August 19, 2002
By Philippa Garson
SICK of sanitised shopping malls, franchise restaurants and boring suburbia?
Then arm yourself with Underground Jozi, a colourful new guide to some of the city's truly authentic delights -- from art galleries, to eating houses, to historical sites steeped in stories of Jo'burg's vivid past.
Punted as the map of REAL Johannesburg, Underground Jozi is a creative drive to market some of the city's often neglected but decidedly authentic, culturally-laden and vibey spots by artist Andrew Lindsay and marketing partner, Tomiko Sher.
Lindsay, an artist who runs The Spaza Art Gallery in Troyeville and who has participated in many public works art projects around the city, felt the time had come to show newcomers a slice of real Johannesburg and to remind the many people who've lived in the city all their lives that there's a whole world happening south of Oxford Street. "It's good to have an alternative to malls and glitzy shopping centres," says Lindsay, whose travels around the country led him to conclude that so much is "all the same. Everything is standardised, globalised; nothing is individual anymore. You stay at a regular hotel and you could be anywhere in the world."
His business partner Sher, from ZA.Zen marketing company, was his first convert. When she visited South Africa as a tourist, she was advised to steer clear of Jo'burg because of hijackers. But somehow she landed up at the Spaza Art Gallery and seven years later she's still here - and is one of Jo'burg's most zealous fans.
Underground Jozi, a fold-up A1 guide, with a map of the inner city on one side and nearby Troyeville on the other, lists plenty of sites to visit - theatres, galleries, artists' studios, eating houses, night spots, markets and other interesting shopping venues. The maps are colour-coded and marked with sites to visit, surrounded by brief explanations on their historical significance or fun/interest potential. From Gandhi Square, offering shopping at Hawker's Paradise and site-seeing from the top of the Carlton Centre (the tallest building in Africa) to Chinatown's Chinese Deli and Trading for "the best dumplings in Jo'burg". Or the Mai Mai market on Park Street, near Troyeville, described thus: "Originally the mule stables for the city's night soil service, Mai Mai Bazaar is an ethnic Zulu market with over 100 stalls, Zulu earrings, shields, knobkerries, wedding kists and dozens of isinyanga and sangomas (traditional healers)", to the memorial of assassinated activist David Webster in Troyeville's Eleanor Street.
The guide offers this information on Mary Fitzgerald Square, the market square next to the Market Theatre and MuseuMAfricA: "Known as 'Pickhandle Mary', Mary Fitzgerald was an early activist who led strikers in 1911 against the whites-only Mines and Works Act. As shafts went deeper and work [became] more dangerous, Mary led mineworkers to strike in Market Square with riots and torching."
Funky illustrations and a few gutsy literary quotes scrawled around the map conjure the vibe of Jo'burg - like Rian Malan's "We yaw between terror and ecstasy and each is an adventure" or Chris Marais' "Love it or hate it
You can't ignore it
Jo'burg Jozi or eGoli
is the brazen heart of Gauteng"
The guide also offers some tips on safety, catching taxis and an introduction to Jozi slang.
For more information on Underground Jozi or to get your hands on a copy (selling at R20 each or R10 each if 10 or more are purchased) phone 011-614-9354, email emp@intekom.co.za or visit the Spaza Art Gallery, 19 Wilhelmina Street, Troyeville.
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