound of the bell floats in the air at ten minutes to ten and the black man must run home and the black man must sleep or have a night special permit. (Mphahlele, 1959: 45).

But the only white people we ever saw in Marabastad apart from the location Superintendent, and the police, were a white Minister of the Methodist church or a white priest of the Anglican church and a school inspector who came and went surreptitiously' (Mphahlele, 1959: 33).

You may wish to leave a from your own site.